By GRAHAM LEE BREWER and ALLEN G. BREED Associated Press
PEMBROKE, N.C. (AP) — Members of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina are awaiting the release of a Department of the Interior report that, as soon as this week, could light a path for federal recognition as a tribal nation.
In January, President Donald Trump issued a memo directing the department to create a plan to “assist the Lumbee Tribe in obtaining full Federal recognition through legislation or other available mechanisms, including the right to receive full Federal benefits.” The memo required the plan to be created within 90 days, a deadline that comes Wednesday.
The Lumbee are a state-recognized tribe that has been seeking federal acknowledgment, a distinction that 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, for several decades. Both Trump and his opponent in the 2024 presidential election, former-Vice President Kamala Harris, promised the Lumbee federal recognition as the candidates were courting voters in the important swing state of North Carolina. Lumbee voters helped deliver that state to Trump.
Since the 1980s, the Lumbee have had a difficult time convincing the federal government, members of Congress and some federally-recognized tribes that their claims to Native ancestry are legitimate. Tribal nations can be recognized either through an application process vetted by the Office of Federal Acknowledgement or through legislation passed by Congress.
In 2016, the Office of the Solicitor at the DOI reversed a decision barring the Lumbee Tribe from seeking federal recognition through the application process, however, the Lumbee have opted instead to gain acknowledgment through an act of Congress, where they have some support. Several tribal nations, like the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the only federally-recognized tribe in North Carolina, have opposed the Lumbee’s efforts, citing discrepancies in their historical claims.
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Brewer reported in Norman, Oklahoma.