HINCKLEY, Minn. — 

At summertime social powwows and spiritual ceremonies throughout the Upper Midwest, Native Americans are gathering around singers seated at big, resonant drums to dance, celebrate and connect with their ancestral culture.

"I grew up singing my entire life, and I was always taught that dewe'igan is the heartbeat of our people," said Jakob Wilson, 19, using the Ojibwe term for drum that's rooted in the words for heart and sound. "The absolute power and feeling that comes off of the drum and the singers around it is incredible."

Wilson has led the drum group at Hinckley-Finlayson High School. In 2023, Wilson's senior year, they were invited to drum and sing at graduation. But this year, when his younger sister Kaiya graduated, the school board barred them from performing at the ceremony, creating dismay across Native communities far beyond this tiny town where cornfields give way to northern Minnesota's birch and fir forests.

"It kind of shuts us down, makes us step back instead of going forward. It was hurtful," said Lesley Shabaiash. She was participating in the weekly drum and dance session at the Minneapolis American Indian Center a few weeks after attending protests in Hinckley.

"Hopefully this incident doesn't stop us from doing our spiritual things," added the mother of four, who grew up in the Twin Cities but identifies with the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, whose tribal lands abut Hinckley.

In written statements, the school district's superintendent said the decision to ban "all extracurricular groups" from the ceremony, while making other times and places for performance available, was intended to prevent disruptions and avoid "legal risk if members of the community feel the District is endorsing a religious group as part of the graduation ceremony."

But many Native families felt the ban showed how little their culture and spirituality is understood. It also brought back traumatic memories of their being forcibly suppressed, not only at boarding schools like the one the Wilsons' grandmother attended, but more generally from public spaces.

It was not until the late 1970s that the American Indian Religious Freedom Act directed government agencies to make policy changes "to protect and preserve Native American religious cultural rights and practices."

"We had our language, culture and way of life taken away," said Memegwesi Sutherland, who went to high school in Hinckley and teaches the Ojibwe language at the Minneapolis American Indian Center.

The Center's weekly drum and dance sessions help those who "may feel lost inside" without connections to ancestral ways of life find their way back, said Tony Frank, a drum instructor.

"Singing is a door opener to everything else we do," said Frank, who has been a singer for nearly three decades. "The reason we sing is from our heart. Our connection to the drum and songs is all spiritual. You give 100 percent, so the community can feel a piece of us."

In drum circles like those in Minneapolis, where many Natives are Ojibwe and Lakota, there is a lead singer, who starts each song before passing on the beat and verse to others seated at the drum, which is made of wood and animal hide (usually deer or steer).

A drum keeper or carrier cares for the drum, often revered as having its own spirit and considered like a relative and not like personal property. Keepers and singers are usually male; according to one tradition, that's because women can already connect to a second heartbeat when pregnant.

These lifelong positions are often passed down in families. Similarly, traditional lyrics or melodies are learned from older generations, while others are gifted in dreams to medicine men, several singers said. Some songs have no words, only vocables meant to convey feelings or emulate nature.

Songs and drums at the center of social events like powwows are different from those that are crucial instruments in spiritual ceremonies, for example for healing, and that often contain invocations to the Creator, said Anton Treuer, an Ojibwe language and culture professor at Bemidji State University.

Meant to mark the beginning of a new journey in life, the "traveling song" that the drum group wanted to sing at the Hinckley graduation includes the verse "when you no longer can walk, that is when I will carry you," said Jakob Wilson.

That's why it was meant for the entire graduating class of about 70 students, not only the 21 Native seniors, added Kaiya Wilson, who trained as a back-up singer – and why relegating it to just another extracurricular activity hurt so deeply.

"This isn't just for fun, this is our culture," said Tim Taggart, who works at the Meshakwad Community Center – named after a local drum carrier born in the early 20th century – and helped organize the packed powwow held in the school's parking lot after graduation. "To just be culturally accepted, right? That's all everybody wants, just to be accepted."

The school had taken good steps in recent years, like founding the Native American Student Association, and many in the broader Hinckley community turned out to support Native students. So Taggart is optimistic that after this painful setback, bridges will be rebuilt.

And the drum, with all that it signifies about community and a connected way of life, will be brought back.

"Nothing can function without that heartbeat," said Taggart, whose earliest memory of the drum is being held as a toddler at a ceremony. "It's not just hearing the drums, but you're feeling it throughout your entire body, and that just connects you more with the spirit connection, more with God."

