Trump Promises Full Federal Recognition For Lumbee Tribe

By Jeff More
Carolina Journal

Campaigning in Wilmington Saturday, former President Donald Trump pronounced this weekend that, if awarded a second term, he would work to award full federal recognition to the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina.

“[T]oday I’m officially announcing that, if I am elected in November, I will sign legislation granting the great Lumbee Tribe federal recognition that it deserves,” asserted Trump in from the rally stage in Wilmington.

The Lumbee, a Native American tribe given partial recognition by the federal government in 1956, do not share the full federal benefits that other federally recognized tribes do. Their fight for full federal recognition has been ongoing for quite some time, extending back to the 1880s.

Focused in Pembroke, Robeson County area, the current self-identified Lumbee population is approximately 63,000 enrolled members. The group has become a notable voting bloc in North Carolina in recent election cycles as political leanings shifted from their historical support of Democrats, to Republicans.

In January 2022, the Republican National Committee (RNC) opened the first of several community outreach centers in Pembroke, and the only to target Native American outreach.

“When we talked about where in North Carolina do you wanna start a strategic office, where do you want to start with a community office, Robeson County was very natural and it was the first place that we thought,” then-NCGOP chairman, and current RNC chair Michael Whatley said at the opening of the community center in 2022. “When you think of this county, the tri-racial make up of it, a third being Native American, a third of them being black, a third being white, this is just an absolute perfect place.”

A quick glance at recent election results indicate the overtures are working. Going back to 2012, less than 10 years before the opening of that community center, shows the heart of Lumbee country in firmly Democratic control. That election cycle, former President Barack Obama carried Robeson County by nearly 18 points.

However, it would be the last Robeson win for a Democrat presidential candidate since then.

In 2016, Robeson County flipped red, going for Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton, 50.82% to 46.5%, respectively.

In 2020, as Trump’s margin of victory statewide in North Carolina shrunk to about 1.3%, Robeson County margins were swelling for the Republican incumbent — about 59%, compared to 40.3% for Democratic nominee Vice President Joe Biden.

Finally, in the last midterm election, just about 10 months from the opening of the Pembroke community center, Robeson County went big again for Republicans in the top ballot race for US Senate. Republican nominee Ted Budd, facing Democrat Cherie Beasley, garnered more than 58% of the Robeson County vote, compared to Beasley’s 39.7%.

While an obscure issue to most voters, Trump’s proclamation regarding full federal recognition for the Lumbee Tribe makes sense within this recent political context.

“I’m glad President Trump supports full federal recognition for the Lumbee people,” Rep. Jarrod Lowery, R-Robeson, a Lumbee and former member of the Lumbee Tribal Council, told Carolina Journal over the phone. “He understands that ending the nearly 70 year termination policy that Congress put on the Lumbee Tribe will finally conclude the 130 year journey for justice that has been sought by the Lumbee people. Full federal recognition is about fairness and increased economic opportunities that will be a huge economic impact for southeastern North Carolina.”

The benefits are part of what make such recognition a politically contested issue, as full federal recognition would presumably enable fuller access to the resources of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and Indian Health System (IHS).

Those resources are ultimately finite, and the competition is fierce. Aside from general opposition to higher federal spending, opposition to Lumbee recognition tends to emanate from Native American Tribes that already enjoy the benefits of full recognition, and aren’t interested in diluting the federal government funds even further.

Another point of interest and intrigue is that of casinos, as a fully federally recognized Lumbee Tribe may be afforded a path to a local casino infrastructure similar to that of the Catawba Tribe in King’s Mountain and the Eastern Band of Cherokee in western North Carolina.

Robeson County was previously included as a potential location for a casino within the ultimately unsuccessful schemes last year to green-light multiple casinos in rural counties around the state. The proposed budget language, then reported by WRAL as a “rural tourism incentive program,” outlined a $1.5 billion state investment and creation of three of privately run casinos, plus a fourth potentially run by the Lumbee Tribe in eastern North Carolina.

Whether the decades-long inertia against Lumbee recognition is sustained is now an open question. Just like Newton’s law demands, a greater and opposite political force is required to reverse its direction, and, based on this weekend’s comments, a second Trump administration could be the strongest they could ask for.

Jeff Moore is Carolina Journal’s deputy editor. Moore has worked extensively in conservative politics, policy, and media in North Carolina, including most recently as the North Carolina Republican Party’s communications director.