NC’s Lumbee closer to long-sought federal recognition after U.S. Senate approves defense bill

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 — has passed both chambers of Congress.  

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday voted 77-20 to approve a wide-ranging defense-spending bill that contains a provision to recognize the Lumbee. It now heads to Trump and is one signature away from becoming law, creating the biggest tribe east of the Mississippi River and opening up economic development opportunities in southeastern North Carolina.

Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina Chair John Lowery said Wednesday’s vote was a surreal moment.

“We’re happy, overwhelmed with joy,” Lowery said.

Lowery spoke about having to wait after senators adjourned Tuesday night before voting.

“We did have to wait a few more hour,  but as so many of our folks have said, ‘We've been waiting for 130 years,’ so waiting a few more hours for this moment take place really was not a big step for us … but we're thrilled,” Lowery said.

On Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina, released a statement after the Senate's approval of the bill that recognized the tribe's decades-long effort to secure federal benefits.

“For 137 years, the Lumbee Tribe have been fighting for federal recognition, and today the federal government has finally honored that promise,” Tillis wrote in part. “President Trump traveled to Robeson County and pledged to get federal recognition done. He kept that promise and showed extraordinary leadership.”

The state's other U.S. senator, Republican Ted Budd, also supported the measure as a "major victory for such an important group of North Carolinians" and said Tillis deserves much of the credit for making it happen after such a long wait.

On Wednesday, NCGOP Chair Jason Simmons also released a statement.

“This moment has been long overdue for the nearly 60,000 members of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina,” Simmons wrote in part. “Today’s historic vote fulfills a long-standing promise by the federal government to provide full recognition.”

UNC Pembroke Chancellor Dr. Robin Cummings, a member of the Lumbee Tribe, shared his reaction while sitting with fellow members during Wednesday’s vote.

“It was just an amazing emotion,” Cummings told WRAL News.

Cummings explained the impact it will have on UNC Pembroke.

“The benefits that will come into the area in terms of education,” Cummings said. “About 30% of our students come from Robeson County and surrounding counties.

“So, anything we can do to improve the K-12 education in that area is going to help UNC Pembroke … this sort of gets us into a fraternity of tribal colleges across the U.S.”

The House passed the bill with bipartisan support last week. 

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.

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 bill 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 News 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.”