As dancers – from toddlers to adults in traditional shawls – circled the floor to the drum's beat in the Minneapolis center's gym, Cheryl Secola, program director for its Culture Language Arts Network, said it was heartwarming to see families bring children week after week, building connections even if they might not have enough resources to travel to the reservations.

On reservations too, many youths aren't being raised in cultural ways like singing, said Isabella Stensrud-Eubanks, 16, a junior and back-up singer on the Hinckley high school drum group.

"It's sad to say, but our culture is slowly dying out," she said, adding that several elders reached out to her and the Wilsons after the graduation controversy to teach them more, so the youth can themselves one day teach their traditions.

Mark Erickson was already about 20 when he went back to Red Lake, his father's band in northern Minnesota, to learn his people's songs.

"It's taken me a lifetime to learn and speak the language, and a lifetime to learn the songs," said Erickson, who only in his late 60s was awarded the distinction of culture carrier for Anishinaabe songs, a term for Ojibwe and other Indigenous groups in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States.

Believing that songs and drums are gifts from the Creator, he has been going to drum and dance sessions at the Minneapolis Center for more than a decade to share them, and the notions of honor and respect they carry.

"When you're out there dancing, you tend to forget your day-to-day struggles and get some relief, some joy and happiness," Erickson said.

WASHINGTON — 

Tribes and students sue feds over staff cuts at BIE schools

Three Tribal Nations, along with five Native students, are suing the U.S. Interior Department and the Office of Indian Affairs over mass firings at the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) and its federally operated schools — Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) in New Mexico.

The layoffs stem from President Donald Trump’s February 11 executive order calling for broad cuts to federal staffing. Haskell lost more than a quarter of its staff, leaving courses without instructors, delaying financial aid and forcing students to clean dorms and restrooms. At SIPI, staff cuts led to 13-hour power outages, undrinkable tap water, and canceled midterm exams due to a shortage of faculty.

The lawsuit by the Native American Rights Fund representing the Pueblo of Isleta, the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes argues that the layoffs violate federal law, which requires the government to consult with tribes on educational decisions impacting Native students.

“Despite having a treaty obligation to provide educational opportunities to tribal students, the federal government has long failed to offer adequate services,” said Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes Lieutenant Governor Hershel Gorham. “Just when the [BIE] was taking steps to fix the situation, these cuts undermined all those efforts.”

Read more:

Arizona tribes fear Trump’s English-only order could undermine tribal language revitalization

The Arizona Republic newspaper this week reports that Native Americans in that state worry that President Donald Trump's executive order declaring English as the U.S. official language could undermine efforts to revive and preserve Indigenous languages.

The March 5 order emphasizes that English has been the nation's language since its founding and that having one official language will “reinforce shared national values” and “create a more cohesive and efficient society.”

The order revokes a previous executive order that aimed to provide services for people with limited English proficiency, but it does not require any changes to services currently offered in other languages. It clarifies that agencies do not need to stop providing documents or services in languages other than English.

"It is taking a stance without really any teeth behind it," said Pima County recorder Gabriella Cázares-Kelly, a citizen of the Tohono O’odham Nation. "So, it's essentially saying this is optional for people, which is not how our government operates or should operate."

Federal laws, including the Native American Languages Act, support language instruction and protection, ensuring that Native peoples can continue to practice their languages without fear of punishment.

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Tribal groups accuse CSULB of stalling on Puvungna protection

Native American tribes are calling out California State University, Long Beach for failing to honor a 2021 settlement agreement to protect Puvungna, a sacred 22-acre site on campus. Despite promising to establish a conservation easement, the university has withdrawn its Request for Proposals without explanation and has provided no updates on its plans.

Tribal leaders, including Joyce Stanfield Perry of the Juaneño Band, say this delay echoes a long history of broken promises to Indigenous communities. Adding to their frustration, debris and soil dumped on the site in 2019 remain unremoved.

Puvungna, once part of 500 acres of Indigenous territory, is sacred to the Tongva, Acjachemen and other Indigenous tribes of Southern California. Tribes successfully stopped the university from building a mini mall on the land in 1993. The legal battle began in 2019 when the university dumped 4,900 cubic meters of construction debris on the site.

Tribal groups sued, and in a 2021 settlement, the university agreed to “make a good faith effort” within two years to clean up the site and permanently maintain it.

