OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — When Kamala Harris and Donald Trump campaigned in North Carolina, both candidates courted a state-recognized tribe there whose 55,000 members could have helped tip the swing state.
Trump in September promised that he would sign legislation to grant federal recognition to the Lumbee Tribe, a distinction that would unlock access to federal funds. He ultimately won North Carolina by more than 3 percentage points, in part due to continued support from Lumbee voters.
Now, as Trump prepares to return to the White House in January, the promise will be put to the test. He has Republican allies in Congress on the issue, and now the Lumbee, as well as tribal nations across the country, are watching closely to see what comes next.
Tribal nations typically receive federal recognition through an application with the Department of the Interior, but the Lumbee have been trying for many years to circumvent that process by going through Congress. Chairman John Lowery called Interior’s application process “flawed” and overly lengthy and said it should be up to Congress to right what he calls a historic wrong.
“It’s just crazy that we’re sitting here fighting this battle, and I have to tell you that I am real in 2024,” Lowery said.
Following the presidential election, the Lumbee hope there will be momentum behind their cause, but they face deep-rooted opposition from tribal nations across the country.
Several tribes, including the only one that is federally recognized in North Carolina, argue that if the Lumbee Tribe wants federal acknowledgment, it should go through the formal process in the Department of the Interior. One person familiar with Trump's thinking said the president-elect will require 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 publicly speak about Trump's views.
Trump's spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, said "no policy should be deemed official unless it comes directly from President Trump.”
Federal recognition is of enormous importance, as it comes with access to resources like 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 has to file a successful application with the Office of Federal Acknowledgement, a department within the Interior.
The Lumbee Tribe was denied the ability to apply for federal recognition in 1987, based on the interpretation of a 1956 congressional act that acknowledged the Lumbee but stopped short of granting them federal recognition.
In 2016, the Interior reversed that decision, allowing the Lumbee Tribe to apply, but the Lumbee have opted for the congressional route.
The Lumbee's approach to gain recognition through legislation has stoked a simmering debate in both Indian Country and Congress about Indigenous identity and tribal nationhood.
Members of Congress from both parties have supported recognizing the Lumbee through legislation, including Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a member of the Cherokee Nation who campaigned for Trump in North Carolina and backed the legislation.
But perhaps the state-recognized tribe’s most ardent ally in Congress is North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who is up for reelection 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 were told by Tillis directly or by his staff that the senator is currently and will continue to block certain bills backed by tribal nations unless the leaders of those tribes support the Lumbee.
One of the bills he's promised to block, according to those interviewed by the AP, 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 Tillis’s state. It would allow the tribe to put the land in Monroe County, Tennessee into trust. The plot is part of the tribal nation’s homelands and contains the birthplace of Sequoyah.
“It’s appalling to me. It’s disgraceful,” Principal Chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Michell Hicks said. He said that 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 that is out of the question. At one point about a century ago, the Lumbee were known as the Cherokee Indians of Robeson County, and for many years now 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 of granting the Lumbee federal recognition.
Representatives for Tillis declined to comment.
Tillis held up legislation last week that would have allowed for the preservation of the site of the Wounded Knee massacre. While doing so, he singled out the heads of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, who have backed the preservation measure, for not supporting his efforts to federally recognize the Lumbee.
“This is not about you,” Tillis said to the two tribal nations, who he acknowledged had been trying for a century to preserve the site of the massacre. “But you need to know that your leadership is playing a game that will ultimately force me to take a position.”
Tillis suggested it was a “casino cartel” in part driven by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and an Osage attorney named Wilson Pipestem working for the tribe, that is trying to keep the Lumbee from gaining recognition, which could one day lead to the Lumbee opening their own casinos. Tillis threatened to continue publicly naming tribal leaders and their employees who he felt were standing in the way of his bill.
In a statement to the AP, Pipestem said Tillis should “apologize to the Tribal leaders for his false allegations and unscrupulous tactics.”
Lowery acknowledged that Tillis has held up both pieces of legislation, but he said that Tillis has not done so at the direction of the Lumbee.
“If he’s put a hold on the bill it’s because he reached out to tribal leaders to see where they stand on his bill, and they apparently have told him that they’re not in support,” Lowery said. “So, he said ‘well, if you can’t be supportive of my bill, I can’t be supportive of your bill.’”
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A previous version of this story stated the Lumbee Tribe was denied federal recognition in 1985. The story was corrected to state that the Lumbee Tribe was denied the ability to apply for federal recognition in 1987.
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Graham Lee Brewer is an Oklahoma City-based member of the AP’s Race and Ethnicity team.