Editorial: Lumbee Tribe is long overdue for full federal recognition

Wednesday, January 5, 2011  

"The history of the Lumbee Indian tribe's journey to gain full federal recognition — a journey that began more than a century ago — is a chronicle of disappointment and frustration. Another chapter was added when the lame-duck Congress adjourned for the holidays without the Senate taking up the bill.

Introduced last year by Democratic Rep. Mike McIntyre of Lumberton, the bill passed the House, acknowledging the Lumbee tribe as descendants of the Cheraw tribe. The bill included a clause prohibiting the Lumbee from operating casinos. It was submitted in the Senate this year by North Carolina's two senators, Republican Richard Burr and Democrat Kay Hagan.

The no-gaming provision, a compromise to deal with concerns about competition by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, might have worked had the Lumbee not hired a Nevada-based gaming consultant, Lewin International, to lobby Congress for recognition. The contract was terminated, but observers said it damaged the tribe's credibility, even though the tribe insisted the arrangement had nothing to do with gaming.

The no-gaming clause was not the first time the Lumbee compromised in an attempt to achieve recognition. In 1956, the tribe agreed to federal recognition without benefits, such as federal dollars and services. The Lumbee Act of 1956 said the Lumbee were Native Americans, but withheld designation as a tribe. They had been recognized by the state of North Carolina as an Indian tribe since 1885.

The irony of the Lumbees' fight for recognition is that in the days of peace treaties between Indian tribes and the federal government, the Lumbee were considered a tribe that lived peacefully with its non-Indian neighbors and posed no threat to the United States. The government had no reason to negotiate peace with them, and so no treaty exists. And no good deed goes unpunished, as they say."

Get the Story:
Editorial: Lumbee must finally get full federal recognition (The Winston-Salem Journal 1/5)

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