The Lumbee Indian Tribe received some encouraging news last week when U.S. Representative Mike McIntyre (NC-7th) announced that the House Natural Resources Committee had passed the Lumbee federal recognition bill on a voice vote.

The bill, HR 31, now heads to the full U.S. House for a vote, which could comes in the next 30 days.

“The long-sought and long-overdue recognition for the Lumbee Indians has crossed a milestone,” Rep. McIntyre stated in a release last Wednesday. “Federal recognition for the Lumbee Tribe took an important step forward today with this strong show of support from the Natural Resources Committee. We will keep working until this bill is enacted into law.”

Legislation for the bill was submitted in January that would give the tribe full recognition. By receiving federal recognition, it would provide millions of dollars for economic development, education, health care and housing.

The bill was voted on in June 2007 and passed by the House by a two-third majority vote, but it did not make it to the Senate and the legislation had to be reentered.

Nick Rahall, chairman of the Committee on Natural Resources, praised the Lumbees in their efforts and pointed out that the race for recognition is long past due.

“I am grateful to Chairman Nick Joe Rahall and my colleagues for their support and for this great victory,”stated McIntyre.

The feeling is mutual from Lumbee Tribal Chairman Jimmy Goins in a written statement to The Citizen.

“I am grateful to Congressman Rahall for voting HR 31out of the Natural Resources Committee so that our bill now goes to the full House for a vote,” stated Chairman Goins. “I am so thankful to Congressman Mike McIntyre and all 185 co-sponsors for their support. Without the Congressman’s leadership and direction, we would not anticipate the 2/3 vote this time like last time. The Lumbee Tribe looks forward to having a full floor vote in the House some time soon.”

North Carolina Senators Kay Hagen, a Democrat from Greensboro, and Richard Burr, a Republican from Winston-Salem, have shown their support for the bill.

The State of North Carolina officially recognized the Lumbee Tribe in 1885, and in 1888, three years later, the tribe began its quest for federal recognition from the federal government.

However, over the many years since then, many bills have been introduced in Congress, seeking that federal recognition for the Lumbees, but the bills have neither been acted upon or made it through only one chamber of Congress.

Finally, in 1956, the federal government passed the Lumbee Act, but the Lumbees were denied the full benefits that every other federally-recognized tribes received.

The Lumbee Tribe is known to be the largest Indian tribe east of the Mississippi River and is 55,000 strong with most of the located in Cumberland, Hoke, Robeson and Scotland counties.