Digital Scholarship and Initiatives

The director of the American Indian Center in Baltimore estimates that 20-30% of Lumbees have the surname Locklear. It is the “Smith” of the Lumbee people but was not on the list of Lost Colonists and is not a common name in Great Britain. The name is unique to the Lumbee and to Robeson County. Most people with this last name have some Lumbee (Robeson County) ties. Locklear may be a Siouan word. Elders who testified before Congress in the early 1900s pronounced it “Locklaha,” meaning “falling water.”