This is encouraging: We’re seeing more stars align for the Lumbee tribe’s recognition efforts this year than we’ve ever seen in the past.
The latest development came as Gov. Roy Cooper visited Robeson County last week to speak at the tribe’s second annual Lumbee Nation Economic Summit at UNC-Pembroke. Cooper said he is pushing the federal government to move ahead with full recognition, more than 60 years after Congress granted tribal status but cruelly withheld the financial benefits that should accompany it.
Cooper brought up a point that’s new to the list of reasons why the recognition makes sense: If the tribe had full recognition, the federal response to the disastrous flooding from Hurricane Matthew would have been better “and funding would have been greater had the Lumbee tribe had the recognition they have deserved, that you have deserved, all along.”
Federal agencies provide disaster aid for recognized tribes and the Bureau of Indian Affairs can add money for infrastructure work.
Cooper is joining the recognition fray on the heels of Sen. Richard Burr and Rep. Robert Pittenger, both N.C. Republicans, filing similar bills that would grant the tribe full recognition and benefits. The legislation was filed earier this month. Pittenger said he and Burr seek to correct a “century-old wrong. The Lumbee tribe deserves the same recognition and benefits as other federally recognized tribes,” he said. This is about fairness and providing equal opportunities to encourage economic growth.
Late last year, the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs, reversed a longstanding ruling that the Lumbees couldn’t take an alternative path to recognition by petitioning the department for it. A solicitor in the department upended that stand, saying the original 1956 recognition act doesn’t prevent the tribe from applying for benefits. That could be a watershed moment if the department continues to maintain that view in the Trump administration.
Full federal recognition would bring additional millions of dollars a year to the tribe, which is headquartered in Robeson County. The potential for economic development is huge and it could lift county residents out of the deep poverty — among the worst in the state — that has long plagued Robeson County.
Federal funding would become available for job creation, housing, education and a host of other areas if the tribe gains recognition, whether through petition to the Interior Department or by congressional decree.
In past years, internal tribal politics has sometimes worked to sabotage recognition efforts. And so has inter-tribal politics as other recognized tribes have pushed hard to prevent Lumbee recognition, fearing the dilution of available federal funding.
We’re ever mindful of the possibility that even more things could go wrong in what has been a snakebitten quest.
But for now, we’re going to be optimistic. We’ve never seen so many forces lining up for recognition. Maybe, just maybe, this could be the year.
— GateHouse Media