René Locklear White: The Gathering – The Rise of a New Tribe On the cover of this week’s OM Times Magazine is René Locklear White, a member of the Lumbee Indian Tribe of North Carolina. She is president of Sanctuary on the Trail, a 501(c)3 non-profit and executive director for Native American Indian heritage events including, “The Gathering 2017,” scheduled for Oct. 21-22 in Northern Virginia at the Clarke County Fairgrounds in Berryville. Here, a new language is being spoken. The Gathering, an event held in Northern Virginia, is an example of Spirit rising up a new tribe. Not all those attending The Gathering are the new tribe, but the gathering is where the phenomena happen. René Locklear White’s Lumbee people are a living example of a people from different backgrounds who can come together and form one tribe. The Lumbee come from Siouan tribes, most prominent were the Cheraw and Keyauwee. State officials recognized them as Indian in 1885. During the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, Indian agents attempted to resettle the Lumbee, but her people had grown in solidarity, even though remnants of their ancestral languages faded. René’s people assimilated into the white culture with Christian churches huddled around little Indian schools. Education became their vehicle. Then, in 1956 (only 61 years ago), Congress passed the Lumbee Act and all the people from various ancestral tribes received the name “Lumbee.’” “We became a new tribe a conglomerate of Indigenous branches grafted into one tree, connected by Spirit,” said René Locklear White. Today, the Lumbee are the largest tribe east of the Mississippi. “My wife René volunteered to head-up our gatherings here in Virginia along with a strong elder’s council and a vision-driven team of 50-plus volunteers,” explains Chris (Comeswithclouds) White, René’s husband and senior elder/medicine man of Sanctuary on...

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