Indians' dispute before court

Efforts to effect a name change divide the Meherrin Tribe amid its quest for federal recognition

A bitter dispute has divided the state's smallest Indian tribe, creating an identity crisis that will have to be settled in court.

The stakes are high for some members of the Meherrin Tribe. The question underlying the feud is who should be considered a tribal member. Both sides say they are trying to preserve the Hertford County-based tribe's history, and each blames the other for trying to erase the group's connection to the past.

The dispute has landed both parties in court, temporarily cost it a seat on the commission that sets the statewide Indian agenda and halted any effort to win federal recognition for the Meherrins.

Also, it's not clear who is in charge of the tribe now that two men are claiming to be chief.

"It's gotten to the point that they feel like they more or less want to take the tribe over and do away with everybody that's claiming to be a Meherrin Indian and drop the rest of them from the tribe," said Thomas Lewis, who was chief of the tribe and may still be, depending on which faction prevails.

On the other side is Wayne Brown, who says he is the rightful chief.

"The tribe is interested in protecting its history, culture, heritage and tradition by confining the tribe to the Meherrin Indian tribe," said Barry Nakell, a Chapel Hill lawyer representing Brown and others.

The Meherrin people's written history began in 1650, when an English merchant arrived at a Meherrin village near what is now Emporia, Va., according to a history published on the tribe's Web site. By 1706, pressure from colonists and other Indian tribes forced the Meherrins to move south. They settled at the mouth of the Meherrin River in what is now Hertford County.

The state recognized the tribe in 1986. Today, it has as many as 800 members who live mostly in Hertford, Bertie, Gates and Northampton counties. North Carolina recognizes eight tribes, and the 2000 Census found 100,000 American Indians living in North Carolina.

Tracing the history and ancestry of a group of Indians is a complicated process that relies on records that are rarely specific enough, said Forest Hazel, a historian for the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, which is based in Mebane.

"For every answer you come up with, two or three more questions surface," Hazel said.

A key problem is that written records often refer to individuals just as an "Indian" because colonists and early U.S. officials often didn't bother to distinguish among tribes. And even tribal differences are not always clear-cut because groups sometimes intermarried or moved around, Hazel said.

The dispute has its roots in an effort by the tribe, under Lewis, to change its name to reflect a historical connection to the Chowanoke people. Lewis said the change is supported by historical documents, and it would help the Meherrins in the difficult task of winning federal recognition.

<b>'Hatfields and McCoys'</b>

State Sen. Ed Jones, a Halifax County Democrat, introduced a bill in February 2007 that would change the name to the Meherrin-Chowanoke Nation. Jones said that after he introduced the bill, Brown contacted him and said the change was a bad idea because the Chowanoke should be considered a distinct Indian group with a different language and history.

"If you look at this, you'll pull your hair out trying to figure out what's going on," Jones said in an interview. "It's a feud there. It's the Hatfields and McCoys."

Jones let the bill die, but the dispute lived on. In November 2007, Brown and several others voted Lewis and the council out of office. Lewis maintains that action was not valid.

<b>The lawsuit</b>

Brown and others sued. The lawsuit -- and the question of whether the state's courts even have any jurisdiction over the dispute -- is now at the state Court of Appeals. Meanwhile, the two tribal governments sent separate representatives to the Commission on Indian Affairs, a state advocacy agency that helps deal with poverty, jobs, discrimination and other issues. Neither side would back down, and the commission suspended the tribe's seat until the dispute could be resolved.

Such tribal feuds happen, although it's rare that they get to this level, said Greg Richardson, executive director of the commission.

"My preference would be to see the tribe haggling over what grant funds they get to provide [and] health care and jobs for the tribe," Richardson said.