The university issued a Request for Proposal to find stewards for Puvungna. The Friends of Puvungna, an Indigenous-led nonprofit, submitted the sole proposal in collaboration with the Trust for Public Land. The university rejected that proposal, citing concerns over conflict of interest and a lack of demonstrated experience in land stewardship.

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Conservation groups, feds, tribes and ranchers clash over latest Yellowstone bison trapping

Wildlife advocates are sounding the alarm over Yellowstone National Park’s latest roundup of wild bison, which has seen more than 300 animals captured and sent to slaughter this month. Groups like Roam Free Nation argue that the practice is cruel and unnecessary, calling for greater protections and expanded roaming territory for America’s first national mammal.

Montana ranchers oppose expanding bison populations, arguing that the animals could spread brucellosis, a disease that can cause cattle to abort. Although no documented cases of transmission from bison to cattle exist, ranchers fear that even the chance of an outbreak could trigger costly quarantines and financial losses.

But many Native American tribes have treaty rights to hunt bison on their traditional lands, even outside reservations and advocate for expanding bison habitat, reducing government-led culling, and increasing tribal management of herds. Some tribes also push for co-management agreements with federal and state agencies to ensure bison populations are sustainably restored while respecting Indigenous cultural and spiritual connections to the animal.

Craig L. Falcon, a citizen of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana, has been hunting buffalo in Yellowstone for three decades.

“Our people really depend on it,” he told VOA. “Like myself, my freezer is pretty bare right now, and there are older people, older relatives of mine, including disabled Army vets, that need that meat, and I hunt for them.”

Read more:

WASHINGTON — 

IRS staff cuts leave tribes struggling for answers

Tribal advocacy groups are expressing outrage over job cuts at the U.S. Internal Revenue Service’s Office of Indian Tribal Governments (ITG), the agency that guides federally recognized tribes on tax matters.

As Tribal Business News reports, tribal governments are tax exempt, but there are some exceptions. With fewer specialists on hand, tribes now face potential delays, less access to tax guidance and a steep learning curve as they grapple with ever-evolving tax codes.

Legal experts warn that this staffing cut weakens tribal representation within the IRS, just as recent tax code updates introduce new exemptions and credit opportunities for tribal businesses.

“Tribes will have less access,” says Telly Meier, a former ITG director, echoing widespread concern that the office is now “overwhelmed.”

Democratic Senator Michael Bennet called the decision “absurd” and warned that it benefits wealthy tax cheats at the expense of tribal nations. Meanwhile, 14 tribal advocacy groups have demanded ITG staff reinstatement, emphasizing the federal government’s legal obligation to uphold tribal treaties and trust responsibilities.

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Full Senate to consider 25 bills on tribal issues

The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, chaired by Republican Lisa Murkowski and co-chaired by Democrat Brian Schatz, this week approved 25 bills aimed at addressing key issues facing Native American communities.

The bills focus on tribal land restoration, water rights, public health, economic development and justice for Indigenous people who are missing or have been killed.

Murkowski highlighted her support for legislation enhancing tribal forest management, expanding veterinary services to combat diseases in Native villages, and creating a commission to address the lasting trauma of Indian boarding schools.

Schatz emphasized the importance of boosting Native-led tourism through the NATIVE Act to promote cultural preservation and economic growth.

Among the bills up for full Senate approval are:

S. 105, the Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial and Sacred Site Act, directs the secretary of the interior to complete all actions necessary to place 40 acres of tribally purchased land at the Wounded Knee Massacre site into restricted-fee status to be held by the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.

S. 390, the Bridging Agency Data Gaps and Ensuring Safety (BADGES) for Native Communities Act, would support the recruitment and retention of Bureau of Indian Affairs law enforcement officers, boost federal missing persons resources and give tribes and states tools to combat violence.

S. 761, a bill which would establish the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Polices to further investigate the history of Indian boarding schools and their long-term effects on Native American survivors and descendants.

See the full list of bills here:

Opinion: Returning federal lands to Native tribes a solution for better stewardship

Writing for Time magazine this week, Joe Whittle, a citizen of the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, argues that giving federal public lands back to Native American tribes could help solve ongoing challenges in land management.

He holds that the Trump administration’s firing of thousands of federal land workers will have a severe impact on the environment and the way millions of Americans enjoy public lands and devastate local economies.

As a former backcountry wilderness ranger, Whittle believes Indigenous stewardship offers a stronger, more sustainable alternative, preventing corporate privatization while ensuring the public can still enjoy these lands.

