[piano intro] - [Kenia] I'm Kenia Thompson.

I've always been curious about people, their stories, their traditions, and the little things that make us who we are.

And no matter where we come from, there's something we all do.

We gather around tables, in celebration, in faith, with family, with community.

These are the moments that keep traditions alive, remind us where we come from, and sometimes even help us understand one another a little better.

Let's gather.

Some roads take you somewhere new, others bring you closer to something that's been there all along.

Stephanie has been my best friend for more than 30 years.

I know her stories, I know her family, and I know how deeply connected she is to being Lumbee, but there's a part of her world I've never experienced.

Every year, Lumbee people come home to Robeson County, gathering with family, reconnecting with community, and celebrating the traditions that keep them connected to who they are.

And somehow after all these years, I've never been to Lumbee Homecoming.

So this time, Stephanie isn't just taking me home, she's inviting me in.

[pensive wistful music] - I am so excited.

I am on my way to go pick up my best friend of over 30 years.

Stephanie and I met back in elementary school on the playground, so she is taking me this weekend to the Lumbee Homecoming, which I have never been to.

So I'm really excited about sharing this time with her, this ride, and this experience, and meeting her family and just having some fun.

- Hi!

[Kenia squeals] [both laughing] I love you.

- It's so good to see you.

I'm so excited for this weekend.

Do you have your stuff packed?

- Yes!

- Okay.

- But one second.

I have a little surprise for you.

- All right.

- [Stephanie] Okay, Kenia.

Look what I have to show you.

- [Kenia] Oh, my gosh!

- I know!

- This is like a trip down memory lane.

This is crazy.

I miss your dad so much.

- Yes, I know.

I miss him as well.

- Oh!

Remember this?

- I do!

- He was known as, "The UPS Man."

- He was, and it was so crazy.

It's like the UPS driver, that was the thing back then.

- [Kenia] So where'd you get all these clippings?

- Well, my dad had actually clipped them out himself when he was in high school and growing up, but these are just some of the highlights because I just wanted you to see the significance of not just my father, but the impact that he made on Maxton, on the Native American community, on the Lumbees.

From what I've heard, it was just life-changing for them.

- So I know football was life for him.

- Yes!

Yes, it was.

- And now I remember why you love the number 11 so much.

- Yes!

Yes, I do.

They won North Carolina State Championships.

And real reason why I'm showing you this is because it was really all about family and unity growing up.

- [Kenia] Yeah!

- Because again, even though there was white people, Black people, Native American, all of these kids got together, they're literally, literally like family.

So that's really why they were able to bond like that and win those games.

I'm telling you, that's the reason why they won.

It wasn't- - It was the bond!

- It was the bond.

It was the connectivity.

- [Kenia] Yeah.

- [Stephanie] It was the friendship.

- [Kenia] So he was in Native school, like?

- Yeah, in elementary school.

- In elementary school.

- It was a all Indian school.

- Yeah!

- And then after that, they had?

- To integrate.

- Yeah, they had to integrate.

- Yeah!

- Which for them was really challenging because, again, it's like, "No, you're white.

No, you're Black."

So there was a lot of that self-identity of, "This is who I am.

This is what I'm about.

I'm a proud people.

I'm Native American."

- And we are gonna go see him.

- We are!

- I can't wait.

You're gonna take, well, I'm driving you, but you're gonna take me home.

- [Stephanie] Hold on.

I got one more thing.

- [Kenia] Oh!

- [Stephanie] Wait, wait!

Go to the, go to the right.

Keep going.

- [Kenia] Oh, lord.

- [Stephanie] What do you think this is?

- I don't know.

[Stephanie laughs] Oh, my god.

[laughing] - [Stephanie] Look at us!

- [Kenia] Oh, god!

- [Stephanie] Look at this.

Look at us.

- [Kenia] Look at the outfit.

- [Stephanie] Yeah.

- Well, we're about to kick off the weekend again!

[laughs] - I know we are.

Let's go!

- Let's do it.

[bright guitar music] - [Stephanie] I don't know, maybe you don't remember.

We made our own yearbook.

- [Kenia] Do not remember that at all.

- Well, we made our own yearbook.

And so in it, I'm going to show yourself.

Look at what Kenia looks like.

[both laughing] - I can't!

I'm sorry.

- You know what's so funny?

Why do you have on leopard print?

