Lumbee Recognition Act

Floor Speech

LUMBEE RECOGNITION ACT -- (House of Representatives - June 07, 2007)

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Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 65, a bill which extends Federal recognition to the Lumbee tribe of North Carolina. This bipartisan legislation, which has more than 215 cosponsors, including Natural Resources Committee Chairman RAHALL and Ranking Member YOUNG, corrects a 50-year injustice and gives long overdue Federal recognition to one of the oldest Indian tribes in the United States.

Mr. Speaker, the Lumbee tribe has made repeated requests to Congress for recognition since 1888, and the voluminous record compiled by Congress shows that Federal recognition has been unfairly delayed. H.R. 65 simply provides equal treatment to the Lumbee tribe by correcting a half-measure adopted by Congress in 1956 regarding the tribe. The 1956 half-measure acknowledged the Lumbees as Indians but cut off the tribe from the Federal statutes that apply to federally recognized tribes. This injustice was done at the height of Indian Federal termination policy.

Every other tribe subjected by Congress to such a half-measure has since been fully recognized by a special act of Congress. H.R. 65 would do the same thing for the Lumbee tribe. Thus, H.R. 65 is a long overdue act of justice that treats the Lumbee tribe just like every other tribe in its position.

There is no question that the Lumbee Indians constitute an Indian tribe. The State of North Carolina has consistently recognized the tribe since 1885 under a series of State statutes using different names to refer to the tribe. In 1952, the tribe held a referendum to decide upon its own name under State law and adopted the name Lumbee, drawn from the name of river where the tribe was found at the time of first White contact in the 1730s. North Carolina amended its law to recognize the tribe under the name Lumbee in 1953, and the same bill was introduced in Congress to obtain Federal recognition under the same name. Before the Federal bill was enacted, though, Congress amended the bill to include termination language. As a result, Congress recognized and terminated the tribe at the same time in 1956. Because of the 1956 half-measure, the Solicitor General has ruled that the Lumbee tribe is not eligible for the tribal recognition process administered by the Department of the Interior.

Mr. Speaker, in any case, there is no need to study the tribe's history; the Department of the Interior has already done so 11 times in response to numerous bills to recognize the tribe and has always concluded that the Lumbees are Indian, descended principally from the aboriginal Cheraw tribe. And the Department's own records show that the modern-day Lumbees are the same Indians first recognized by the State of North Carolina in 1885.

Congress itself put the Lumbee tribe in the Indian ``No Man's Land'' with the enactment of the 1956 half-measure. In the past, Congress has done this to two other tribes: the Tiwas of Texas and the Pascua Yaqui of Arizona. In both cases, Congress rectified the injustice by enacting special statutes extending full Federal recognition to the tribes. Congress should perform a similar act of simple justice for the Lumbee tribe by enacting H.R. 65.

The recognition of an Indian tribe by the United States has always ultimately been congressional responsibility. Even though the Department of the Interior established an administrative process for recognition of tribes in 1978, over the past 30 years Congress has recognized nine tribes by special legislation where there were special circumstances. Insofar as the Lumbee tribe is concerned, the 1956 half-measure represents a special circumstance. H.R. 65 is long-overdue legislative remedy for the injustice inflicted on the Lumbee tribe 50 years ago by Congress.

For these reasons, I support H.R. 65 and urge my colleagues to join me in voting for this remedial legislation.

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