Defining the Political Landscape: The Pursuit of Lumbee Recognition

This project aims to investigate the ways in which the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina has restructured its own political organization in response to internal factors such as counteracting poverty, betterment of the educational system, and healthcare. The tribe’s response to these internal desires have had a direct impact on the tribe’s standing in regards to the Federal Acknowledgment Process. By responding to internal needs, the tribe is drawn closer to federal recognition. Externally, federal recognition also impacts the formation of tribal government. Although the tribe is not formally eligible to participate in the Federal Acknowledgement Process, it has made significant attempts at fulfilling each of the requirements established by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in ways that are familiar to the general population and in hopes of establishing a “government-to-government” relationship with the federal government. These efforts have helped to shape the tribal government. While this investigation affects the over 60,000 members of the Lumbee tribe, it also speaks to larger issues related to tribal government formation more generally, federal recognition policy, and the process that tribes and the federal government use to implement that policy. For many years the equitability of this process has been debated, and the Lumbee tribal case can serve as an example of why it should be (and currently is being) re-evaluated. Although many Native people would surely argue the importance of acknowledgement from the government, federal recognition can give larger insight into the political process in general and how administrative processes develop within the United States governmental system. In the following sections, I first provide a general topical background, followed by a review of the previous literature as it relates to this study. Then, I present a theory explaining how the Lumbee have restructured their political organization over time. Afterward, I describe the methods employed in this study before presenting the results of my analysis. Finally, I conclude with remarks on these results and comment on the prospects for future research provided by this thesis.Bachelor of Art