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FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 2002

"Ned Sampson feared for his life. Not on the 1958 night he confronted the Ku Klux Klan in a North Carolina field, but on the night last week doctors told him a blood clot was boxing out his brain from left to right.

"Any time they start drilling holes in your head, it's scary," Sampson said.

He figured he'd survive and advance anyway. He's Lumbee Indian, after all, a member of a tribe of 50,000 the U.S. government refuses to recognize.

"It's never been easy for my people," Sampson said Thursday from Atlanta. "But we always find a way."

. . .

Six years after he began coaching, Ned joined hundreds of Lumbees in a raid on a Klan meeting, chasing the hooded cowards before any cross was burned.

"And they haven't been back since," Ned said. "You can't let people like that impose their will on you.""

Get the Story:
Keeping Score: Sampson makes Lumbees' case (USA Today 3/29)

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