Democrats talk a lot about helping minorities, but it’s been clear for decades that their words are hollow – they care about minority votes, not the voters themselves or their communities. Democrats continue to shamelessly pander to these constituencies while delivering damaging results, with blacks, Latinos and even Native Americans now voting Republican — and for Trump — in record numbers.
According to exit polls65 percent of Native Americans voted for Trump in 2024, a higher percentage than whites, blacks, Hispanics/Latinos or Asians, and Robeson County, North Carolina, home of the Lumbee Tribe, is a perfect example of this trend. With 60,000 members, the Lumbee are the largest Indian tribe on the East Coast. Robeson County voted for the Democrats in the presidential elections until 1972when they voted for Nixon, then voted again for the Democrats, until in 2016 they voted by a narrow majority – 50.82 percent – for Donald Trump. In 2020, Trump led the county with 57 percent of the vote, and in 2024, that percentage increased to 63.4 percent.
Native Americans and Lumbees vote Republican for many of the same reasons that other minorities are moving away from the Democratic Party, but they also have a few unique reasons related to tribal sovereignty and the wealth-limiting regulations of the federal bureaucracy, which disproportionately affect them are.
So, why Are You voted for that bigoted racist Donald Trump?
“It’s the economy, stupid” resonates more with Native Americans than any other minority group. Bidenomics has exacerbated the already dire economic situation in Native American communities (whether or not they are on a reservation). Overall, more than 25% of Native Americans live below the poverty lineand in Native American communities, unemployment rates are significantly higher than the national average. If you add inflation of nine percent, the fight for survival seems insurmountable.
And where does some of this money go? To feed, clothe, house and transport illegal immigrants while Native Americans continue to suffer and these illegal immigrants become competition for insufficient jobs.
This is a massive problem for members of the Lumbee tribe. Robeson County is located on I-95, on the border with South Carolina. NAFTA decimated the county and region’s economy as manufacturing plants (mainly textiles) left the country; according to the local newspaper, Robeson County was among the hardest hit in the country. Although the Lumbee Nation is headquartered in Robeson, its members are spread across a four-county area, including Scotland, Hoke and Cumberland counties, which have also been hit challenging by manufacturing job losses.
In addition, federal bureaucracies controlled by Democrats have ignored tribal sovereignty and served as obstacles to tribes seeking to improve their economic status by exploiting industries that Democrats do not like – such as oil/gas development, mining, short-term loans, and even alcohol distill.
According to a 2014 study by the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC), about 20 percent of the country’s oil and gas reserves and 30 percent of its coal reserves are on tribal lands, but “about 86 percent of indigenous lands contain energy and mineral resources.” . Potential remains untapped and only 3% of domestic oil production comes from tribal areas.”
Citing environmental and health concerns for tribal citizens, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department routinely deny tribes the ability to develop or drill or mine these lands. This argument does not hold water among tribal leaders. Conrad Stewart, director of energy and water for the Crow Nation of Montana, said Fox News Digital:
“What I don’t understand is why they’re bringing in foreign oil and gas reserves from somewhere else that has regulations that we wouldn’t support here in the United States. Then they turn around and point the finger at Native Americans and say, ‘Their resources are too dirty.'”
Progressives do this because if Native Americans can be completely economically self-sufficient through the exploitation of the natural resources on their land, they won’t have to seek permission from federal authorities every time. The Crow Nation would be particularly rich if it could devote itself entirely to coal mining:
The Crow Nation’s coal and resource assets are worth an estimated $27 billion, likely making it one of the largest coal owners in the world, according to PERC. Still, the tribe’s unemployment rate is well above the national average and the annual return on coal is less than 1%.
Federal recognition has helped members of many tribes across the country, but the Lumbee Tribe was denied full recognition for years. They have been partially recognized since the 1950s, but larger tribes have fought against inclusion of the Lumbees and other tribes in a battle for scarce resources. But when President-elect Trump held a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina a few months ago, he promised to sign a bill giving the tribe full recognition, saying:
“[T]“Today I am officially announcing that if elected in November, I will sign legislation giving the great Lumbee Tribe the federal recognition it deserves.”
Given the dire economic situation in southeastern North Carolina, this is a massive deal for Lumbees, said North Carolina Rep. Jarrod Lowery (R-Lumberton). Carolina Journal:
“He recognizes that ending the nearly 70-year termination policy that Congress has imposed on the Lumbee Tribe will finally complete the 130-year journey for justice that the Lumbee people have sought. Full federal recognition is about fairness and greater economic opportunity that will have a tremendous economic impact on southeastern North Carolina.”
About a month later, Bill Clinton met with John Lowery, chairman of the Lumbee Tribe, and then Kamala Harris called Lowery to announce Democratic support for federal recognition, likely through Senator Thom Tillis’ (R-NC) introduced Lumbee Fairness Act. in 2023:
The bill extends federal recognition to the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina and allows its citizens to receive the services and benefits of other federally recognized tribes.
“The legislation will undo the injustice of the Lumbee Act, which President Dwight Eisenhower signed into law in 1956,” said a statement released to the Robesonian on Friday.
With the first legislation, the United States Congress simultaneously recognized the Lumbee as an Indian nation and denied services and benefits to the Lumbee because of their Indian status.
After the meeting, Lowery expressed gratitude for bipartisan support but said the Lumbee people “cannot be viewed as pawns on the path to the White House.”
Despite the great results for Republicans, and even though the RNC has had a community center in Lumberton since 2022 (one of the few community centers not closed by failed former RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel), Robeson County still saw much lower voter turnout than that Rest of North Carolina in the 2024 elections.
Many eyes were on Robeson County this election. Takeaways:
– Support for Trump has increased.
– The voter turnout was low. Very low.
– Lumbees are tired of being political pawns. #ncpol https://t.co/6TpUovoko1– sarahnagem (@sarahnagem_) November 6, 2024
If Republicans want to keep this territory and build on these gains, they must advocate for Native Americans in Congress and in the local community.
