When Jarrod Lowery announced last month he was leaving the N.C. House for a job in the Trump administration, he declined to share details about his new role.
But Lowery told the Border Belt Independent on Monday that will serve as senior adviser to the assistant secretary for Indian Affairs at the Department of the Interior.
Lowery, a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, is wasting no time: The Republican lawmaker who has represented Robeson County since 2022 said he planned to start work Wednesday, one day after leaving the state House.
“This is an opportunity for me to broaden my horizon and get an even better understanding of how federal agencies work,” he said.
Lowery will likely work for William Kirkland. President Donald Trump nominated Kirkland for assistant secretary for Indian Affairs in February, and the Senate’s Indian Affairs Committee advanced the nomination last month. Lowery said he hopes the full Senate will approve Kirkland this week.
Indian Affairs provides services to the nation’s 574 federally recognized tribes. The assistant secretary oversees the bureaus of Indian Affairs and Indian Education.
“I’ll be there in my role to support him in a variety of things — everything from food insecurity to land rights,” Lowery said.
Lowery said he likely won’t play a direct role in the Lumbee tribe’s efforts to gain full federal recognition. Trump signed an executive memorandum in January ordering the Interior to submit a report outlining potential pathways to full federal recognition for the tribe. The report says the tribe should continue asking Congress to pass legislation, which the Lumbee people have been doing for generations.
Lowery said he was pleased with the recommendation. Some opponents of Lumbee recognition, including the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in western North Carolina, have said the tribe should seek recognition through a lengthy bureaucratic process.
The U.S. House passed the Lumbee Fairness Act on Sept. 10 as part of a larger national defense bill. The chamber has passed similar legislation several times, but the Senate has not voted on a bill to grant full federal recognition.
The 55,000 Lumbee people make up the largest Native American tribe east of the Mississippi River, with their headquarters in Robeson County. Congress granted the tribe partial recognition in 1956 but denied it the benefits received by tribes with full recognition. North Carolina recognized the Lumbee tribe in 1885.
Robeson County, where generations of voters reliably picked Democratic candidates, has seen a major political shift toward the GOP. After voters picked Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, they opted for Trump in the next three elections. Lowery was elected as part of the political change.
Lowery, who grew up in Robeson County, joined the Marines after high school and graduated from The University of North Carolina at Pembroke in 2012 with a degree in political science. He spent the next four years working for then-Gov. Pat McCrory.
Later, Lowery served as director of Lumbee Tribe Enterprises and as community relations manager for Mountaire Farms.
On Monday, Lowery said he would miss the General Assembly and his constituents. He said he was most proud of sponsoring the American Indians Graduating With Honors Act, which then-Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, signed into law in 2023.
Under the law, North Carolina students in Native American tribes with federal or state recognition can wear feathers or other cultural symbols on their graduation caps. The issue had been controversial, with some students saying schools that prohibited feathers violated their rights.
“Nobody ever tried to solve the problem,” Lowery said. “I was able to pull together a coalition and make that happen.”
Lowery said last month he plans to remain in Robeson County with his family and travel to Washington, D.C., as necessary for work.