Indian Country is on the losing end of the stick with the release of a must-pass defense bill that was negotiated behind closed doors.

Tribes and their advocates anticipated the inclusion of several pro-tribal provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026. But they learned on Sunday that none of the measures — including one to address the genocidal Indian boarding school era — made it into the final package.

In fact, the only provision of interest in the defense bill, commonly known as the NDAA, reflects one of President Donald Trump’s priorities. A controversial measure to extend federal recognition to the Lumbee Tribe in North Carolina can be found in the 3,086-page package — an achievement being credited to the involvement of the White House.

“The Lumbee Fairness Act is now included in the final National Defense Reauthorization Act (NDAA) draft heading to votes in the House and Senate in the next two weeks,” Lumbee Chairman John Lowery said on Sunday night, shortly after the text of the measure was released.

“We move forward with hope and determination, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with our friends in Congress and the White House to secure final passage,” Lowery continued. “I remain deeply involved every step of the way, helping unite and focus all of our allies as we push toward this long-awaited victory.”

“Keep the prayers going up as we know the enemy will continue to fight our efforts,” Lowery said, without explicitly stating the identity of the apparent “enemy.”

But as Congress prepares to go home for the Christmas holiday, the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policy Act is among those on the short end of the stick. The bipartisan bill would begin to hold the United States accountable for the forced removals of children from their tribal communities during the boarding school era.

“Last night, our U.S. Truth & Healing bill, along with a few other Native bills, were included in the NDAA,” Deborah Parker, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS), said on Sunday.

“By this morning, I was informed only the Lumbee bill is being considered,” said Parker, a citizen of the Tulalip Tribes.

The snubbing of Indian Country in the NDAA follows nearly a year of policy setbacks at the national level. From the loss of millions of dollars in federal funds to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, tribes have seen few achievements in Washington, D.C., whether it be in the executive branch or the legislative — both of which have been controlled by Republicans since the start of 2025.

But the inclusion of the Lumbee Fairness Act in the defense bill stands to benefit a group that has closely aligned itself with the Republican movement. From Chairman Lowery’s appearance with President Trump at the White House last week to claims that one of Trump’s five children is Lumbee, the so-called People of the Dark Water made a big bet on the Grand Old Party.

“We have used every tool at our disposal to secure recognition in this year’s NDAA,” said Rep. Mark Harris (R-North Carolina), one of the Republican co-sponsors of the Lumbee Fairness Act. “I’m deeply grateful to President Trump for his longstanding championship of the Lumbee Tribe and for working across both chambers of Congress to deliver the full federal recognition and rights our people deserve.”

“Now is the time — let’s get it over the finish line!” said Harris.

Despite the high-level support, federal recognition for the Lumbees remains highly controversial due to uncertainties about their origins. Over the past century, the group has identified and associated itself with such diverse and divergent Indian groups as the Croatan, the Cherokee and the Tuscarora.

“Every sovereign Tribal Nation in this country has been required to prove its identity, lineage, history, and continuous governance,” Principal Chief Michell Hicks of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, said in a statement on Monday. “The Lumbee have not met any of those standards, and their repeated refusal to undergo federal verification threatens the credibility of the entire process.”

More recently, the Lumbees settled on claiming descent from the historic Cheraw tribe. Last month, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs was told that the group is the same as the “Cheraw” people who were living around the present-day Lumber River in North Carolina in the early 1700s.

“We have been there ever since. It’s the same community, regardless of the name,” Arlinda Locklear, a Lumbee citizen who has been working on the tribe’s bid for federal recognition for 40 years, told the committee at a hearing in Washington, D.C., on November 5.

The Lumbees, however, have struggled to explain how they have maintained their claimed Cheraw identity. At the hearing, Locklear was asked about the group’s language but never provided a direct answer, instead suggesting the federal government is to blame for the lack of knowledge.

Locklear said the “noted linguist” Ella Deloria visited the Lumbees “for the purpose of studying the remnants that remained of tribal languages.” Deloria, who was from the Yankton Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, was sent to North Carolina by the U.S. government to study the group, who had yet to adopt the “Lumbee” name.

“She made note in 1940 that those remnants existed and her purpose was to establish a dictionary,” Locklear testified. “She did not complete that work because she was not able to get funding.”

Despite the doubts, lawmakers from both parties have been eager to support the Lumbees ever since Democratic former president Barack Obama endorsed legislative recognition for the group more than 15 years ago. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), the vice chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, said he wasn’t bothered by the lack of a Lumbee language, for instance.

