The largest group of native Americans east of the Mississippi is also the most mysterious. They are the Lumbee people of eastern North Carolina. Because they were able to quickly adapt to the white European culture they were neither exterminated nor exiled. They live among others as teachers lawyers, and farmers. They have never been assigned to a reservation or made wards of the state. They have a different appearance than other native Americans. This has led some to conclude that the Lost Colony of Sir Walter Raleigh still lives in the Lumbee people; that Indians of coastal North Carolina blended with the white settlers from that colony lost to history in 1587. This has never been proved, for the Lumbee people have no record of their history, either written or oral. Their origin is a mystery. The origin of the people of God is, however, no mystery. God called those who were not a people His people; and men and women of "every tribe and tongue and nation" are a part of the "holy nation" the people of God.