By Ben Rappaport
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Lumbee Fairness Act on Tuesday, moving North Carolina’s largest Native American tribe a step closer to its 136-year fight for full federal recognition.
The tribe has gotten this close before, only for the Senate to leave its version of the bill on the table without voting on it. The legislation has been introduced 30 times with bipartisan support in both chambers but has never made it to the president’s desk to be signed into law.
The Lumbee tribe, which is headquartered in Robeson County and has about 60,000 members, was recognized by the state in 1885. Congress granted the Lumbee partial recognition in 1956. Full federal recognition would allow the tribe access to more money for health care, education and other resources.
The House on Tuesday passed the bill, sponsored by Wilmington Republican Rep. David Rouzer, 311-96.
“Now, despite their long history of cohesive culture, the Lumbee tribe has never had access to the same resources exercised by every other federally recognized tribe during the termination era, when Congress ended the federal relationship with 60 tribes,” Rouzer said on the House floor Tuesday.
This is the last week of the Congressional session, leaving little time for the Senate to pass its version of the bill. North Carolina Republican Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd, who sponsored the Lumbee Fairness Act legislation in the Senate, released a joint statement after the House bill was passed.
“There is clearly strong bipartisan support for this effort in Congress, and both President Biden and President-elect Trump firmly back recognition,” Tillis said. “I commend the House for passing the Lumbee Fairness Act, and I will continue to pursue all options to finally achieve full federal recognition for the Lumbee Tribe.”
Opposition from other Native American tribes, including the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians in western North Carolina, has stalled the Lumbee tribe’s efforts.
Rep. Chuck Edwards, a Waynesville Republican, voted against the Lumbee Fairness Act on Tuesday.
“It must be noted that the Lumbee community has no standing treaties with the federal government, no reservation land and no common language,” Edwards said on the House floor.
N.C. Gov.-elect Josh Stein named ECBI Principal Chief Michell Hicks as part of his transition team, a move that drew criticism from Rep. Jarrod Lowery, a Robeson County Republican who is a member of the Lumbee tribe. Hicks has said he opposes recognition of the Lumbee tribe and questions its rights to tribal sovereignty. Hicks would chair the committee for the state’s Department of Administration, which oversees the Commission of Indian Affairs, on the transition team, according to a press release.
Lowery, in a letter to Stein, said Hicks had a history of divisive and racist rhetoric.
“The Commission of Indian Affairs has long served as the bridge between state government and tribal communities,” Lowery wrote. “Chief Hicks’s appointment raises serious concerns about whether this vital institution will remain a space of collaboration for all tribes.”
The Lumbee people descend from several Native American groups who fled from European colonizers and settled in the swamplands of Robeson County. Historians say they mingled with Black and white people throughout the region.
On the campaign trail, President-elect Donald Trump said he would support federal recognition for the Lumbee tribe if the bill came to his desk.
“The Lumbee tribe has been wrongfully denied federal recognition for more than a century,” Trump said at a rally in Wilmington ahead of the election. “Today I am officially announcing that if I am elected in November, I will sign legislation granting the great Lumbee Tribe the federal recognition that it deserves.”
Other presidents have backed full recognition for the Lumbee, including Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
Tillis is now using his political muscle to push back against the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians’ opposition. He is currently blocking a bill that would preserve the Wounded Knee Massacre site in South Dakota, which is a sacred mourning place for many tribes, honoring the more than 200 Native Americans killed there in 1890.
“This is about (your leaders’) underhanded, unfair treatment of a tribal nation that deserves recognition and that this country needs to atone for over a century of racism and neglect,” Tillis said about blocking the bill at a hearing on Nov. 21.
Some worry Tillis’ blocking of the bill will create increased animosity toward the Lumbee, Axios reported. Members of the Sioux tribe told the news outlet that tying Lumbee recognition to the Wounded Knee bill was unfair because the two pieces of legislation have nothing to do with each other.
The Lumbee tribe has seen growing political influence in recent years. In early 2022, the Republican National Committee opened an office in Pembroke to build on the momentum of local voters’ support of GOP candidates. Democrats handily won Robeson County for decades, but voters picked Trump in 2016 and 2020.
Democrats attempted to win back Lumbee support this election cycle with Vice President Kamala Harris opening a field office in Pembroke. Those efforts largely fell flat as Robeson County continued to shift further to the right. Trump won 63.3% of the vote in the county this year, increasing his margin of victory by more than 4 points compared to 2020.
In the run-up to the election, both major parties sent surrogates to campaign in the county. Donald Trump Jr. campaigned in support of his father in Red Springs while former President Bill Clinton made campaign stops in Pembroke and visited with Lumbee Chairman John Lowery.