His proposal aligns with the Land Back movement, which seeks to return land to Indigenous nations and apply traditional ecological knowledge — an approach based on taking only what is needed, preserving resources for future generations and maintaining ecological balance.

Whittle also suggests that long-standing treaty violations could be addressed by returning federal lands to Native tribes, offering a path toward justice while improving land management for all.

Read more:

UC tackles scholars’ false Indigenous claims

The University of California has launched an investigation into academics falsely claiming Native American heritage after several controversial cases emerged across multiple campuses.

UCLA professor Maylei Blackwell admitted her claimed Cherokee ancestry was false after allegations prompted research revealing her mother was white. Similar cases have surfaced at UC Riverside, Irvine, Berkeley and others of the UC system’s 10 campuses.

Critics say that so-called “pretendians’” false claims divert opportunities from authentic Native Americans and violate tribal sovereignty. As VOA reported previously, scholars who fake Native American identity often gain power to tell the public who Indigenous people are. Their publications can shape public understanding of Native communities and influence government policies affecting tribal members.

Read more:

WASHINGTON — 

Julian Brave NoiseCat up for an Oscar at Sunday’s Academy Awards

Secwepemc citizens of the Williams Lake First Nation in British Columbia will gather at Academy Award watch parties Sunday as Julian Brave NoiseCat vies for an Oscar for the documentary “Sugarcane.”

NoiseCat, a citizen of the Secwepemc Nation's Canim Lake Band, co-directed the film alongside American journalist and filmmaker Emily Kassie. The documentary investigates unmarked graves at St. Joseph's Mission School, exposing harrowing evidence of systematic rape, torture and infanticide.

Through conversations with survivors, “Sugarcane” highlights the lasting impact of the residential school system.

"We stood alongside our participants as they dug graves for their friends, searched for painful truths in the recesses of their memories, and mustered the courage to confront representatives of the Church," the directors said in a statement. "You can feel their hesitation … as they struggle to confront their deepest secrets and give voice to their shame."

For NoiseCat, the story is deeply personal. His father, Ed Archie NoiseCat, was born at St. Joseph's and abandoned as an infant atop the school's incinerator.

In one of the film's most haunting moments, a former student recounts watching from a hiding place as a crying baby was tossed into the flames. Ed Archie NoiseCat is believed to be the only child fathered by a Catholic priest at the school who survived.

This nomination marks the first time an Indigenous North American filmmaker has been recognized in this category by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Read about the full investigation here:

ProPublica update on NAGPRA compliance shows progress, but much work remains

Museums, universities and other agencies across the United States returned to tribes the remains of more than 10,300 Native American ancestors in 2024, the investigative nonprofit ProPublica reported this week as part of its ongoing investigation into compliance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA.

Passed in 1990, the law requires all federal and federally funded institutions to inventory, report and repatriate all Native American human remains and culturally or spiritually significant artifacts.

NAGPRA previously allowed institutions to retain artifacts whose tribal affiliation they could not determine. Rules updated in 2024 removed that provision and gave tribal historians and religious leaders a greater voice in determining where those items should go.

ProPublica reports that 60% of indigenous ancestral remains subject to NAGPRA have so far been repatriated, but at least 90,000 remain in nationwide collections.

Read more:

Native Americans Severely Underrepresented in Medical School Admissions

STAT News highlights a 22% drop in American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) medical school enrollment last year: Out of 21,000 acceptances nationwide, 201 were indigenous.

Medical education leaders Dr. Donald Warne and Dr. Mary Owen express concern that indigenous physicians have remained less than 1% of all U.S. doctors for decades. At this rate, it would take more than a century for the number of Native American physicians to reach parity with their percentage of the overall population.

STAT reporting partly blames inflation, which has driven up medical school costs. The COVID pandemic had a disproportionate impact on Native communities, where limited broadband access meant many students were unable to study remotely.

Compounding matters is the 2023 Supreme Court ruling ending affirmative action in college enrollment. Leaders in Native American medical education emphasize that AI/AN is primarily a political classification for enrolled members of federally recognized tribes protected by treaty rights, so that they should not have been affected by the ruling against race-based admissions policies.

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Oklahoma tribe fights for control of former boarding school site in Kansas

The Shawnee Tribe wants ownership of the site of a former Native American boarding school, with Shawnee Chief Ben Barnes telling Kansas lawmakers that it was “built on Shawnee lands by Shawnee hands and using Shawnee funds.”

