Lynn Paulk examines pottery at the Lumbee Homecoming in 2019. Paulk hails from Pembroke and attends Lumbee Homecoming events annually. He also collects American Indian artifacts and items. Around his neck is a turtle claw and on his wrist is a bracelet made of horse hair.
Jessica Horne | The Robesonian
Earlier this month, tribal chairman advocated in person with Congressional lawmakers
PEMBROKE – Another year has unraveled.
In this case, another year of unfulfilled hope for members of the Lumbee Indian Tribe of North Carolina to receive full federal recognition and the benefits that come with it.
With a sense of deja vu, the Lumbee Fairness Act sits in the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Indian Affairs.
Earlier this month, the tribe said on Facebook, Lumbee Tribal Chairman John Lowery visited Washington, D.C., where he had the opportunity to meet and advocate with Congressional lawmakers for full federal recognition for his tribe as well as NAHASDA reauthorization.
“Chairman Lowery had very successful visits with senators and representatives on Capitol Hill,” the tribe reported online.
If enacted, online sources state, NAHASDA allows tribes to create their own Indian Housing Plan where they can prioritize senior-assisted housing, rental assistance or homeownership.
North Carolina House of Representative Jarrod Lowery is the brother of John Lowery and an enrolled member of the tribe. He has said full federal recognition for the tribe is his brother’s top priority.
“They’re hoping to see some movement over the next few months,” Jarrod Lowery said in late September.
However, no action has been taken on the Lumbee Fairness Act since February when it was first introduced in the U.S. Senate before being referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs.
It remains in limbo.
It was Jarrod Lowery who introduced House Resolution 499, or the renamed Support Lumbee Fairness Act, in April in the N.C. General Assembly. The bill passed the state House with unanimous voice vote, he said.
“We were trying to build support for that resolution,” he said in September. “I’d say it’s really a fairness issue, especially when you explain that the Lumbee are in a unique box. Only Congress can fix the situation.”
The more than 60,000 North Carolina members of the Lumbee Tribe have waited decades for full federal recognition and the array of federal services and resources that come with that designation.
The Lumbee Tribe is presently the largest Native American tribe in the state of North Carolina.
Earlier this year, some tribal leaders expressed a sense that the current political climate in Washington, D.C., may be the closest they have gotten to receiving full recognition and benefits. But the Lumbee Fairness Act – which would make its tribal members eligible for the services and benefits provided to members of federally recognized tribes – thus far appears to have once again stagnated in Congressional committee.
If passed, the Indian Fairness Act would extend full federal recognition to the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. Those members of the tribe residing in the state’s counties of Robeson, Cumberland, Hoke and Scotland would fall into the delivery area for such services.
Among other requirements, the bill calls for the Department of the Interior and the Department of Health and Human Services to develop, in consultation with the tribe, a determination of needs to provide the services for which members would be eligible.
Sponsors U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Ted Budd (R-NC) introduced the bill on February 16, 2023. At the time, it was read twice before being referred to the committee. And there – in what again seems to be unfair fashion from the Lumbee perspective – the Lumbee Fairness Act sits, 10 months later.
The bill, or a variation on the act, has not been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Full federal recognition would equip the tribe with more benefits and resources to help its tribal members, Lumbee leaders say. These would include health services, the Bureau of Indian Affairs funding, economic development which covers natural resources and conservation-type causes. Putting land in trusts would fall under the recognition, too. There also are a number of programs across different departments within the federal government for fully recognized tribes.
“I think eventually we’ll get there,” N.C. Rep. Jarrod Lowery said three months ago.
Following the holidays, both houses of the Congress are scheduled to reconvene for their next session on January 2.
In 1956, Congress passed the Lumbee Act that recognized the tribe as Native Americans but denied them the services and benefits provided to members of federally recognized tribes.