- For thousands of years, people have lived along these rivers in Robeson County, North Carolina.

By the time of the American Revolution, many ancestors of the Lumbee Indians were still here, and some fought in the American Revolution.

This is the Museum of the Southeast American Indian, sustained by a community that never stopped fighting for its own story.

Located on the campus of UNC Pembroke, a university originally founded to educate Lumbee children, the museum has been a center of culture and history for decades.

- Our focus is very Native-centered and community-driven, so it is an authentic experience that is uniquely curated to highlight Native community.

The tribes that we represent here are the eight tribes in North Carolina, and we include the Catawba in South Carolina.

We also stretch out further with the tribes that are located in the Southern states.

What we offer through exhibitions, public programming, and engaging opportunities are ways of understanding who are Native people of the South.

- The oldest piece in the permanent collection is a 16-foot dugout canoe pulled from the Lumber River and dated to more than 1,000 years ago.

It shares the floor with the pine cone patchwork quilt, created in the early 1900s, and recognized by the National Quilt Museum for its craftsmanship.

Another favorite stop is the recreation of an 18th-century cabin that gives visitors a window into how life was once lived here during the Revolutionary War period.

- One of the unique ways that we share stories is through the people themselves, and so we've created a lot of videos, and we share those in the museum.

We also have a museum gift store that people can come and shop at.

We have a variety of different things from pottery, beadwork, jewelry, a huge selection of books.

- We also have a Children's Discovery Center, which is an intergenerational learning space where families and other community can gather and listen to a story, or hop in our canoe and take a ride, or even do traditional crafts.

- Rotating exhibitions of Native art from across the Southeast keep the walls alive with contemporary voices.

And throughout the year, the Life by the River program brings together communities from across the region for workshops, storytelling, and hands-on cultural experiences.

- American Indian people were important to North Carolina society, so as the American Revolution is heating up, we were at the center of those politics as well.

So once the outbreak of the war happened, prevailingly what we see are more men that were enlisting on the patriot side.

The outcome was there was one singular nation that Native peoples would have to deal with.

Now there was an America.

- Our histories have often been overlooked, and so we want to bring forward those stories, those genealogies, the whole experience of what it means to be a Southeastern Native.

- A living museum in every sense of the word, and admission is always free.

In December 2025, the community's perseverance finally culminated in full federal recognition.

It was 137 years after they first asked for it.

- Lumbee people's view on America certainly is that this is our country.

This anniversary has really provided an opportunity to be more retrospective, to look back and examine the actions of our ancestors, to understand who we are today.

Most of us are very patriotic.

We are uniquely Americans.

Most of all, we are uniquely North Carolinians and uniquely Southern.

(upbeat music) - The Museum of the Southeast American Indian is located in Pembroke on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

Admission is free.

For hours and more information, visit uncp.edu/museum.