The Kansas Historical Society, the city of Fairway, and the local nonprofit that now runs the Shawnee Indian Manual Labor School all oppose the transfer, citing concerns over historical preservation.

The school opened in 1839 and included children from 22 tribes, mostly Shawnee and Delaware. Records show that at least five children died there in the 1850s. The school closed in 1862 and was later used as barracks for Union soldiers and as a stop on the Oregon, California and Santa Fe trails.

Read more:

WASHINGTON — 

Native American tribes report federal funding delays

Some Native American tribes are having difficulties accessing funds for essential services following delays surrounding a temporary White House freeze on thousands of federal programs pending the new administration’s review.

Public Law 93-638, the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, is the vehicle through which tribes contract with the federal government to manage most health and education programs that were operated by the government before 1975.

While funds for 638 contracts are now unfrozen, some tribes reported having problems accessing the funding online.

"Tribal nations have candidly shared with me that at first, [online] funding portals were frozen. Even after they opened, funding requests went unanswered for days and weeks,” Sault Ste. Marie tribal council member Aaron Payment told VOA.

The former first vice president of the National Congress of American Indians said tribes remain uncertain about the stability of funding for community health, education and nutrition.

"As it is, we are far underfunded despite our having prepaid for every penny with the nearly 2 billion acres of land that made this country great," Payment said.

Read more:

Federal cuts force layoffs at Native American colleges

The Board of Regents of Haskell Indian Nations University is asking Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to waive staff reductions that would cut nearly 40 employees across teaching, IT and administrative departments.

“Haskell is an important part of the federal government’s commitment to enhancing the quality of life for Indian people,” the board’s letter reads in part.

Haskell in Kansas and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) in New Mexico are both facing challenges in the new administration’s budget cuts, with Southwestern Indian Polytechnic losing 20 employees.

Those reductions leave 80 staff for 200 students at the New Mexico school and 125 staff for nearly 900 students at Haskell.

"It's affecting Native American students because at the end of the day, it's our generation of students who are going to be contributing to tomorrow's society," SIPI staff member Luke Gibson (Navajo) told Alburquerque's KOB TV. "If we don't invest in Native American education today, how will be useful to our own communities when we want to?"

While the Indian Health Service saw some layoffs temporarily reversed, there has been no similar relief for those universities. Haskell administrators told students that efforts are underway to maintain operations despite lower staffing.

Read more:

Supporters celebrate Leonard Peltier’s homecoming

Native American activist Leonard Peltier returned to the Turtle Mountain Reservation in Belcourt, North Dakota, Tuesday after 49 years in federal prison.

U.S. President Joe Biden commuted Peltier’s sentence last month in one of the last acts of his presidency.

“He is now 80 years old, suffers from severe health ailments, and has spent the majority of his life (nearly half a century) in prison,” Biden said in a January 20 statement. “This commutation will enable Mr. Peltier to spend his remaining days in home confinement but will not pardon him for his underlying crimes.”

Peltier, who is Anishinaabe and Dakota, was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of two federal agents during a 1975 standoff on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He was given two consecutive life sentences.

Peltier supporters say he was framed. Federal law enforcement remains convinced of his guilt, with then-FBI Director Christopher Wray urging Biden “in the strongest terms possible” against granting Peltier clemency.

Read more:

South Dakota Senate says no to mandatory Native studies in public schools

South Dakota lawmakers have rejected a bill that would have required the state’s public schools to teach Native American content known as “Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings.”

“Oceti Sakowin” translates as “People of Seven Council Fires,” an alliance of seven nations that were once known as the Great Sioux Nation.

The curriculum was developed over 10 years as a framework for cultural exchange in South Dakota, where Dakota, Lakota and Nakota tribes are spread out among nine reservations.

Currently, teaching Native American history is optional in South Dakota, with educators reporting that more than half of the state’s teachers already include it in their lesson plans.

Governor Larry Rhoden this week signed a bill requiring all certified teachers to take a course in South Dakota Native American studies.

Read more:

WASHINGTON — 

U.S. President Donald Trump wants Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to come up with a plan to grant the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina what he calls “long overdue” federal recognition, fulfilling a campaign promise he made last September.

Federal recognition acknowledges a tribe’s historic existence and its modern status as a “nation within a nation” entitled to govern itself and receive federal benefits, including health care, housing and education.

