Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina Slated to Become Federal Recognized Tribe as National Defense Authorization Act Passes Senate

Washington—Today, the U.S. Senate voted 77-20 on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which secured the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina’s federal recognition as a tribal nation. President Donald Trump is expected to sign the $900 billion bill into law as soon as this week, which would make the Lumbee the 575th federally recognized tribe in the nation.

“This is a very surreal moment,” said Lumbee Tribal Chairman John Lowery in an interview with Native Sun News Today. “We worked very hard to get here. Our ancestors fought for this for decades and I’m just thrilled that we finally have achieved this goal of ours and we’re about 140 years behind. But I’m just thankful for all the support, all the efforts, not just presently but those in the past as well.”

The bill extends federal recognition to the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina and makes its members eligible for the services and benefits provided to members of federally recognized tribes. Members of the Lumbee Tribe residing in Robeson, Cumberland, Hoke, and Scotland Counties in North Carolina will be within the delivery area for federal services.

The bill also directed the Department of Interior (DOI) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to consult with the tribe to develop a determination of services needed for tribal members. According to the Lumbee, there are more than 60,000 enrolled in the tribe, making the Lumbee the 5th largest populated tribe in the nation and the largest east of the Mississippi River. The Dept. of Interior may take land into trust for the benefit of the tribe as well.

North Carolina assumes criminal and civil jurisdiction over all criminal offenses and civil actions that arise on lands owned by, or held in trust for the Lumbee Tribe unless jurisdiction is transferred to the U.S. pursuant to an agreement between the tribe and the state. The Lumbee Fairness Act was introduced by Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) and is co-sponsored by Senator Ted Budd (R-NC) and 18 additional co-sponsors.

The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina has been a state-recognized tribe for decades, with Congress acknowledging the tribe in the 1956 Lumbee Act, but denied them federal services. The tribe sought recognition in the 1980s through the DOI Office of Federal Acknowledgement, which evaluated the historical and genealogical claims of applicants, but were denied, citing the 1956 Act.

“For 137 years, the Lumbee Tribe have been fighting for federal recognition, and today the federal government has finally honored that promise,” said North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis in a statement today. “President Trump traveled to Robeson County and pledged to get federal recognition done. He kept that promise and showed extraordinary leadership. With the Senate passage of the NDAA, the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina will now achieve full federal recognition and access to every federal benefit they have earned and deserve.”

Not everyone in Indian Country is celebrating, however.

“Today’s federal recognition of the Lumbee will open new doors; arguably, some good doors, for the Lumbee, and some not so good doors, a route to circumvent established federal process,” said Danielle Finn, the Director of Indian Gaming and Governance Program at the University of Nevada Las Vegas’s Willam S. Boyd College of Law to Native Sun News Today. “By bypassing the established formal recognition process set by the U.S. Department of Interior a precedent is now made. Many believe this precedent now undermines the historical and legal standards that are required for tribal nations.

According to the DOI, a group applying for federal recognition must meet seven mandatory criteria set by the agency, proving continuous identification as an Indian entity, a distinct community, and political authority since historical times (or 1900 for identification, 1934 for others in proposed changes), with clear governing documents, descent from a historical tribe, unique membership not primarily in other tribes, and no prior termination by Congress.

“With the passage of the National Defense Authorization Bill, this basically tells other non-federally recognized groups that there is now another way to achieve their end goal and they can do it by sidestepping the usual procedure,” Finn added.

The tribe’s ability to lobby through Congress, to avoid the normal process to get federal recognition, has been questioned by other tribal nations as federal recognition provides millions of dollars in funding for Native American programs. Earlier this year, President Trump signed an executive order in January directing the DOI to approve federal recognition of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. Last year, during the presidential campaign season, both Trump and Kamala Harris commented that they would support federal recognition of the tribe.

“Every sovereign Tribal Nation in this country has been required to prove its identity, lineage, history and continuous governance,” said Principal Chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Michell Hicks in a statement on Dec. 8. “The Lumbee have not met any of those standards, and their repeated refusal to undergo federal verification threatens the credibility of the entire process.”

The Eastern Band of Cherokee has had a long history of opposition against the Lumbee’s effort to gain federal recognition that spans back decades, said Suzan Shown Harjo. Harjo is Muscogee and Southern Cheyenne and a Medal of Freedom recipient for decades of advocacy for Indian Country. “It’s done,” she said of the Lumbee’s effort to gain federal recognition. “It’s no longer something that anyone can try to influence. Congress has acted and if the United States wants to have a relationship that’s formal with the Lumbee, then they have it.”

“That’s what they have with all of us, whether it’s from a treaty or a series of treaties and laws and executive orders—the way most of us have a relationship with the U.S. defined,” Harjo said. “This is now the Congress’s and the President’s alliance and their due process on behalf of the United States—they are now a federally recognized tribe.”

“They demonstrated who they are as a people in many ways,” Harjo said, citing the Lumbee’s effort to interrupt a Klu Klux Klan rally in Maxton, North Carolina.

Harjo also spoke of the Poarch Creek Indians, who gained federal recognition in 1984, and then built a casino on top of burial sites of Muscogee people and have kept the remains of 57 people. The Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma has filed a lawsuit against the Poarch Creek Indians, asking for the destruction of the casino at Hickory Ground, and to return the human remains to the Muscogee Nation.

“Will the Lumbees desecrate land like Poarch Creek, or will they honor the lands and history of other tribes now that they have sovereignty as a federally recognized tribe?” Harjo phrased.

As far the Lumbee’s future, Chairman Lowery said the tribe is looking forward to consultation with the federal government. “There’s a lot of different programs of services out there, and we want to be able to access help from the different agencies in regards to education, healthcare, economic development, land-in-trust,” he said. “We’re looking forward to finding out about the different program services that are available for us to go ahead and tie them into our government that we already have.”

Darren Thompson is the Managing Editor of Last Real Indians Native News Desk and the Director of Media Relations for the Sacred Defense Fund, an Indigenous-led nonprofit organization based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He’s an award winning multimedia journalist enrolled at Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, where he grew up. He can be reached at darren@sacreddefense.org.

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