PEMBROKE — Members of the Lumbee Tribe will reflect on their present, future and past on Thursday.
Tribal Chairman Harvey Godwin Jr. will deliver the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina’s State of the Tribe Address at noon in the gymnasium of the Pembroke Boys and Girls Club, located at 120 Youth Drive in Pembroke. Immediately afterward, there will be a Battle of Hayes Pond Commemorative Ceremony at the water feature beside the Tribal Complex located at 6984 N.C. 711 West.
During his State of the Tribe address, Godwin will look at the achievements of the previous year. He also will present the tribe’s proposed fiscal year 2018-19 budget.
The day’s events also will include a prayer service that starts at 10:30 a.m. Lunch and entertainment will be provided.
The Hayes Pond memorial pays tribute to the confrontation that took place on Jan. 18, 1958, when members of the Lumbee Tribe drove the Klu Klux Klan out of Maxton.
Woodrow Dial, chairman of Lumbee Regional Development Association’s board of directors, was present during the confrontation.
Reflecting on that night, he said, “This would be a time to remember because of the practices of violence and intimidation behind the KKK. This event showed the world and the KKK that there was no place for them amongst our people and community.”
A separate ceremony will take place at 3 p.m. at N.C. 130 and Hayes Pond Road when an historical marker will be presented. Scheduled to participate at both ceremonies is Kevin Cherry, deputy secretary of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources and director of the Office of Archives and History.
The Hayes Pond historical marker was made possible through the efforts of instructors and students at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke who, as a class project, successfully petitioned the state to have an historical marker erected commemorating the 1958 Battle of Hayes Pond. The students and instructors were presented certificates of appreciation during the April 19 meeting of the Lumbee Tribal Council.
Receiving the certificates were students Chapell Brock, Angel Garcia, William Graves, Chris Hunt, Sonya L. Hunt, Brandy N. Jacobs, Kathryn Sonner, Justin Tamburrino, and Horace Sewell El and professors Jamie Martinez and Scott Billingsley.