OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — As Kamala Harris and Donald Trump campaigned in North Carolina, both candidates there promoted a federally recognized tribe whose 55,000 members may have helped flip the swing state.
Trump promised in September that he would sign legislation to grant the Lumbee Tribe federal recognition, a designation that would allow access to federal funds. He ultimately won North Carolina by more than three percentage points, due in part to continued support from Lumbee voters.
Now, as Trump prepares to return to the White House in January, his promise will be tested. He has Republican allies in Congress on the issue, and now the Lumbee and tribal nations across the country are watching closely to see what comes next.
Tribal nations typically obtain federal recognition through an application to the Interior Department, but the Lumbee have tried for many years to circumvent that process by appealing to Congress. Chairman John Lowery called the Interior Department’s application process “flawed” and overly lengthy and said it must be up to Congress to right what he called a historic wrong.
“It’s just crazy that we’re sitting here having this fight and I have to tell you I’m real in 2024,” Lowery said.
After the presidential election, the Lumbee hope their cause will gain momentum, but they face deep-rooted opposition from tribal communities across the country.
There are questions about Trump’s next move
Several tribes, including the only one federally recognized in North Carolina, argue that if the Lumbee Tribe wants federal recognition, it should go through the formal process at the Department of the Interior. A person familiar with Trump’s thinking said the president-elect will ask the Lumbee Tribe to do just that, and he won’t sign a Lumbee recognition bill. The person requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about Trump’s views.
Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said: “No policy should be considered official unless it comes directly from President Trump.”
Federal recognition is extremely significant because it comes with access to resources such as health care through Indian Health Services and the ability to create a land base such as reservations through the land-to-trust process. But before that happens, a tribal nation must submit a successful application to the Office of Federal Acknowledgment, a division of the Interior Department.
The Lumbee Tribe applied for federal recognition, but that application was denied in 1985 because “the group’s descent could not be established culturally, politically, or genealogically from any tribe that historically existed in the region.”
In 2016, the Interior Department reversed a decision that barred the Lumbee Tribe from reapplying, but the Lumbee have chosen the congressional route.
Obtaining federal recognition through legislation is a infrequent but not uncommon route. But the Lumbee’s approach has sparked a simmering debate in both Indian Country and Congress about indigenous identity and tribal nationality.
The Lumbee received support from members of both parties
Members of Congress from both parties have supported recognizing the Lumbee through legislation, including Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, a member of the Cherokee Nation who campaigned for Trump in North Carolina and supported the legislation.
But perhaps the federally recognized tribe’s most ardent ally in Congress is North Carolina Republican Senator Thom Tillis, who is up for re-election in 2026.
Tillis introduced the Lumbee Fairness Act last year and has been a vocal supporter of the Lumbee. In interviews with The Associated Press, several tribal leaders, lobbyists and advocates said they had been informed by Tillis directly or through his staff that the senator is currently blocking certain bills supported by tribal nations and will continue to do so unless the leaders of these tribes support this Lumbee.
One of the bills he has vowed to block, according to AP respondents, is a land transfer that would allow the Tennessee Valley Authority to return 70 acres of land to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the only federally recognized tribal nation in Tilli’s state. This would allow the tribe to place the land in trust in Monroe County, Tennessee. The property is part of the tribal nation’s homeland and contains the birthplace of Sequoyah.
“It’s horrible for me. It’s a disgrace,” said Michell Hicks, chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. He said Tillis told him earlier this year that he would stop any legislation dealing with the Eastern Band unless Hicks pledged his support.
Hicks is among the tribal leaders who question the validity of the Lumbee’s historical claims, and he said there is no question. About a century ago, the Lumbee were once known as the Cherokee Indians of Robeson County, and for many years all three Cherokee tribes – the Eastern Band, the Cherokee Nation and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians – have denounced this and been vocal opponents granting federal recognition to Lumbee.
Representatives for Tillis declined to comment.
Tillis last week held up a bill that would have allowed preservation of the site of the Wounded Knee massacre. In doing so, he blamed the chiefs of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, who had supported the preservation measure, for not supporting his efforts to obtain federal recognition of the Lumbee.
“This is not about you,” Tillis said to the two tribes, which he said had been trying to preserve the site of the massacre for a century. “But you must know that your leadership is playing a game that will ultimately force me to take a position.”
Tillis suspected that it was a “casino cartel,” run in part by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and an Osage lawyer working for the tribe named Wilson Pipestem, that was trying to prevent recognition of the Lumbee, which could one day lead to the Lumbee opening their own casinos. Tillis threatened to continue publicly naming tribal leaders and their staff who he said were standing in the way of his bill.
In a statement to the AP, Pipestem said Tillis should “apologize to tribal leaders for his false accusations and unscrupulous tactics.”
Lowery acknowledged that Tillis stopped both laws, but said Tillis did not do so at the Lumbee’s direction.
“If he’s holding up the bill, it’s because he reached out to tribal leaders to see how they felt about his bill, and they apparently told him they didn’t support it,” Lowery said. “So he said, ‘Well, if you can’t support my bill, I can’t support your bill.'”
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Graham Lee Brewer is an Oklahoma City-based member of the AP Race and Ethnicity team.
