Senate panel passes bills to recognize 6 Va. tribes, Lumbees of N.C.
Published: October 22, 2009
WASHINGTON — Six Indian tribes in Virginia and the Lumbees of North Carolina would gain federal recognition and become eligible for federal aid under legislation approved Thursday by a Senate committee.
The tribes would be eligible for up to $800 million in federal funds under two bills passed by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. The bills, which bar the tribes from building casinos, have already passed the House.
The six Virginia tribes, which have around 3,000 members, have been seeking recognition since the 1990s. They are the Eastern Chickahominy, Chickahominy, Upper Mattaponi, Rappahannock, Monacan and Nansemond tribes.
“By bringing this legislation to a vote before the committee we are closer than we have ever been to finally righting an historic wrong for Virginia and the nation,“ Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said in a statement.
Lawmakers said Congress does not have the expertise to determine federal recognition of tribes, but noted that they have faced lengthy delays in accessing federal funding for housing, education and health benefits.
In some cases, it has taken 20 or 30 years for their federal recognition to be processed through the Interior Department and that needs to be fixed, said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., the committee’s chairman.
“The administrative process is broken,“ he said.
President Barack Obama has pledged support for the Lumbee Tribe, which has sought federal recognition for more than a century. The administration has not said whether it will support recognition of the Virginia tribes.
Regarding the Virginia tribes, Interior Department spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff said “in most circumstances we prefer the uniformity and certainty provided by the existing administrative process.“
Kaine told lawmakers earlier this year that the identities of tribal members were stripped away by Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act, a state law in effect from 1924 to 1967. Racial identifications of those without white ancestry were changed to “colored” on birth certificates during that period.
“Not only were native peoples denied their race in the everyday requests for birth and marriage certificates, but the commonwealth went into its records and changed the race of their documented ancestors. In addition, five of the six courthouses that held the vast majority of the records that the tribes would need to document their history to the degree required by the U.S. Department of Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs were destroyed during the Civil War,“ Kaine said in prepared remarks.
“Congress has the power to recognize Native American tribes. It has exercised this power in the past, and it should exercise this power again with respect to our Virginia tribes. I believe that the tribes’ situation clearly distinguishes them as excellent candidates for congressional action. Virginians consider this a matter of fundamental justice,“ the governor said.
Kaine pointed out that most tribes obtained federal recognition when they signed peace treaties with the U.S. government. But the Virginia tribes, he said, signed their peace treaties with the British crown and “continued to be tested by centuries of racial hostility, state-sanctioned coercive actions, and systematic mistreatment.“
There are an estimated 55,000 Lumbee Indians in North Carolina’s Robeson, Cumberland, Hoke and Scotland counties. Congress has been considering federal recognition for the tribe since before the first bill was introduced in 1899.
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Reader Reactions
I would much rather see the Native American groups receive the federal aid than the masses of illegal immigrants that are draining our country. The immigrants deserve nothing!
Frito Bandito, Better the $$$ go to the native Americans then the flood of illegal immigrants
As a native Virginian growing up in Nansemond County and a lifelong history buff, I found “Savage Kingdom” to be a most interesting history of Jamestown and our early settlers. I spend summers boating on the Chickahominy River and continually think of the Tribesmen who once ruled that beautiful place.
Those of us who are so proud of our English ancestry would do well to carefully read and ponder the account of the settlement at Jamestown in “Savage Kingdom” written by Englishman Benjamin Woolley. It is decidedly not what I was taught in Virginia History books in elementary and middle school. Wolley provides credible evidence that a large number of our ancestors were not necessarily the energetic, peaceful, diligent, heroic characters we were led to believe. In his account, Woolley certainly gives us no justification for feeling superior to Native Americans who were here when our ancestors arrived.
As a member of one of the six tribes let me state that there are no free “hand-outs” for any of the Natives other than that assistance received, via various programs, by citizens of other State, County and Municipal governments.
As a governmental entity, much like those just stated, we would be entitled to apply for any type grant or loan that they are eligible for. While the Bureau of Indian Affairs would provide us with a small stipend to establish and continue our tribal governments there are no other “free rides”. We can receive Medical care (someday) much like that provided by the VA but if you know anything about the VA… enough said. We can apply for grants, most of which require a financial “match” but with our extreme financial condition it is unlikely we will be successful in many of the applications.
Overall, while we would NOT receive “handouts” we will only be eligible for those same type grants every civil government is eligible for and perhaps the few Scholarships provided by the Federal Governemnt, Foundations and the like.
We will NOT accept handouts, but we do want OPPORTUNITIES that will allow us to have the same freedoms as others in this Land.
Sure, it would be nice if in the 1600s and 1700s settlers had had 21st century sensibilities, but let’s be real. Native Americans fought wars with each other all the time. And they would have wiped out the settlers from Europe if they could have. Any Native Americans who wish European settlers had never come are welcome to go back to living the hunter/gather/subsistence farmer existence that defined their civlizations for 1000s of years before 1607. Or, like everyone else, they can accept the negatives of the past, and seize the positives that came from colonization.
What is ironic and sad is that the ancestors of the most of us stole their lands, slaughtered them like wild animals, decimated their cultures, and proceeded to systematically exclude the survivors and their descendants from participation in our society on a basis equal to that enjoyed by rest of us.
Had Native Americans been treated with the dignity they deserved, recognition legislation would not have been necesssary - they would have, for centuries, already have been fully included in our society.
Sweet. They’re eligible for federal aid. Free money! America rocks!
Isn’t it a little ironic, and sad, that the primary purpose of getting federal recognition as sovereign tribes is so that they can turn around and ask the federal govt for millions of dollars in handouts?
Finally, citizens whose ancestors populated our continent prior to the arrival of the ancestors of most of the rest of us have received recognition they deserve. Unfortunately, there are other tribes remaining who are not included in the legislation.
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