[both laughing] - I have been leopard print, a diehard true fan of leopard print- - Oh, my gosh!

- Since the very beginning.

- It can't be.

[laughs] - Anyway!

We'll keep reminiscing- - Oh, Kenia, I love it.

- But we are about to get on the highway because it is time to head to Pembroke.

- Speaking of trees, we're going down to USC Pembroke.

- Yes!

On the road we go.

Before Stephanie takes me to Homecoming, she wants me to understand what everyone is coming home to.

The land, the history, the family stories.

For generations, the Lumbee maintained their identity, communities, and traditions while seeking full recognition from the federal government.

Then in December 2025, that decades-long effort reached a historic milestone when the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina received full federal recognition.

- [Stephanie] Look who we have here!

- [Kenia] Hello!

- [Kenneth] Hi!

- Hi, Mr.

Kenneth!

How are you doing?

- I'm good.

How are you?

- Kenneth Clark, this is my best friend, Kenia Thompson.

- Nice to meet you.

- Oh!

Nice to meet you, Ms.

Thompson.

- Nice to meet you.

- Yes, he used to be the former cultural enrichment specialist for Robeson County Indian Education Program.

- Oh, wow!

- But he's retired now.

So luckily, I'm so thankful that you were able to give some of your time today for us to tell a little bit more.

- No problem!

Glad I was asked to help.

- Thank you so much.

So where are we?

- This is actually the Allen Lowry house, built in 1848.

This is the house that Henry Barry Lowry, his son, who was the leader of the Lowry Gang, grew up in.

- [Kenia] Okay!

- [Kenneth] And this was a, would've been a mansion for an Indian family.

- [Kenia] Wow!

- [Kenneth] The Lowrys were carpenters.

- [Kenia] Wow!

- [Kenneth] Most of our people lived in log cabins with dirt floors, but this was what would've been a mansion type house.

- This is so beautiful in here.

Like, you can tell all the details that went into this space.

- [Kenneth] And most of our Indian people during the mid-1800s would've lived in log cabins with dirt floors.

- [Kenia] Right.

- So the Lowrys, since they were carpenters, were able to build this type of structure, which made it far advanced than the log cabins and the dirt floors.

Now the things that you see up, the windows and all that electricity would not have been in here.

- Okay.

- The bricks on the wall would not have been.

- Right.

- But the fireplace.

But on the other side would've been the kitchen area, which is no longer here.

And this would've been a bedroom.

- So how many people would live in this size structure?

- At the time, the main family was 15.

- Wow!

- But some of the older kids were married and on their own, so normally about nine at the same time.

- Wow!

- And it's always said that in wintertime, the kids could sleep in front of the fire, they warm.

Summertime, they had to sleep out on the porch to get the wind.

- Right.

So share with me the significance around the land in this area and what role it played historically.

- [Kenneth] This land, this house was not originally built here.

It was built about 10 miles away.

- [Kenia] Okay!

- [Kenneth] It's known as the Lowry Settlement.

But it was moved here, you know, to be used here on this part, which is the Lumbee Cultural Center.

And this is a place that draws us here.

And what we found out is a burial mound, it's just a little ways down on the other side of the land where the golf course used to be.

- [Kenia] Okay.

- [Kenneth] And that burial mound was probably some of our ancestors, thousands and thousands of years ago.

- [Kenia] Yeah.

- [Kenneth] So now we're kind of finding out that this is what drew us to this part.

We have ancestors that are, they're spending their lives, their afterlives here.

They're buried here.

- Yeah.

And was this space created to kind of, you know, how in Black American culture we created spaces for ourselves because we couldn't be elsewhere.

Was this kind of the same idea here?

- Yes, exactly.

The golf course that was put here was because our men were not allowed to play golf in white golf courses.

Swimming pool was put here 'cause we weren't allowed to swim in the white swimming pools.

Another significance of this home is how it was used during the Civil War.

Most of our people here, we supported the North.

We're in the South, could have been part of the Confederacy.

We were not allowed to join the Confederacy because of what happened in 1835 when the Indian Removal Act was done.

Our men could no longer vote, they had no right to own a gun, anything like that anymore.

- [Kenia] Oh!

- Civil War started in 1861.

We were not allowed to fight.

Instead, they came and took our men down to Wilmington to build Fort Fisher.

They were forced to do that.

So that's why our men had to hide out in swamps.

