{"id":898,"date":"2025-12-18T12:57:32","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T13:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/?p=898"},"modified":"2026-03-25T13:31:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T13:31:01","slug":"north-carolinas-lumbee-tribe-gains-long-sought-federal-recognition-casino-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/18\/north-carolinas-lumbee-tribe-gains-long-sought-federal-recognition-casino-next\/","title":{"rendered":"North Carolina\u2019s Lumbee Tribe Gains Long-Sought Federal Recognition \u2014 Casino Next?"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><strong>The Lumbee Tribe secured federal recognition after more than a century<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Recognition grants sovereignty, land trust rights, and casino eligibility<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Casino interest exists, but tribe remains publicly cautious<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p>North Carolina\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/lumbee-tribe-recognition-could-bring-north-carolinas-fourth-casino\/\">Lumbee Tribe<\/a> is one presidential signature away from federal recognition. A provision to recognize the 60K-strong tribe was tagged onto the National Defense Authorization Act, passed by Congress on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_371056\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-371056\" data-style=\"width: 858px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-post-thumbnail-858xAUTO wp-image-371056 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"Lumbee Tribe, federal recognition, North Carolina casino, tribal gaming, Interstate 95\" width=\"858\" height=\"571\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Lumbee2-858x571-1.jpg\"><figcaption>Traditional Lumbee dancers at the Dance of the Spring Moon Powwow in Maxton, NC. (Crazy Cow Trading Post)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>President Donald Trump will sign the $901 billion defense spending package into law, the White House has confirmed. Trump has in the past declared his support for Lumbee recognition \u2013 in a key swing state like North Carolina, 60K votes could come in handy.<\/p>\n<p>The Lumbee have pursued recognition for 130 years. This status means that a tribe is recognized as a sovereign government, granting it access to federal programs, legal status, and rights such as the ability to place land in trust and operate casinos.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Will the Lumbee Build a Casino?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The tribe has been tight-lipped about whether this could lead to the creation of South Carolina\u2019s fourth casino, preferring to focus public statements on the other benefits of full sovereignty rights.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\">\n<p>It\u2019s going to be a very, very emotional time for us. It\u2019s going to be a time to rejoice and a time to be happy,\u201d Lumbee Tribe member Charles Graham told the <em>Associated Press<\/em>. \u201cWe\u2019ll be able to stand on our principles in terms of who we are, where we\u2019ve been, our sovereignty, and we can speak to that with a lot of pride.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The Lumbee\u2019s interest in a casino was most recently evident in 2023, when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/north-carolina-gop-unveils-new-casino-bill-after-budget-fail\/\">a bill to authorize four<\/a> new commercial gaming venues in North Carolina, including one for the Lumbee, was introduced but didn&#8217;t pass.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, the state has three casinos: two operated by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) and one owned by the Catawba Indian Nation.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p>A Lumbee casino would most likely be situated in southeastern North Carolina, on or near tribal lands in Robeson County and surrounding areas where the tribe\u2019s population is concentrated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>If a casino were to be built on the Interstate 95 corridor, it would be the only gaming venue on that corridor between New Jersey and Florida, making it well-positioned to capture regional and through-traffic.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Lumbee Critics<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Some of the more vocal opponents of Lumbee recognition included other tribes, such as the EBCI, who argue that the Lumbee haven&#8217;t sufficiently demonstrated a verifiable, continuous descent from a specific historic tribe \u2013 a key standard used for federal recognition. Critics note the tribe has previously used different names, including the Cherokee Indians of Robeson County.<\/p>\n<p>The Lumbee say their ancestors were from the Algonquian, Iroquoian, and Siouan language families, and note they have been recognized by the state of North Carolina since 1885.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/north-carolinas-lumbee-tribe-gains-long-sought-federal-recognition\/\">North Carolina\u2019s Lumbee Tribe Gains Long-Sought Federal Recognition &#8212; Casino Next?<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\">Casino.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Lumbee Tribe secured federal recognition after more than a century Recognition grants sovereignty, land trust rights, and casino eligibility Casino interest exists, but tribe remains publicly cautious North Carolina\u2019s Lumbee Tribe is one presidential signature away from federal recognition. A provision to recognize the 60K-strong tribe was tagged onto the National Defense Authorization Act,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":901,"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898\/revisions\/901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}