The Cumberland County Association for Indian People has worked for decades to educate, connect, and support local Indigenous residents.
Now, the group has a newly renovated community center on its campus east of downtown Fayetteville.
Harrison Jones, the 25-year-old who took the helm of the Cumberland County Association for Indian People six months ago, says he wants to focus on cultural enrichment, community outreach, and intergenerational learning—and the revitalization of the group’s campus, including the historic Les Maxwell Indian School.
Jones is a member of the Coharie Tribe, which has its headquarters in Clinton. He said the Cumberland County Association for Indian People hopes to create a network of wrap-around services, guiding residents toward behavioral health resources and affordable housing programs. It also aims to promote programs for elders and support students with after-school tutoring.
“I want this to be a welcoming place,” Jones told CityView on a warm afternoon in late September, motioning his hands as he spoke inside the community center, which has new floors and fresh paint. “I want people to be here.”
Founded as a social organization in the early 1950s, the Cumberland County Association for Indian People was the first of four American Indian Urban Organizations in the state, according to the North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs. It became a nonprofit in the 1970s.
Urban organizations offer social, health, and cultural services to all Indigenous people, regardless of tribal affiliation.
The Cumberland County association’s 12-acre property includes the community center, powwow grounds, and Les Maxwell school, which opened in the 1950s to serve Native American students during segregation.
“Their purpose is to look out for the best interest of the Native population in the communities they serve,” Greg Richardson, executive director of the North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs, said of the urban organizations.
The Cumberland County group already collaborates with local groups, including the Cumberland County Schools Office of Indian Education.
The office helped host an Indigenous Peoples Day celebration at the new community center on Oct. 13, said Candice Revels, Indian education coordinator for the school district. The same night, the organizations hosted a STEM night for students, highlighting Indigenous people’s advancements in science, technology, engineering, and math.
Every organization offers a different piece to the puzzle when working to support a community and provide wrap-around services, Revels said.
“I’ve got the education piece,” she said. “But anything outside of that, we want to make sure we bridge that gap.”
The Office of Indian Education supports around 1,100 Indigenous students in Cumberland County Schools, about 2.2% of nearly 50,000 total students enrolled in the county. Most students are of the Lumbee and Coharie Tribes, Revels told CityView, but schools have student representation from all eight state-recognized tribes, and over 35 tribes across the country.
Learning from elders
For Jones, the Cumberland County Association for Indian People is rooted in connection that spans generations. It’s important for younger residents to honor their elders, he said, and it’s also crucial to bring in younger generations.
Guidance from elders helped Jones envision an “intergenerational program” where people of all ages could gather, connect, and learn from each other. He said it’s like a “transfer of wealth.”
“Every door that has opened to me is because I had a conversation with an elder,” Jones said.
Around 1.5% of Cumberland County’s total population are Indigenous people, according to census data from 2020. Bordering Cumberland, Robeson County is home to the largest population of Native people in North Carolina, at about 42% of the total population. Headquartered in Pembroke, the Lumbee Tribe’s territory and service area includes portions of Cumberland County.
Richardson said it’s important to support the urban organizations that provide services and resources that can improve lives.
“There is a community there,” he said “There’s a population of people there that have needs. There are youth there that have needs. It’s a community that needs to be supported just like any other urban community.”
In progress
The Cumberland County Association for Indian People is focused on bringing the past back to life. Restoring the Les Maxwell Indian School is a high priority.
Before the school opened, Indigenous students living in Cumberland County had to travel to Sampson or Robeson counties each day to attend school, Jones said.
When local schools began to integrate and the school was shuttered, the building became a storage space for the Cumberland County school district—as did the Orange Street School, one of the first publicly funded schools for Black students in Fayetteville.
Later, the Les Maxwell school served as a daycare for children and a hub for social and cultural activities.
By the mid-2000s though, the aging building had a leaky roof. The Cumberland County Association for Indian People secured funding for repairs, but the building was condemned just weeks before work was set to begin, Jones said.
Without the school building, which Jones said served as an anchor, the association all but collapsed.
The newly redone community center now fills the gap, but Jones said it’s important to restore the school building. But it would be an expensive and daunting task.
The school building’s remains are littered with broken glass, and grass sprouts from cracks in the tile and concrete. Sections of ceiling scatter the ground, and doors are falling from their hinges.
Jones said giving new life to the school is critical to bringing people back to the meeting place and seeing the association rise once again.
“We have to keep our community together,” Jones said.
