By Ben Rappaport
At a rally in Wilmington on Saturday, Republican Donald Trump said he would sign legislation granting the Lumbee tribe full federal recognition if he is elected president.
“The Lumbee tribe has been wrongfully denied federal recognition for more than a century,” Trump told the crowd. “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.”
But getting full federal recognition, which the Lumbee tribe has been pursuing for more than a century, is more complicated than garnering the president’s signature. Congress would have to agree to pass a bill to fully recognize the tribe — a feat that so far has been out of reach, despite bipartisan efforts from North Carolina’s delegation in Washington, D.C.
Other presidents have backed full recognition for the Lumbee, including Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign told the Border Belt Independent she also supports recognition.
“Vice President Kamala Harris has long believed the Lumbee tribe deserves the federal recognition that they have fought for and she will continue to push Congress as she stands with them in that fight,” a campaign spokesperson said. “She will always advocate for Tribal Nations and Native communities, honor tribal sovereignty, respect tribal self determination, and fight for a future where every Native person can realize their aspirations.”
Some said they were skeptical of Trump’s declaration.
“Politically engaged Lumbees recognize pandering for what it is, because we’ve seen it in action for more than (a) century,” Ryan Emmanuel, a Lumbee author and environmental researcher at Duke University, posted on X shortly after Trump’s Wilmington speech. He went on to say that “it demeans us by paint(ing) Lumbee people as gullible to political pandering around federal recognition.”
The Lumbee tribe, headquartered in Robeson County, is the largest Native American tribe east of the Mississippi River with more than 55,000 members. Congress voted in 1956 to grant the tribe partial federal recognition but has continued to deny full recognition that would bring millions of dollars for education, health care and more.
Thom Tillis and Ted Budd, Republican senators for North Carolina, introduced the Lumbee Fairness Act last year, but Congress has not acted on the bill. Similar bills have also stalled in the past.
While other administrations have expressed support for full recognition, some local politicians say Trump’s promise rings clear.
“He’s put himself out there too far to not do what he says,” said John Cummings, chairman of the Robeson County Board of Commissioners, who got a shoutout from Trump on Saturday. “He prides himself on his honesty and his word, and now this is out there for the whole world.”
For Cummings, the fight for federal recognition is about his ancestry. His father, born in 1919 before the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, was told by the government he was too Indian to be an official American citizen. Then, with partial federal recognition, his father was too American to be Indian.
Republican Jarrod Lowery, a Lumbee who serves in the N.C. House, told the Border Belt Independent in an interview that full recognition feels closer than ever with promises from Biden and Trump.
“My hope as a fierce advocate for Lumbee people is that whoever is president will make this a priority,” Lowery said. ”Our ancestors have worked for literally 130 years to get the president’s attention and for them to become advocates for our issue.”
Robeson County was once a Democratic stronghold but has flipped in recent elections to support the GOP. Obama won more than 56% of the county’s vote in 2008. Trump won more than 50% in 2016, and four years later he won 59%.
The Republican National Committee opened an office in Robeson County in 2022 in an effort to win Native American voters and increase Republican momentum ahead of the midterm elections. The Harris campaign opened an office in Robeson County over the summer as part of a larger effort to win back rural voters.
Malinda Maynor Lowery, a professor of indigenous history at Emory University and member of the Lumbee tribe, said Democrats took the Lumbee vote for granted for decades and are now playing catch-up.
“The Republican Party has figured out that North Carolina, especially in national elections, rides on the coattails of the Lumbees,” Lowery said. “So the way Lumbees vote is how the state goes.”
‘Lumbees deserve a choice’
While the most likely path to full federal recognition would be through Congress, it could also be achieved in federal court. Presidential support surely helps, but an executive action alone is not enough.
Opposition to federal recognition for the Lumbees largely comes from other tribes, including the Eastern Band of the Cherokee — the only tribe in the state with full federal recognition.In 2022, nine indigenous tribes issued a letter to senators arguing that the Lumbee tribe lacked “any Native ancestry.”
No matter who wins in November, Maynor Lowery said she expects the gridlock in Congress to continue. A promise of Lumbee recognition, she said, is a play for electoral votes now that North Carolina can swing the presidential election.
Maynor Lowery, a Democrat, said she is frustrated with the party’s lack of engagement with Lumbee issues over the past several decades.
“I’m terrified of the policy outcomes of his (Trump’s) administration that will rebound against Lumbees whether or not recognition happens,” she said. “But Lumbees deserve a choice in who to vote for and it’s not surprising that they are no longer giving Democrats a chance.”
An aggregate of polls from FiveThirtyEight shows the race for the presidency is deadlocked in North Carolina. Cook Political Report recently said the state is a “toss-up” — making the Lumbee vote all the more critical.
“I don’t see a viable path to recognition by virtue of these candidates’ administrations alone,” Maynor Lowery said. “It really all happens in Congress, so if we’re serious we need to call Congress to account for its processes.”
