Lumbee Tribe poised to gain federal recognition through Defense bill

After decades of political maneuvering through Congress and government agencies, the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina may finally achieve federal recognition through the National Defense Authorization Act the House plans to vote on this week.

If the legislation passes, the Senate could vote on final passage as soon as next week.

The Lumbee's efforts to gain federal recognition — which would come with federal funding, access to resources like the Indian Health Service and the ability to take land into trust — have been controversial for many years both in Indian Country and in Washington. But their cause has been championed by President Donald Trump, who promised on the campaign trail last year to acknowledge the Lumbee as a tribal nation.

The issue of federal recognition for the Lumbee Tribe has been batted around Congress for more than thirty years. But the political opportunity it represented in the last election could be what pushed it over the finish line, said Kevin Washburn, former assistant secretary of Indian Affairs at the Interior Department and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.

''It comes up every four years because North Carolina is a battleground state and the Lumbee represent tens of thousands of people,'' Washburn said.

The Lumbee Tribe has nearly 60,000 members, and both Trump and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris promised the Lumbee federal recognition during the 2024 campaign. Trump won North Carolina by more than 3 points. Shortly after taking office, Trump issued an executive order directing the Interior Department to create a plan for federal recognition for the Lumbee.

It's the first time either the White House or the candidates for president have been so engaged in a federal recognition case, Washburn said.

The Lumbee were recognized by Congress in 1956, but that legislation denied them access to the same federal resources as tribal nations. As a result, their application for recognition was denied for consideration in the 1980s, and the Lumbee Tribe has tried to get Congress to acknowledge them in the decades since. The Office of Federal Acknowledgement is the federal agency that vets applications, although dozens of tribes have also gained recognition through legislation.

''Only Congress can for all time and for all purposes resolve this uncertainty,'' Lumbee Tribal Chairman John Lowery testified last month before the Senate Committee for Indian Affairs. ''It is long past time to rectify the injustice it has inflicted on our tribe and our people.''

But others, including several tribal leaders, argue that the Lumbee's historic claims have shifted many times over the last century and that they have never been able to prove they descend from a tribal nation.

''A national defense bill is not the appropriate place to consider federal recognition, particularly for a group that has not met the historical and legal standards required of sovereign tribal nations,'' said Michell Hicks, chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

The National Defense Authorization Act is usually a bipartisan bill that lays out the nation's defense policies. But this year the vote has taken on a new political dynamic as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faces mounting scrutiny over military strikes on boats off Venezuela's coast.