President Donald Trump’s move toward federal recognition of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina fulfills a repeated promise he made on the campaign trail, but it has sparked concern from other Native American tribes about the precedent set by the different process used in this instance.
During the first days of his second term in office, Trump signed an executive order urging the Department of the Interior to create a plan that would identify a pathway for the federal recognition of the Lumbees.
To be federally recognized, tribes must meet a specific set of criteria, including: proving their nation existed before the founding of the United States, that the tribe has been recognized as Native since 1900 or before, that the tribe has operated as an “autonomous entity” and that members have genealogies that demonstrate both Native heritage and distinct ancestry from previously recognized tribes.
The Lumbee Tribe claims to be “the amalgamation of various Siouan, Algonquian, and Iroquoian speaking tribes” and to have a recorded existence since 1725. Currently, the Lumbees boast over 55,000 members who are spread across multiple counties in their home state of North Carolina. Although they were recognized by the state over a century ago, the Lumbee Tribe has not been recognized by the United States as a sovereign tribe.
“The fact that we are still here centuries after colonial expansion, centuries after war and disease … should be celebrated,” Lumbee Chairman John L. Lowery told The Robesonian, a local newspaper. Lowery declined an interview request from NBC News but said in a statement that he looks “forward to the White House formalizing the document and sending it over to congressional leadership.”
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PENNSYLVANIA STATE – Pennsylvania, a state synonymous with American history, liberty, and religious tolerance, owes its existence to the vision of one man: William Penn. An English Quaker, Penn founded the colony of Pennsylvania in 1681, transforming a vast tract of land in the New World into a haven for religious freedom and a bold experiment in self-governance.
