Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump once again discussed federal recognition for the Lumbee Tribe at a campaign rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, on September 21, 2024.
If elected president of the United States, Trump said he would sign a Congressional bill extending federal recognition to the tribe. He promised it would happen "right at the beginning" of his supposed administration.
"I'm officially announcing that if I am elected in November, I will sign legislation granting the great Lumbee Tribe the federal recognition that it deserves, okay?" Trump said. "You'll be all set."
At the rally, Trump singled out John Cummings, the chairman of Robeson County Board of Commissioners who also spoke at the event. The former U.S. president described the local official, who is Lumbee, as a "real supporter" of his campaign.
During the 2020 presidential campaign, Trump also promised to help the Lumbee Tribe gain federal recognition. At the time, he did not explain what he had been doing while he was in office to secure passage of a bill to do just that. He didn't offer an explanation this time around either.
In 1956, the U.S. Congress enacted a law that designated the "Indians" of Robeson County as the "Lumbee Indians of North Carolina." However, the so-called Lumbee Act stated that the Lumbees are not "eligible for any services performed by the United States for Indians because of their status as Indians, and none of the statutes of the United States which affect Indians because of their status as Indians shall be applicable to the Lumbee Indians."
Trump's remarks in Wilmington, North Carolina, follow:
And also Robeson County Commissioner and member of the Lumbee Tribe, a friend of mine and a friend of ours, John Cummings. Where's John? Thank you, John.
John is a real supporter and we appreciate it very much. And we're going to make sure that you guys are okay because they have not been treated properly by this administration as we know.
Thank you. You can tell everybody the Lumbee Tribe has been wrongfully denied federal recognition for more than a century. Only a century? That's not that long. Century? Hundred years? That's not that long.
But now we're gonna take care of it. We'll take care of it right at the beginning. All right, you can tell them.
[Joe] Biden and [Barack] Obama promised that they want to remedy the injustice, but they never did it. They broke their promise.
And today I'm officially announcing that if I am elected in November, I will sign legislation granting the great Lumbee Tribe the federal recognition that it deserves. Okay? You'll be all set.
Say hello to them. I got to know them, they're great. Unfortunately, we weren't in office when that happened, but they treated them very badly.
Thank you very much, John.