As NC’s Lumbee await federal recognition, some other tribes are opposed. Here’s why.
Nine American Indian tribes have sent a letter to the U.S. Senate opposing a bill that would grant federal recognition to the Lumbee.
North Carolina’s largest tribe, with more than 50,000 members centered around Robeson County, the Lumbee have sought recognition for decades — a status enjoyed only by the Eastern Band of Cherokee in North Carolina.
In a hearing last fall, Sen. Richard Burr counted 29 bills for recognition filed in the past 33 years — 15 by Democrats and 14 by Republicans.
The Cherokee have long stood in the Lumbee’s path, partly because of fears federal dollars granted to recognized tribes would shrink.
But the letter, sent Friday, shows the opposition runs deeper than North Carolina or just along money lines.
Along with Cherokee Principal Chief Richard Sneed, the letter is signed by leaders from the Shawnee, Mississippi Band of Choctaw, Fort Sill Apache, Delaware Nation, Chickasaw Nation, Delaware Tribe of Indians, Fort Belknap Tribe of Indians and United Indian Nations of Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas.
They argue that the U.S. Department of Interior, not Congress, should decide on tribal recognition, guaranteeing that such decisions are based on connection to historic tribes and not just politics.
“Oftentimes,” the letter said, “groups seeking federal acknowledgment claim tribal identities that do not belong to them. Even more often, the people claiming to be descendants of known historic tribes cannot demonstrate tribal ancestry, or any Native ancestry at all.”
The Lumbee’s chances are considered closer this year with the bill having passed the House and gotten support from both their home senators, who are Republican. Former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden also backed the Lumbee fight during the presidential election.
The history of the Lumbee
The Lumbee’s history has complicated their recognition fight.
The tribe did not exist before Europeans arrived in North Carolina, when a variety of Indians clustered together in the swamps around Robeson County, fleeing war and disease.
They mingled with tribes who had already hunkered down there, combining several languages. Unlike other tribes, many Lumbee adopted Christianity and land-ownership they had learned from White settlers.
Two years ago, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and the Eastern Band of Cherokee argued in a letter to Congress that the Lumbee have never been able to demonstrate any historical or genealogical tie to any historic tribe.
In a letter to Congress last year, the United Indian Nations of Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas asked how the Lumbee could have 55,000 members and avoid detection from federal authorities “when they were rounding up tribes from the Southeast and forcing them along trails of removal.”
“The Lumbee should get a fair chance at federal acknowledgment as a tribe through the (Department of Interior) process,” the letter read. “The (department) has the genealogists, historians, anthropologists and other experts who can properly evaluate whether a group is an historical tribe or confederation of historical tribes comprised of persons of descent from the historic tribe or tribes.”
‘It’s been a long time coming’
Lumbee Tribal Chair John Lowery’s office did not respond to questions Tuesday.
But James Locklear, editor and publisher of Native Visions Magazine in Pembroke, said the other tribes’ opposition, while disappointing, will not sink the bill.
“This bill has a lot of momentum now and it’s been a long time coming,” he said. “Our people have always been native. Our people have been here from the beginning. There have been people in Robeson County and the surrounding county for 10,000 years.”
He added that other tribes in the western United States could learn from the Lumbee, particularly in terms of education and business success.
This story was originally published March 8, 2022 at 3:09 PM with the headline "As NC’s Lumbee await federal recognition, some other tribes are opposed. Here’s why.."