North Carolina’s Lumbee Tribe is the closest it has ever been to receiving full federal recognition now that a bill — which President Donald Trump has promised to sign — is on the verge of passing Congress and heading to Trump’s desk.
The U.S. Senate began voting Tuesday on a wide-ranging defense-spending bill that contains a provision to recognize the Lumbee. It already passed the U.S. House of Representatives with bipartisan support and will heads to Trump if it also passes the Senate. The Senate adjourned late Tuesday with plans to reconvene Wednesday.
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Passage into law would create the biggest tribe east of the Mississippi River and open up economic development opportunities in southeastern North Carolina.
Federal recognition would unlock the potential for billions of dollars in public and private investment in and around the Lumbee homeland of Robeson County in southeastern North Carolina, where many of the tribe’s 55,000 members live.
Money for health care, education and community services would begin flowing into the region from the federal government once the Lumbee are a formally recognized tribe. They’d also be allowed to build a casino — a major development not just for the tribe but potentially the entire state economy, since Robeson County sits right along a major thoroughfare, Interstate 95, directly south of Fayetteville and not far from Wilmington, Myrtle Beach and other tourist hotspots.
“When you’re talking about business, economic development, all of that will be a great impact on this county, this whole southeastern region,” Matt Scott, Robeson County District Attorney said, adding that improvements would have wide-ranging effects.
“When we can get a greater economic foothold here and provide more opportunities, I can guarantee you that the crime rate and everything else will go down,” Scott said.
The tribe has been pushing for decades for this moment. Until now, those proposals have repeatedly failed to win enough support to pass Congress — even with the backing of Trump, a Republican, as well as former Democratic presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama. Lumbee recognition has long been heavily opposed by other Native American groups.
Some opponents say the Lumbee aren’t a true indigenous tribe but rather a relatively new mixed-race group formed by the intermingling of natives, escaped slaves and others. Other tribes have opposed recognition of the Lumbees over concerns about increased competition for federal aid or casino visitors.
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the only federally recognized tribe in North Carolina, released a statement earlier this month, prior to the House vote, from Principal Chief Michell Hicks saying he was "deeply disappointed and alarmed" at the prospect of Lumbee recognition.
The newest strategy from Lumbee supporters avoided an individual vote on Lumbee recognition and instead rolled the proposal into an unrelated bill — one that would be politically tough for most members of Congress to oppose: The National Defense Authorization Act.
The 3,000-page NDAA bill funds the military and its contractors and recommends new changes to national defense priorities. The current proposal is stuffed with provisions unrelated to the military — ranging from new rules for businesses that invest in China to the replacement of a drinking well in a small Virginia town and federal recognition of the Lumbee Tribe.
Hicks, the Cherokee chief, said that was a dangerous strategy because it avoids the kind of evidence, debate and scrutiny that tribes normally face when their recognition is subject to a standalone vote, and that it risks creating a precedent making tribal recognition tied to unrelated political issues.
"Once recognition is granted without an evidentiary review, the standing of all federally acknowledged tribal nations becomes more vulnerable to political shifts rather than being anchored in history and law," he said.
North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein told WRAL in an interview Tuesday that he’s encouraged to see Lumbee recognition so close to becoming reality.
“Federal recognition will trigger for them all kinds of federal resources — for housing, for health care, for disaster recovery when they've had floods in the past,” he said. “This is going to be immensely helpful to them and their economic health and well-being. And it's going to be good for the state of North Carolina.”
Tammy Maynor, the director of Lumbee Tribe governmental affairs, underscored the benefits of full recognition — particularly as it relates to disaster recovery. “I think back about the hurricanes that we had and that because we did not have full federal recognition status, there was funding we were not eligible for,” Maynor said Tuesday. “If we had been on that list, we would have gotten emergency funding to help our families during a time when it was most critical.”
Inside the gymnasium at the Boys & Girls Club of Pembroke, generations of Lumbee gathered in anticipation of a vote on Tuesday. Many of them plan to return Wednesday morning, when the chamber is scheduled to reconvene.
“I’ve lived all these years hoping that I’d live to see it pass,” said Charles Bell, whose ancestors have fought decades for Lumbee recognition. “I’m 78 years old and I want to live to see it pass because I know my grandfather would be so proud.”
