Category: 17.5. Efforts to obtain true federal acknowledgment

HR2022-2007. 110th Congress. 1st Session. "To provide for the consideration of a petition for Federal Recognition of the Lumbee Indians of Robeson and adjoining counties, and for other purposes." Introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on April 24, 2007.

Publication type: Federal bill

Full text: Available at http://www.thomas.gov Search: Lumbee

This bill was introduced by Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) for himself, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), and Rep. Dan [David Daniel] Boren (R-OK).

Major provisions of the bill:
• The language of the 1956 Lumbee Act does not bar the Secretary of the Interior from considering the Lumbee Petition;

• The language of the 1956 Lumbee Act does not bar the Secretary of the Interior from considering petitions from other groups in Robeson or any other county in North Carolina;

• The Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs shall issue a proposed finding on the Lumbee Petition no later than 18 months after the Lumbee Tribe has fully responded to the notice of obvious deficiencies [issued by the Interior Department] regarding the Lumbee Petition of December 17, 1987, and its supplements.

[Note: It is not known whether the Interior Department has completed a full obvious deficiencies review. At the Sept. 26, 1989 hearing on H.R. 2335, an earlier Lumbee recognition bill, Patrick Hayes, acting deputy to the Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, testified that the Interior Department had completed the genealogical and historical portions of the obvious deficiency review (see page 26 of the published hearing)—GESS]

• The number of tribal members on the membership roll included with the Lumbee Petition shall not be taken into account in considering the petition, except that the Assistant Secretary can review the eligibility of those listed on the membership roll in accordance with the guidelines for federal recognition (search for: 25CFR83) listed in the Code of Federal Regulations.

• If the Assistant Secretary does not issue a proposed finding within 18 months, as described above, the Lumbee Tribe may treat this lack of response as refusal to recognize the tribe. The Lumbee Tribe may then ask a Federal district court to determine whether the tribe should be recognized in accordance with the mandatory criteria published in 25 CFR 83.7.

• If the Assistant Secretary publishes a decision refusing to recognize the Lumbee Tribe, the tribe may, no later than one year after the issuance of the decision, ask a Federal district court to review the decision.

Copyright © 2002-2007, Glenn Ellen Starr Stilling. All rights reserved.