Timothy Jacobs, the Tuscarora activist who at age 19 helped hold staff of The Robesonian newspaper hostage for 10 hours in 1988 to demand an investigation into corruption and racism in Robeson County, has died. He was 58. His cousin said the cause was a heart attack, and he died on October 21.
Jacobs and fellow Tuscarora activist Eddie Hatcher walked into the Lumberton newspaper's office on February 1, 1988, armed with sawed-off shotguns, according to The Assembly. The pair ordered newspaper staff into seclusion and rounded up 17 hostages, according to borderbelt.org. Jacobs and Hatcher wanted an outside investigation into the county court system and the sheriff's treatment of Native American and Black residents, per The Assembly's account of the standoff.
Jacobs later testified that Hatcher had shown him what he believed was evidence connecting the sheriff's department to drug trafficking, including alleged drop-off points and distributors, according to reporting cited in the seed coverage from the Raleigh News & Observer. Jacobs said he believed then-Sheriff Hubert Stone wanted Hatcher dead, telling him, “With what you've got they will kill you.” At the time, Robesonian editor Bob Horne offered a blunt assessment of the takeover's logic: “If you have a grievance, take hostages, put them in fear for their lives and say you did it for your own protection.”
Hostages Released, Acquittal Followed by State Prison Time
Jacobs and Hatcher released the remaining hostages around 8 p.m. that day and surrendered to the FBI, The Assembly reported. A federal jury acquitted both men of charges tied to the takeover, according to a 1988 UPI dispatch from the trial. But Jacobs still faced state charges, pleading guilty and receiving a six-year sentence; he ultimately served 20 months, according to borderbelt.org's account of the case.
Hatcher's path diverged sharply from there. He pleaded guilty to state kidnapping charges and drew an 18-year sentence, Indy Week reported, and he died in 2009 while serving time behind bars for an unrelated murder conviction after his release.
A state task force was formed in the takeover's aftermath to look into the corruption allegations that had driven Jacobs and Hatcher to act, launching its inquiry on February 8, 1988. It folded just 10 days later without a single arrest, per The Assembly. Years afterward, state and federal investigators did pursue wrongdoing inside the Robeson County sheriff's department, eventually arresting more than 20 employees as part of a multiyear operation known as Tarnished Badge, according to borderbelt.org.
A Life Devoted to Tuscarora Recognition and Repatriation
After his release from prison, Jacobs settled back in Robeson County, working in HVAC servicing while continuing his activism for the Tuscarora, The Robesonian reported. He pushed for cultural revitalization, the repatriation of Tuscarora ancestral remains, the land-back movement and tribal sovereignty, according to the same account, and he advocated for recognition of the roughly 8,500 Tuscarora people estimated to live in North Carolina, per The Assembly.
In 2006, Jacobs led roughly two dozen people in occupying a field at the Fort Nooherooka site in Greene County, the scene of an 18th-century clash in which more than 1,000 Native people were killed. The nonviolent occupation was meant to establish protection for the site and push for repatriation of remains excavated there, according to Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina. Jacobs asked that Nooherooka be protected from farming and returned to Tuscarora ownership, and he called on East Carolina University to return remains that archaeologists had excavated from the site; he also posted a sign there reading, “Where's the justice in America for Native people?” He returned to the site in 2013 to honor the nearly 1,000 Tuscarora ancestors lost there in 1713, The Robesonian noted.
Jacobs's push for a Tuscarora homeland had roots that stretched back further. A 2004 account from StarNews Online described Jacobs and two other Tuscaroras buying about 10 acres near Elm City for a self-declared nation, seeking land, sovereignty and artifacts. Jacobs was also among several people charged in 2018 by North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement over allegedly operating illegal gaming centers, The Robesonian reported. Earlier this year, on April 25, Jacobs attended the dedication of a mural depicting him in Smithfield.
