Behind the name that's front and center in North Carolina's Lumbee Indian community.
The Lumbee Tribe has a complicated history. They formed from the remnants of various Siouan, Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking tribes, according to the tribe’s website, after Europeans decimated most indigenous people. To date the tribe has only partial federal recognition, though the U.S. House recently passed the 22nd iteration of the full-recognition bill. And yet this complex people have ended up with one dominant name: Locklear.
Exactly how familiar is the name?
“It is the most common name,” tribal registration staffer Jane Barnhill confirmed November 12 (enrollment manager Reena Locklear was out). Thirty years ago, when the Baltimore Sun asked, 19 percent of enrolled members were Locklears.
If you’re a Locklear, “99.9 percent of the time you have ties to this community,” said Lawrence Locklear, director of UNC-Pembroke’s Office of Student Inclusion and Diversity. “It’s very unique, but it’s very tied to this community.”
Where did the name come from?
No one knows, linguist Walt Wolfram said. James Locklear, publisher of Native Visions magazine, proffered two theories: Ireland or France, the latter from LeClair. Lawrence said it was an English name. Either way, a European man likely married into the tribe, James and Lawrence agreed.
OK, but is Heather Locklear a Lumbee Locklear?
Yes, her publicist confirmed. And among the Lumbees, everyone knows it. “Her grandparents left Robeson County about 150 years ago for work,” Lawrence said.
Famed local mini-chain Fuller’s BBQ used to have a picture of Heather on the wall, James said. Fuller’s? “They’re Locklears, too.”
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