Lumbee Tribe of NC makes the case for recognition, again, at Senate hearing

Race and money.

Those were the keywords in the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina’s latest push for federal recognition at a Capitol Hill hearing Wednesday.

The Senate Committee on Tribal Affairs met to determine whether Congress should take up the Lumbee Fairness Act and provide the tribe with full federal recognition, which has been sought since 1888.

In 1956, Congress passed The Lumbee Act designating them as a tribe but not offering members federal benefits.

This was the ninth time Lumbee leaders have sat before the committee. Lumbee Chairman John Lowery said he hopes he would be the final leader to do so.

“I’m confident that this year Congress will finally amend this law, this flawed law, and extend the full service and benefits that we deserve,” Lowery said. “A tribe’s legal status should be clear, concise and unambiguous, and the Lumbee Fairness Act ensures that for our tribe.”

Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from Huntersville, led a news conference prior to the hearing with North Carolina legislators Sen. Ted Budd and Reps. Mark Harris, David Rouzer, Richard Hudson and Tim Moore in support of the tribe. All but two of North Carolina’s 16-member congressional delegation have supported the bill’s passage.

Tillis also testified before the committee, saying the fight was “personal” to him because “it’s an injustice that needs to be righted.”

“The Lumbee people have waited long enough,” Tillis said. “They don’t ask for special treatment, only fair treatment they’ve earned and deserve full federal recognition.”

The Lumbee Tribe has 60,000 members in Robeson, Hoke, Scotland and Cumberland counties, making up the largest tribe east of the Mississippi River and the ninth largest in the country.

It’s unusual for the committee to get as much attention as it did Wednesday. The hearing was moved into a larger hearing room to accommodate additional members of the public in attendance.

Lumbee faces opposition from other tribes

Lowery was joined at the witness table by Tribal Attorney Arlinda Locklear. They testified for more than an hour on why Congress should grant full federal recognition, instead of the tribe applying through the Bureau of Indian Affairs for recognition.

To their right sat their staunch opponents, Eastern Band of Cherokee Chief Michell Hicks and Shawnee Chief Ben Barnes testifying in opposition to congressional action.

“I want to express my deep appreciation of your willingness to examine the fact,” Hicks said. “A careful evidence-based review of this matter is long overdue. Your commitment to that standard honors every federally recognized tribe and the integrity of this committee’s work.”

Hicks told the committee that he wasn’t there to question anyone’s personal identity or heritage. But he said he questions the evidence of the Lumbee’s history as a tribe. He criticized the Lumbees for claiming connections to various other tribes, not having their own language or historical documents.

“Their claims rest on theories, speculation and invented narratives,” Hicks said. “Only after the Civil War, when North Carolina rewrote its constitution and imposed new racial restrictions on non-white citizens, did these families suddenly adopt an Indian identity, calling themselves Croatan to access a separate Indian School and government resources and history.”

He also argued that the cost of full federal recognition for the Lumbee Tribe far exceeds the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate of $350 million. Instead, he said, “Independent analysis shows the real price is in the billions.”

“We do not fear another tribe,” Hicks said. “I want to make that clear. We fear falsehoods becoming federal law. If there is evidence, let it be presented. If there is a tribal origin, let the OFA confirm, and if they meet the same standard every other tribe meets, we will welcome them to the group of federally recognized tribes, but Congress must not legislate identity by replacing evidence with assertion.”

Cherokee response to Lumbee effort

At the dais, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a Republican from Oklahoma, who is Cherokee, began questions to the chiefs, setting his focus on Hicks and asking whether he believes the Lumbees are native.

“I do believe they’re native,” Mullin said. “I’ve been accused of being not being native and I would laugh. I can’t control who my ancestors love, but I still live on the same lot of land where my family stopped walking because I am Cherokee and I’m proud to be Cherokee.”

He recognized that to some, he may not look like a member of the tribe.

“I have a problem when someone starts saying that,” Mullin said. “Things get a little personal.”

He then pointed out that there’s a difference between Cherokee Nation and the Eastern Band, because, he said, the Eastern Band stayed back while the Cherokee Nation kept walking.

“But you were fairly recognized,” Mullin said to Hicks. “Shouldn’t you be recognized as Cherokee Nation at that point? Because we’re all descendants of Cherokee Nation.”

Mullin caused a slight fracas in the crowd when he said to Hicks, “you can’t look over there and say they’re not native. You’re telling me they’re not native faces.” He then told Hicks to turn around and look at the tribe.

Members of the Eastern Band were heard muttering that he was racially profiling.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat from Nevada, who was friendlier to the opposition, said she understands there are two approaches to recognition, and one is through Congress.

“There’s also an evidence-based approach,” she said. “I’m not in a position to look out in the audience, unlike some of my colleagues, to say who is a member and who isn’t. It’s like I’m not in a position, I don’t think, I should be looking out in my community saying just because you have brown skin, you’re undocumented. There has to be an evidence-based approach and that’s why it wasn’t created in Congress.”

But she added that if something isn’t working with the Office of Indian Affairs, that’s another conversation they need to discuss.

The Lumbee leaders argued that the process is lengthy and costly. They’re confident it would end with a lawsuit by the Eastern Band saying that it should have gone through Congress.

The hearing ended without any action.

Lumbee recognition was included in the House’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act passed in September. The Senate ran its own version of the bill that didn’t include Tillis’ amendment for federal recognition.

President Donald Trump made Lumbee recognition one of the first executive orders he signed in his second term instructing the Department of Interior to find a path forward to legal recognition. DOI has not responded to request for comments about their findings or released their report through a Freedom of Information Act request.

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