Congress Votes to Recognize Lumbee Tribe 

A small detail in the now-passed $900 billion National Defense Authorization Act has gone under the radar: the Lumbee Tribe from North Carolina will now be fully federally recognized. This will grant them substantial access to federal benefits, which is game-changing when Native Americans in the state are much more likely to have no primary physician nor health insurance due to impoverishment. However, that’s not the full story. 

For Native Americans, the normal path to getting recognized is an administrative test handled by the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) Office of Federal Acknowledgement. The Lumbee sought this avenue at the start of their struggle to be recognized in the 1880s. Those efforts were stopped in 1956, where Congress passed a law that acknowledged the tribe’s existence. The key distinction is that lawmakers weren’t obligated to give the Lumbee federal benefits. In addition, any claims made to the DOI would likely have been rejected because of the new law. As a result, the tribe shifted gears, seeking federal recognition through Congress instead. 

The Lumbee has 55,000+ members, making it the largest tribe in North Carolina and 9th largest in the nation. This has earned it strong support. Since 1974, legislation to recognize the Lumbee has passed the House nine times, but it was shut down by the Senate every single time. The tribe made a breakthrough after both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris pledged to officially recognize the tribe in the 2024 election. To the Lumbee, the new policy will make significant strides towards ending discrimination against them, because they are finally among the 574 American Indian tribes that are recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also under the DOI. They believe their size and history merits federal benefits, no matter how their official recognition was given.

However, critics like the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) believe the Lumbee have used Congress as a backdoor to the administrative test. The evaluation is lengthy and carefully reviews the historical and genealogical claims of each tribe that applies for recognition. It’s not certain that the Lumbee would have passed the test. For example, they have adopted several different names, with the most controversial being 1913’s “The Cherokee Indians of Robeson County.” The famed name of the Cherokee was allegedly taken up to increase the tribe’s chances of being recognized by the DOI. However, the name's use was fraudulent as the Lumbee were found to have no cultural, linguistic, nor genealogical ties to the Cherokee by the BIA. This past event would have been a blemish on their administrative test results, because it could be seen that since the Lumbee have felt the need to change their asserted name in the past to support their political goals, they don’t have enough truthful historical identification to meet federal recognition requirements: which is partially based on stable historical continuity. In other words, the Lumbee couldn’t have proved their ties to America’s indigenous people without lying. This is why Michell Hicks, the principal chief of the EBCI, believes the Lumbee getting approval through Congress is “not fairness, but the abandonment of tribal sovereignty and integrity.” 

On the other hand, the Lumbee argue that they didn’t directly choose their names. Being dubbed as Cherokee was done to to survive the wave of racial discrimination during the segregation era, because being deemed “colored” would have removed Lumbee control of their educational system and right to vote.  Consequently, their historical records only show the tribe’s longstanding struggles against society, rather than fraud. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) supported the tribe’s recognition with simpler arguments. He cites that Lumbee culture is reflected in the University of North Carolina at Pembroke’s founding in 1887, thereby complying with DOI criteria of a tribe needing to demonstrate an American Indian identity since 1900 or earlier. Since Tillis was instrumental in including the Lumbees in the new defense legislation, this justification may have been very effective. Moreover, after the DOI was asked by the Trump Administration to investigate a pathway to Lumbee recognition, the department reported in November that congressional action was the “most direct means to resolve ambiguities” from the 1956 law. The Lumbee could thus argue against critics’ claims by stating that the tribe had a governmental mandate to pursue recognition through Congress. 

The deal has several implications, such as allowing the creation of a formal government to government relationship. This gives the Lumbees a platform to voice their grievances, potentially giving them more influence. It even gives the opportunity for the establishment of new casinos in Lumbee land. Previous legislation estimated the tribe’s recognition to cost $363 million in support. After decades of political struggle, the Lumbee Tribe’s future has been completely transformed. 

Read more here:

• Graham Lee Brewer, PBS/Associated Press

• Emma Gillis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 

• Rick Rojas, Eduardo Medina, and Emily Cochrane, New York Times

• Staff, North Carolina Department of Administration

• Staff, United Indian Nations of Oklahoma

• Malinda Maynor Lowery, Oxford Research Encyclopedias

• Staff, Thom Tillis US Senator for North Carolina

• Staff, US Department of the Interior