- [Kenia] And that's along the Lumber River?

- [Kenneth] They had different swamps all along the river, and they had to hide out.

They didn't wanna be sent down there to work 'cause a lot of times we found out people went down there and they were dying.

- [Kenia] Yeah.

- And they just come back and get more.

[somber wistful music] - [Kenia] The Lumbee are one of the largest Native American tribes in the United States.

Their homeland rooted here, in Southeastern North Carolina.

- The river's life.

It produces life for a lot of creatures and our ancestors and people were able to live off of it as well.

Today, the river is spiritual.

It is a way to take in and connect to our ancestors and to everyone who came before us, which leads to ultimately the river is powerful.

[cheerful wistful music] So right now we are on one of the access points of the Lumber River.

Some of us will still say Lumbee River.

- Yeah.

And this is where the Lumbee Tribe got their name, right?

- Correct!

- From this river.

- Yeah, from the river.

- [Kenia] And so when we talk about the placement of this river through this area, how integral was this body of water?

- [Dr.

Bowen] Oh, huge!

Because when you think about not only for Native Americans, but colonists who were coming in, the river was the true source of transportation, water, hydration, bathing.

It was essential part of life.

- The river was used to help Natives avoid the Trail of Tears.

Stephanie also talked earlier about being referred to as swamp people, right?

And so talk a little bit about that and what that was like to have to use this as kind of refuge.

- Many connections flow into this particular river, which ultimately then feeds into the Cape Fear River and to the Atlantic Ocean.

This area during the beginning of colonization was a lot of swamp land.

That's why today, from an agricultural perspective, Robeson County soil is very rich and can produce a lot of various crops.

Due to it being swampland, it was very difficult for colonists to come in, especially those who were looking to fight and take over land, to take the land from Native Americans.

- [Kenia] Yeah!

- Then you get into the whole concept of what today we call guerrilla warfare.

So hiding out in swamps, trees, versus standing in lines, and fighting like the colonists we're used to in England, that type of style did not go well.

And they quickly learned that whenever they came over.

During the American Revolution, there was actually a group of Native Americans referred to as the Raccoon Company, and this documented some Lumbee were part of this company that really fought and helped the British fight against the colonists during that time.

Historically, everyone talks about Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox, the great, great leader during that time.

- [Kenia] He was called a Swamp Fox?

- [Dr.

Bowen] Yes!

- [Kenia] Okay.

- [Dr.

Bowen] But he learned all of his tactics from Native Americans.

- [Kenia] Oh!

- [Dr.

Bowen] So that's who ultimately taught him to be the great warfare person during that time was Native Americans, and most likely those gentlemen who were part of the Raccoon Company.

- It's so funny, you know, you hear often how significant land is in the Native community, and you see the beauty of the land all around us and to think that for a long time they couldn't utilize the land that belongs to them.

And so, when you look at this, how does it make you feel, just to just stand here, knowing your ancestors traversed this area?

- Well, I've always had a connection to nature and I think most of us do, whether we realize it or not.

And it's when you come to places like this that you feel that connection, that bond, those spirits even more so.

- Now, I know you work really closely with the youth and young adults.

Do the younger generations understand the impact of this body of water?

- [Dr.

Bowen] There's a movement towards that, getting kids more involved culturally, but I'm a lover of nature, so when I think cultural, my mindset goes to nature and how we can get them involved.

When you walk where your ancestors walk, swim where your ancestors swim, fish where your ancestors swim, hunt where they hunted, feel the breeze blowing, feel nature, there's a connection there internally that you can't fight that makes you wanna learn more.

- Oh, yeah!

I went to Ghana, I guess two years ago now, and we went to the Point of No Return.

And I put my feet in the same waters where they bathed my ancestors before they shipped them off into slavery, and I wanna cry now.

- [Dr.

Bowen] Yeah.

- Because just knowing that people died there, they were tortured there, to be there, it was just, it's something different to experience that.

And it makes you proud of being who you are.

It instills an understanding of why you exist and why you are the way you are.

- And I would also say not take it for granted.

Look how far you had to travel.

- Yeah!

- For your experience.

- [Kenia] Yeah.

- [Dr.

Bowen] Most of us walk outside and the experience is there.

- [Kenia] Yeah.

- [Dr.

Bowen] Just outside our door.

- [Family Member] Come bless the food.

- [Child] Over!

No, over here!

