Native Bidaské: Lumbee Tribal Chairman John Lowery on the journey of toward federal recognition
This week on Native Bidaské, Native News Online Editor Levi Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation) interviews Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina Chairman John Lowery.
Lowery discusses the long journey of the Lumbee Tribe toward federal recognition.
After 137 years of seeking full federal recognition, the tribe last week became the 575th federally recognized tribe.
Federal recognition for the Lumbee Tribe came through the National Defense Authorization Act. A provision was included in the defense bill passed by the House and Senate this month and signed into law by President Donald Trump last Thursday.
For several years, the Lumbee Tribe faced resistance from a few tribes in its effort to gain federal recognition.
Lowery also discusses his feelings regarding that resistance.
Watch Native Bidaské on Native News Online:
Date: Friday, Dec. 26, 2025
Time: 12 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. CT / 10 a.m. MT / 9 a.m. PT
Streaming on: YouTube and the Native News Online website
Support Us: https://www.paypal.com/donate?campaign_id=SUXMUWAGXV3V8
Stay Updated: https://nativenewsonline.net/subscribe-to-native-news-today
@TuleRiver58
October 13, 2026 at 4:19 pm
I'm going to say it..he does not look Indian!!
@xxoxox33
October 13, 2026 at 4:19 pm
Trump seems to like THESE immigrants. Wonder if it's related to the way they voted 🤔
@biiwaash
October 13, 2026 at 4:19 pm
Why would the Lumbee BYPASS the OFA???? Trump sucking Lumbees
@JeremiahClubb-x3y
October 13, 2026 at 4:19 pm
My wife was lumbee. She passed away 5 years ago. She would have been so happy. Miss you eveyday,
Crystal Mae
@russellmorris4050
October 13, 2026 at 4:19 pm
The Lumbee were different from the other Tribes.
They did like Nature;
Improvise
Adapt
Overcome.
Wampum Money
with demurrage,
and
Haudenosaunee
was the key to their survival,
It still is.
Miraculous things will be done by The Lumbee.
🙏🏽 Angel NicGillicuddy,
💜Melungeon
🔮 Haudenosaunee III
@russellmorris4050
October 13, 2026 at 4:19 pm
🔮 Haudenosaunee III
🙏🏽 Angel NicGillicuddy
💜 The Lumbee
@nancydriver8850
October 13, 2026 at 4:19 pm
Melungeons
@davidcohen6589
October 13, 2026 at 4:19 pm
There is extensive genealogical data that shows the ancestors of the Lumbees were free African-Americans who moved as landowners to North Carolina from Virginia. They self-identified as Blacks and were treated as free Blacks until the Civil War.
The Lumbee claim they descend from the Cheraw Indians. But the Cheraw lived along the Peedee River in South Carolina, while the ancestors of the Lumbees lived along the Drowning Creek, a tributary of the Little Peedee River in North Carolina.
Henry Berry Locklear, who claimed he was an Indian to avoid being sent with other free Blacks to build fortification on the coast, was accused by the Confederate Home Guard of aiding escaped Union prisoners. The Lumbees claimed at one time to be Cherokee Indians, but the Eastern Band of the Cherokees as slave owners fought for the South.
The Lumbees were recognized as the Croatan Indians by the State of North Carolina in 1888, but this was in exchange for their changing from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party to create their own segregated schools and a system of tri-racial segregation.
The 1954 Lumbee Act passed during the time of federal termination of Indian tribes did not “recognize” the Lumbees; it was merely the acknowledgment of a name change according to Congressman Frank Ertel Carlyle of North Carolina, who introduced the bill.
David Steven Cohen, Ph.D.
Chapel Hill, NC
@Warrior_Resisting_Colonialism
October 13, 2026 at 4:19 pm
Reporters shouldn't give pretendians a platform.
@ConnieLocklear-w2c
October 13, 2026 at 4:19 pm
Native pride
@TuleRiver58
October 13, 2026 at 4:19 pm
Just think..
"Grandfather, can you tell me about how we became a tribe? Well, Grandson, for years and years, we told anyone that would listen that we are a tribe, even though over the years, names and dates have been changed. Well then, our Great Orange Father, with the stroke of his might auto-pen, we are now the Lumbee.."
How shameful for so many reasons, and for Trump to be the one who did it. Dang, Andrew Jackson was his hero!! Go and be with navajo's for trump.
Just shameful!!
@RiverFlutes
October 13, 2026 at 4:19 pm
🤍❤️🖤💛
@adamhovey407
October 13, 2026 at 4:19 pm
The Battle of Hayes Pond is awesome! Please, yes, do something about it!
@proudnative2001
October 13, 2026 at 4:19 pm
Great interview. Lumbee Nation!-Rocky