Congress Just Granted the Lumbee Tribe Federal Recognition

The Senate granted the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina federal recognition on Wednesday.

Dozens of members of the tribe, which has been pushing for recognition for more than a century, watched from the Senate gallery as the chamber passed the National Defense Authorization Act, which included the measure, by a vote of 77-20. The House passed the legislation last week, so it will now head to the president’s desk for his signature.

The provision was supported by President Donald Trump, who signed an executive order to advance the tribe’s recognition in January. Sen. Thom Tillis said passing it is the most memorable part of his Senate career.

“We’re literally repealing law that was passed by racist members of this institution in 1958 that made it impossible for [the Lumbee] to get recognized through the administration,” Tillis, who is retiring next year, told NOTUS. “We’re going further by saying they are federally recognized, and they deserve it, and God bless them for being so patient. I would not have been.”

The Lumbee Fairness Act is buried more than 3,000 pages deep in the NDAA for fiscal year 2026. The provision federally recognizes the 55,000-member tribe — which previously only had state-level recognition — and provides the path for Lumbee tribal members to access federal benefits for Native Americans. It also designates several counties in North Carolina as being on or near an Indian reservation: Robeson, Cumberland, Hoke and Scotland.

“There’s been a lot of people who’ve worked on this, and we’re just striving to this point and wanting to see this take place, and I’m just overwhelmed. I’m full of joy. Our people are happy, a lot of tears right now, and we’re thrilled,” John L. Lowery, the chair of the Lumbee Tribe, told NOTUS.

“I just want to thank everybody who’s helped us get here — Sen. Tillis, many others. And I want to thank our ancestors. Our ancestors started this. They saw a vision a long time ago. Thank God we’ve been able to see it fulfilled,” he added.

Sounds of sniffling filled the hallways outside the Senate chamber as Tillis led members of the tribe down the stairs from the gallery after the vote. Some members were crying, some shared hugs.

Tillis has been at the forefront of efforts to get the tribe recognized through congressional action over the past two years, including sponsoring a standalone Senate bill and trying to block Mississippi judicial nominees in an effort to persuade Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker to put the tribe’s recognition in the NDAA.

Trump and his administration have been enthusiastic about recognizing the Lumbee Tribe. Vice President JD Vance joined as a co-sponsor of Tillis’ bill to recognize the tribe in September 2024. While Trump had signed a related executive order, the tribe couldn’t be recognized by an executive order alone, but it could be through an act of Congress.

“I love the Lumbee tribe,” Trump said before signing the executive order. “This is their first big step, right? They were with me all the way. They were great, North Carolina.”

The tribe resides in one of the swingiest states in the nation, which Trump won in the 2024 election by about three percentage points. North Carolina’s other senator, Sen. Ted Budd, has worked with Tillis on legislation to get the tribe recognized.

“I’m very, very pleased at the result,” Budd told NOTUS.

On the 2024 campaign trail, Trump traveled to Robeson County and pledged his support to the Lumbee’s recognition.

“I heard that, and I pursued that, and the president is fulfilling his promise when he signs this into law tomorrow afternoon,” Tillis said. “We’ve had a lot of people go down there. We had Biden go down there. We had people in the Obama administration go down. When they were controlling all of Washington, they didn’t deliver. This president is the reason why we were able to get the environment to get this done.”

Tillis said that the White House counsel, along with the director of legislative affairs, James Braid, was influential in getting the legislation across the finish line.

“We’ve had dust-ups from time to time, but we were all moving like a well-oiled machine,” Tillis said. “It’s been decades that [the Lumbee have] been trying to do it here, let alone a century that they’ve attempted it before they got the ear of some members of Congress.”

Though Tillis is close with the tribe now, and often wears a bolo tie to Senate votes that members of the tribe made and gifted to him, he was not always supportive of the tribe’s recognition, he said.

“I was, I think, the first member of the Senate in modern times that refused to co-sponsor the Lumbee recognition bill in my first Congress because … I’ve got to be convinced you’ve got a case before I’m willing to do it,” Tillis said. “I spent the time, I understood what they were going through — embarrassed that I didn’t really know that history well — and then committed to them.”