Historically, tribes were recognized through treaties or laws or presidential orders or court decisions. In 1978, the Department of the Interior standardized those procedures, allowing recognition through the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Congress or a federal court ruling.

Those standards require tribes to demonstrate continuous political autonomy since the 19th century, and members must document descendance from historical tribe members.

The process is time-consuming and expensive, often requiring assistance from historians, genealogists and attorneys. Historic records, if they ever existed, may be lost or destroyed.

The 1978 rules, updated in 1994, also state that tribes previously denied cannot reapply.

‘Gray eyes’

Over time, the Lumbee have been linked to several historic tribes, including the Cheraw, Tuscarora and even Siouan tribes.

“One tribal name or a single cultural origin is insufficient to explain Lumbee history, because Lumbee ancestors belonged to many of the dozens of nations that lived in a 44,000-square-mile territory,” writes Lumbee historian Malinda Maynor Lowery. “The names of these diverse communities varied depending on where the people lived and on what Europeans wrote down about them.”

In 1584, English explorer Arthur Barlowe noted that some Indian children on Roanoke Island had “very fine auburn and chestnut coloured hair.”

Three years later, England established a small colony on the island. The governor left for England to gather supplies. When he returned, no one was there. There were two clues: the word "CROATOAN" carved into a fence post and "CRO" on a tree. This gave rise to the theory that they had been taken in by Croatan Indians.

In the early 1700s, Hatteras Indians at Roanoke, as the Croatans were now called, told English explorer John Lawson that they descended from those vanished settlers. They also had “gray eyes,” which Lawson believed confirmed their mixed heritage.

“They tell us, that several of their ancestors were white people, and could talk in a book [read], as we do, the truth of which is confirmed by gray eyes being found frequently amongst these Indians, and no others,” Lawson wrote.

Enduring names

The 1790 federal Census recorded family names found among the Lumbee today and classified them as “all other free persons.”

In 1835, North Carolina banned voting in state elections for anyone who had a Black, mixed-race or biracial ancestor within the past four generations, and the state amended its constitution to segregate Black and white children into separate public schools.

“As the lines between ‘white’ and ‘colored’ hardened in North Carolina … Indians resolved that non-Indians must recognize their distinct identity,” Lowery wrote.

In 1885, North Carolina recognized the Lumbee as “Croatan” Indians and created separate schools for them. Shortly after, 54 members identifying themselves as Croatan Indians and “remnants” of the lost colony petitioned Congress for aid to educate more than 1,100 of the tribe’s children.

The Indian Affairs commissioner turned them down, saying he could barely afford to support the tribes already recognized, let alone the Croatans.

The tribe renamed itself “Lumbee,” after the nearby Lumber River, in 1952. In 1956, Congress passed Public Law 570, acknowledging the tribe as a mix of colonial and coastal-Indian blood but denying them federal benefits.

In the 1990s, the Interior Department again rejected the Lumbee’s petition, citing insufficient proof of cultural, political or genealogical ties to a specific historic tribe. Despite failed bills, the House passed the Lumbee Fairness Act in December 2024, which, if approved by the Senate, would grant federal recognition and benefits.

The Interior Department released an update to the acknowledgment process, allowing certain tribes that were previously denied the opportunity to reapply for recognition. That was set to take effect this week but has been postponed to March 21.

Congress 'not equipped'

North Carolina’s federally recognized Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) has long opposed Lumbee recognition.

“The Lumbee cannot even specify which historical tribe they descend from, and recent research has underscored the dangers of legislative recognition without proper verification,” EBCI principal chief Michell Hicks said in a December 2024 statement. “Allowing this bill [the Lumbee Fairness Act] to pass would harm tribal nations across the country by creating a shortcut to recognition that diminishes the sacrifices of tribes who have fought for years to protect their identity.”

Former EBCI chief Richard Sneed told VOA in 2022, “Congress is not equipped to do the necessary research to determine whether or not a group is a historic tribe or not. The process was created for that purpose.”

In an emailed statement, Lumbee tribal chairman John L. Lowery expressed cautious optimism that the Lumbee Fairness Act would pass.

“Our critics are sad individuals who use racist propaganda to discredit us while ignoring the struggles of other minorities in America,” he told VOA. “As Indigenous people, we are the minority of the minority here in the United States, and our critics are trying to erase the memories of our ancestors, and we will not let that happen!”

Fifty-six thousand people identified as Lumbee in the 2020 U.S. Census. If recognized, they would be the largest acknowledged tribe east of the Mississippi River.