“Frankly, we work a fair amount on language revitalization and there are a lot of tribes that have very few Native speakers left — or none,” Schatz said in equating languages loss to language absence.

“And so none of this is disqualifying because frankly, many, many Native people across the country have experienced that,” said Schatz, who is a co-sponsor of the Lumbee Fairness Act.

With federal recognition, the Lumbees stand to gain a huge source of funding from the United States. The bill directs the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the Indian Health Service (IHS), to work directly with the tribe to come up with a “determination of needs to provide the services for which members are eligible.”

With over 60,000 enrolled members, the cost promises to be substantial. Based on estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, providing IHS care to all of them would come to more than $102 million a year.

The Lumbee Fairness Act also states that the Lumbees “shall be eligible for funding provided by the Department of the Interior and the Department of Human Services that is only available to newly federally recognized and restored Indian tribes.” The Department of the Interior includes the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).

According to the BIA, funding for a newly recognized tribe is based on population, which in the case of the Lumbees is significant. “For a population in excess of 3,500, the funding level will be determined on a case by case basis,” the agency states.

As a state recognized tribe, the Lumbees are already eligible for funding from federal Indian housing programs. Last year, when Democratic former president Joe Biden was in office, Chairman Lowery celebrated a record $28.7 million for the Lumbee housing department -— representing an increase of $10 million from prior levels.

Additionally, the bill ensures that the BIA can acquire land in trust for the Lumbees in four counties in North Carolina: Robeson, Cumberland, Hoke and Scotland. The provision is significant since even newly recognized tribes have been forced to prove their history following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Carcieri v. Salazar from 2009.

The Lumbee Fairness Act further states that land acquisitions in Robeson County, where the Lumbees are headquartered, are to be considered “on reservation” fee-to-trust applications. The language eases the way for the tribe to acquire land for education, health, housing and gaming purposes.

The House Committee on Rules is set to consider S.1017, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026, at a meeting on Tuesday afternoon. The swift consideration means the bill could pass by the U.S. House of Representatives by the end of the week, possibly as soon as Wednesday. [docs.house.gov: Text of Bills for the Week of Dec. 8, 2025]

“The House bill contained a provision (Sec. 1733C) that would extend Federal recognition to the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina as an Indian Tribe,” a joint exploratory statement reads. “The Senate bill contained no similar provision.”

“The agreement includes the House provision with a clarifying amendment,” the statement continues.

The U.S. Senate would then have to take up the new version of the NDAA by passing S.1017, which is expected to happen before the end of the year. Eastern Cherokee Chief Hicks is asking Indian Country to speak out in opposition, saying the very essence of tribal sovereignty is at risk.

“What is at stake is not only federal cost, but the very legitimacy of sovereignty in Indian Country,” Hicks said on Monday. “Sovereignty itself becomes negotiable, and that is a line we cannot cross.”

“It is equally alarming that the Lumbee recognition language elevates the Lumbee above the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act and the Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial and Sacred Site Act,” added Hicks, naming another pro-tribal bill that was left out of the NDAA.

“To sideline these historic commitments in favor of a group that has not proven descent or identity is unacceptable,” said Hicks, who testified at the hearing in D.C. last month.

NDAA-Lumbee-Fairness-Act-Sec-8803

The Lumbee Fairness Act is found in Sec. 8803 of the NDAA. It consists of eight pages that closely track the text of the version of the bill introduced in the House as H.R.474 and in the Senate as S.107.

However, a number of substantive changes were made to ensure the Lumbees can follow the fee-to-trust process at the BIA and to ensure the Lumbees are provided with federal funding. These provisions were not considered by the House when it passed the Lumbee Fairness Act during the prior session of Congress.

The changes also were not part of the Lumbee Fairness Act when the House inserted the bill into its version of the NDAA in September. Notably, the Senate has never passed a Lumbee recognition bill, either on its own or as part of another package.

The Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policy Act has been introduced in the Senate as S.4752. Notably, the bill’s sponsor is Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), whom President Trump has long treated as an adversary, repeatedly using name of a Native woman to deride her.

The Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial and Sacred Site Act has been introduced in the House as H.R.165 and in the Senate as S.105. The bill protects the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre in South Dakota, where U.S. Army soldiers massacred more than 300 Lakota women, children, elders and men on December 29, 1890.

During the prior session of Congress, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) admitted that he was blocking passage of the Wounded Knee bill even though it is being championed by fellow Republicans. He acknowledged doing so in order to get the Lumbee Fairness Act considered in the Senate.

Legislative Hearing on S.107, the Lumbee Fairness Act (November 5, 2025)