[family chuckles] [family chattering] - Lord, thank you for allowing us to gather here today.

Thank you for safe travel for Stephanie and her friend.

And we hope that they have an educational and enjoyable experience, and keep them safe and cool throughout their time here at home.

And thank you again for allowing us the joys of family.

Amen!

- [Group] Amen!

- Okay.

You're sitting at the kids' table.

Get the drink.

- [Kenia] I've always believed there's something powerful about sitting around the table together.

Each year around Homecoming, the Lumbee make time for coming back home, sitting at the table to remember where they come from and pass along little pieces of themselves to the next generation.

- [Diner] Yeah.

- So macaroni and cheese?

- Oh, yeah!

- I think that's like a staple.

- A staple.

Yeah, a minority staple.

[laughing] - Right.

And Uncle Earl is your dad's brother?

- Yes!

And they are like tighter than thieves.

- Yeah?

- [Family Member] Nine brothers, seven sisters.

- Seven boys.

- [Stephanie] Seven boys.

- [Uncle Earl] And nine girls.

- [Kenia] Oh, wow!

- We worked on the farm during the summer, you know?

- [Kenia] Mm-hmm!

- And, you know, and back then there was about five of us would work on the farm when we was out of school.

We never went lacking for nothing.

Raised everything that we really needed, you know?

- What were your, I guess, memories from back then growing up?

- Well, back then it wasn't... It wasn't a big deal.

I mean, you know, being Native American, 'cause people didn't, it wasn't a big deal then.

- Yeah!

- And I'm only 71 and I remember when really we was really about in the same class with Blacks in Robeson County, yeah.

- [Kenia] Yeah.

- 'Cause I remember the restaurant there in town, in Maxton, that they didn't want you in it, you know?

If you were Black, you went in and come in at the back door or something.

- [Kenia] Yeah.

- They would let the Indians come in the front door or something, but you didn't sit in there and eat.

- One thing I think's unique for us is here, we, and especially back in Daddy's day, they were so self-sustaining and they were so together.

- Yeah.

- And you don't feel like a minority when you're- - [Child] Mama?

- When you're here and you're home.

- Mom, I'm done!

- Okay.

All right.

You can just, you can wait.

[group chuckles] So I feel like that's why, honestly, I didn't understand the Native experience outside of home until I went off to college, because we're such a self-sustaining people.

And when you learn about the Lumbee, you just learn how we healed our own.

- [Stephanie] Absolutely.

- We created our own community and didn't depend on.

We were very self-sustaining.

We didn't depend on the government.

We still don't.

But as far as religion into that, it's just so ingrained in us.

It's in everything we do.

- I mean, we all cling to our groups, our kind, right?

- The Caucasian and African American people here, they know what we are.

They can look at us just like we had a conversation earlier.

You can look and you can say, "Oh, that's a Lum."

- [Kenia] Right.

- Just like my mama said.

She knows.

She can point it out.

They know who we are.

They know what we are.

So you never felt singled out.

You never felt like you had to explain anything.

It was understood here in this community, in a certain, you know, a certain area.

You can go over the state line and they look at you like, "What are you?"

Yeah, you know?

- Like in the Black community, they'll tell us often, you know, we have our HBCUs.

People encourage you to step outside of that because the real world isn't all Black.

- [Family Member] Exactly!

- You know?

And it's like, "Well, what's so wrong about having a community that looks like me and feeling safe in that?"

- [Uncle Earl] Yeah!

Yeah.

- And I mean, that doesn't mean I don't know how to interact with other people.

It just means that this is where I feel comfortable.

But it's a hard conversation and I think that it's just simply because of the nature of our history here and how we were.

How segregation literally, you know, leveled out what opportunities you had.

- Because my mama has instilled in confidence to me in my life experience.

I can walk into any room and talk to anybody.

And I mean, I made a career out of it really.

So I think any minority woman or any minority feels that way.

You're walking in two worlds on a daily basis.

But I feel like my mama gave me the confidence.

- How was it raising, you know, Native children knowing that the thing that minorities face in this world?

- That the world could be cruel at some point in time?

- Yes!

- I always told both of my kids that it doesn't matter where you come from, who you are, what you got, you can always become your own person.

- I have always known about Stephanie is that family is really important, and so I'm really grateful that you allowed me the opportunity to come and sit with your family and sit for dinner and open your home up to me.

