For Lumbee tribe, ‘the time has come’ to finally be federally recognized

by Lucas Thomae, Carolina Public Press
March 10, 2025

Who gets to claim the title of American Indian? That is the question at the center of a fight over potential federal recognition for the indigenous Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina.

For more than a century, the Lumbee — with a claimed membership of 60,000 people concentrated in the southeastern part of the state — have fought for federal recognition and the benefits that come with it.

Those perks include health care funding, housing programs and, of course, the opportunity to establish casinos.

A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers have supported bills to grant federal recognition the past few congressional cycles, but up to this point none have made it all the way to the president’s desk to be signed into law.

That may soon change.

‘An issue of fairness’

During his first week in office, President Donald Trump made good on his campaign promise to support the Lumbee cause with a memo to the Department of the Interior directing them to draft a plan to grant full federal recognition.

Once completed, the directive will reverse a 1956 law that acknowledged the tribe as the “Lumbee Indians of North Carolina,” but denied them federal benefits that typically come with that recognition.

A note: Both the state and federal government, and many tribes themselves, use the term “American Indian” to refer to the indigenous people living in the United States.

Lumbee Chairman John Lowery spent a week in Washington, D.C. last month as consultations for the carrying out of the president’s memorandum began. Lowery told Carolina Public Press he left the U.S. capital feeling “cautiously optimistic” about finally achieving full federal recognition.

“We have very strong support from both sides of the aisle,” Lowery said. “At the end of the day, whether Democrat or Republican, individuals understand that this is an issue of fairness.”

It’s also an issue that is somewhat complicated. 

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the only federally-recognized tribe in the state, vehemently oppose granting the Lumbee the same status through congressional action rather than the typical application process carried out by the Department of the Interior. In fact, Cherokee opposition to Lumbee recognition dates back to at least 1910.

Principal Chief Michell Hicks, the leader of the Eastern Band, told CPP that such a move would be a “slippery slope” that encourages illegitimate tribal groups to falsely claim federal benefits.

“It is a dangerous decision that will open up the floodgates to others wanting to do the same thing,” he said.

Lumbee lineage holds the key

The Cherokee are an indigenous people who once populated parts of what is now North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. They had long been a sovereign nation with their own government prior to European colonization of the region.

Today, the Eastern Band is one of three federally-recognized Cherokee tribes and the only one not located in Oklahoma. They are descendants of a small group of Cherokee people who remained in North Carolina after the U.S. government forcibly relocated them to reservations in the 1830s.

By the mid-1900s, the Eastern Band had organized into its own tribal nation fully acknowledged by the federal government. More than 16,000 Cherokee people live and work on their reservation lands which stretch across Swain, Jackson, Cherokee and Graham counties near the western tip of the state.

The Lumbee, on the other hand, have a history that is less cohesive. Their story is one of mixed cultures and ambiguous identity.

Even the name “Lumbee” is a modern construction, thought to have originated in the 1950s from the Lumber River that flows through the tribe’s claimed territory.

Since the 1880s, the group has petitioned Congress for federal recognition under names such as “Cherokee Indians of Robeson County” and “Croatan Indians” — a reference to a once-popular theory that they were descended from European settlers of “The Lost Colony” and nearby indigenous people.

Later research on the origin of the Lumbee suggests they are descended from a mix of people with indigenous, European and African heritage.

That lineage matters because the federal acknowledgement process requires petitioners to prove they are descended from a “historical Indian tribe” or a combination of historical tribes that function as one political entity.

The “historical tribe” requirement has proven to be an obstacle for the Lumbee since the U.S. government confirmed their eligibility to apply for federal acknowledgement in 2016.

Still, Lowery said his tribe’s indeterminate origins shouldn’t be disqualifying. They’ve long inhabited the sandhills and enjoyed a good relationship with the state. “The time has come” for the Lumbee to be recognized by a government that has consistently overlooked them.

“The fact that we are still here centuries after colonial expansion, centuries after war and disease,” he said, “should be celebrated.”

Membership has its privileges

Hicks said he supports the Lumbee’s right to go through the federal acknowledgement process, but opposes any congressional action that would allow them to circumvent that procedure. It’s a matter of protecting their own cultural identity, Hicks explained, pointing to “hundreds of groups” claiming to be Cherokee tribes.

“There is this merits-based process that was established because of the need to really dive into the claims of any group,” he said.

Some proponents of Lumbee recognition dismiss that argument. They say that the Cherokee simply want to protect their stake in the gaming industry, which legally can only take place on native lands.

A few years ago the tribe fought and lost a legal battle with the Catawba Indian Nation — a federally-recognized tribe in South Carolina — who planned to build a competing casino outside of Charlotte.

If the Lumbee were to become federally recognized, they might be another competitor in the high-stakes casino business. 

However, both Lowery and Hicks downplayed the potential of a Lumbee-run casino as a reason for their political feud.

“The Lumbee opening a casino in a different region is unlikely to impact (our) gaming operations and is not the basis of our opposition,” Hicks said in a statement. “However, the fact that the Lumbee could establish an Indian gaming facility without even being able to specify which tribe they descend from illustrates the
broader stakes for communities across America. If federal recognition is granted without requiring verifiable historical evidence, any group claiming
to be a tribe could gain recognition — and with it, the ability to open a casino in any town in America.”

Meanwhile, Lumbee leaders in state government have lambasted Hicks and the Eastern Band for their “superiority complex” since discussion about recognition once again started to heat up.

A December letter penned by N.C. Commission of Indian Affairs chairman Ricky Burnett, a member of the Lumbee Tribe, censured Hicks for “statements made by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians that question the legitimacy of other tribal nations.”

“These actions reflect a troubling pattern of behavior in which the (Eastern Band) has positioned itself as an oppressor toward fellow tribes in North Carolina and neighboring states,” according to the letter.

Hicks said he was “offended” by the accusations.

“I don’t think it’s the position of any commission to basically take a political stance against the only federally-recognized tribe and the largest tribe east of the Mississippi,” he said.

Soon after, state Rep. Jarrod Lowery, the brother of the Lumbee chairman and the only Native American legislator in the General Assembly, criticized Gov. Josh Stein for appointing Hicks to his administration’s transition team.

The Republican legislator from Robeson County also introduced a bill last month that would redistribute money from an education fund composed primarily from the Eastern Band’s gaming revenues to the seven other state-recognized tribes.

This article first appeared on Carolina Public Press and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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