HUNT004. Hunt, Cynthia L. “Looking back while walking forward” (column). Carolina Indian Voice 7 September 2000: Page 5.

Publication type: Newspaper article

Hunt, a paralegal who works with the Indian Law Unit at Lumbee River Legal Services (LRLS), is a coauthor of the Lumbee petition. This installment of her column begins a series on the topic of federal recognition.

Hunt first defines federal recognition, noting that it is the process of determining whether the federal government should establish a govenment-to-government relationship with a tribe's government, not the process of determining whether a tribe is Indian. She briefly describes the ways in which tribes have become federally recognized in the past, then outlines the current, preferred Federal Acknowledgement Process (FAP), administered by the Branch of Acknowledgement and Research (BAR) in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. This process requires submission of petition, which the BAR must study to see if it meets the seven mandatory criteria.

Finally, Hunt gives an overview of the creation and functions of the Indian Law Unit at LRLS. Established in 1979, it represents the Lumbee, Coharie, Haliwa-Saponi, and Waccamaw-Siouan as they try to obtain federal recognition.

Additional Subjects: Lumbee River Legal Services, Indian Law Unit | Federal acknowledgement process

This annotation was written on: June 22, 2001; last edited on June 17, 2002.

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