And I'm really grateful.

Thank you so much.

- [Uncle Earl] You're welcome.

- Thank you.

We're glad to have you.

[wistful music] - One thing I've learned about Stephanie is that Homecoming isn't just something she attends, it's something she's grown up with.

She's been coming to Lumbee Homecoming with her family for as long as she can remember.

And for generations of Lumbee families, this annual tradition has been a chance to come back home, reconnect with loved ones, and celebrate a heritage that runs deep here in Robeson County.

And let me tell you, Homecoming is a whole experience.

There's music, dancing, food, family reunions, and plenty of familiar faces.

And apparently, you can't talk about Lumbee Homecoming without talking about the golf cart rides and those famous collard sandwiches.

Now, I was ready for the food, the fun, and spending time with my bestie, but what I wasn't quite ready for was that heat.

I'm talking about the kind of North Carolina heat that makes you question every decision you've ever made about being outside.

But you know what?

Nobody seemed to mind because when you've got family and a reason to come together, a little heat isn't gonna stop the celebration.

And after hearing Stephanie talk about Homecoming all these years, I was finally getting to experience it for myself.

So this is?

- This is grape ice cream.

We invented this right here.

- It is good.

- Is that good?

- This is good.

Yeah.

What's the significance behind the ribbon skirt?

- So ribbon skirts are a traditional garment that's worn by Indigenous women.

Typically, they're made to relate to a personal story, but some artists, like my mother, have created different pieces that speak to her.

- Stephanie?

- Yes?

- You know what we should do?

- What?

- We should get a best friend's bracelet.

- [Stephanie] We should.

Yes, I love it.

- I know!

Then we can commemorate this moment.

I love it.

- Those are cool.

- [Kenia] Sometimes coming home is about more than reconnecting with the people who are here.

It's also about remembering those who are no longer with us.

And for Stephanie, there's one more stop on this journey because gathering isn't always about celebrating the moments we're sharing today, sometimes it's about honoring the people who shaped our yesterdays and recognizing that the love and connections we share can reach far beyond this life.

♪ Ooh ♪ [somber wistful music] - [Kenia] I never got to see the football.

- [Stephanie] Yes!

- I never got to see the headstone.

It looks amazing.

- Doesn't it?

- He would be so happy.

- Oh, I know, girl.

- Oh, he would be so happy.

- I think he's even more happy right now that I'm here looking at him.

- Oh!

- But yeah, this is it.

Doesn't it look good?

- Look at this!

I know!

- And you know what kind of stone this is?

- What is it?

- This is Arizona Indian Stone.

- Oh, wow!

- Yes, girl.

And it's red, of course.

- He would love this.

- Because why?

Who did he play for?

State!

- Wolf pack!

- So of course we had to have the red in there.

- 11.

- Mm-hmm!

Talk about family!

- Aw!

- Now this... Yeah, you know, it's, this is... - [Kenia] This is family.

- Yeah, this is it.

And, you know, it's literally like symbolic for everything that we had talked about.

You know, to my dad, to being a leader.

- Yeah.

- To sports, to family.

And what does it end with?

- 2 Corinthians.

And I remember when your dad died, you were sad, but you were also real joyful in his death.

- Yeah.

- How do Lumbees and the Natives view death?

- This is truly why we love the land.

And so we know that God created this.

He created this for us.

And I think what's most important, like, with, you know, Native Americans and spirituality, there is death, right?

Yes, it's sad.

But at the same time, like, when we go to, like, have our powwows and stuff, we represent our ancestors, you know?

It's everyone, right, that has passed.

And when we do, we're in this circle, it's a sacred.

It's a sacred circle.

Like, we literally pray and bless over that circle before anyone goes in there and starts dancing.

[bright inspirational music] - When you first arrive at Lumbee Homecoming, there's so much to take in, but it's important to remember that heritage isn't just something you wear or something you celebrate once a year, it's something you carry.

It's in the stories passed down from one generation to the next.

It's in the familiar faces, the family connections, and the traditions that continue because someone makes the effort to keep them alive.

And for the Lumbee community, Homecoming is an opportunity to reconnect with those roots.

What I'm realizing is that you don't fully understand someone's heritage by simply observing their traditions.

Sometimes you have to understand what brings them together in the first place.

[wistful music] [wistful music continues] [pensive wistful music] [pensive wistful music continues] [bright piano]