{"id":287246,"date":"2025-11-05T08:35:22","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T14:35:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/?p=287246"},"modified":"2025-11-06T09:54:47","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T15:54:47","slug":"witness-list-for-senate-committee-on-indian-affairs-hearing-on-lumbee-fairness-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2025\/11\/05\/witness-list-for-senate-committee-on-indian-affairs-hearing-on-lumbee-fairness-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Witness list for Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing on Lumbee Fairness Act"},"content":{"rendered":" \"Senate<\/a>
The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs held its most recent hearing on October 29, 2025, focusing on the impacts of the federal government shutdown and the reduction of the federal workforce on Native communities. Photo by Indianz.Com (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n
Witness list for Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing on Lumbee Fairness Act<\/div>\r\n
Wednesday, November 5, 2025<\/div>\r\n
Indianz.Com<\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe Senate Committee on Indian Affairs<\/a> is holding a legislative hearing to consider federal recognition for the Lumbee Tribe<\/a>.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe tribe, based in North Carolina, has been seeking acknowledgment as an Indian tribe since the late 1800s. A federal law, enacted in 1956 during the termination era, is seen as preventing the Lumbees from engaging in a government-to-government relationship with the United States.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nS.107<\/a>, the Lumbee Fairness Act, rescinds the 1956 law. The bill also ensures the federal government can place land-into-trust for the tribe in North Carolina, with land in Robeson County to be considered as the tribe’s “reservation.”\r\n

<\/P>\r\nThe hearing on S.107 takes place at 2:30pm Eastern in Room 106 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. The witness list follows:\r\n

<\/p>\r\nPANEL 1
\r\nThe Honorable Thom Tillis
\r\nSenator
\r\nNorth Carolina\r\n

<\/p>\r\nPANEL 2
\r\nThe Honorable John Lowery [PDF: Testimony<\/a>]
\r\nChairman
\r\nLumbee Tribe
\r\nPembroke, North Carolina\r\n

<\/p>\r\nMs. Arlinda Locklear [PDF: Testimony<\/a>]
\r\nTribal Attorney
\r\nWashington, DC\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe Honorable Michell Hicks [PDF: Testimony<\/a> |\r\nExhibits<\/a>]
\r\nPrincipal Chief
\r\nEastern Band of Cherokee Indians
\r\nCherokee, North Carolina\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe Honorable Ben Barnes [PDF: Testimony<\/a>]
\r\nChief
\r\nShawnee Tribe
\r\nMiami, Oklahoma\r\n

<\/p>\r\nPANEL 3
\r\nDepartment of the Interior [PDF: Testimony<\/a>]
\r\nWritten Statement Only\r\n

<\/p>\r\nA web of the hearing will be available at indian.senate.gov<\/a>.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Notice<\/div>\r\nLegislative Hearing on S.107, the Lumbee Fairness Act<\/a> (November 5, 2025)","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is holding a legislative hearing to consider federal recognition for the Lumbee Tribe.","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":287300,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12,20,13,1,14],"tags":[5366,5635,1907,346,534,2593,186,718,5451,184,127,6360,213,91,203,532],"class_list":["post-287246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-federal-recognition","category-indian-trust","category-law","category-national","category-politics","tag-119th","tag-arlinda-locklear","tag-ben-barnes","tag-dc","tag-eastern-cherokee","tag-john-lowery","tag-land-into-trust","tag-lumbee","tag-michell-hicks","tag-north-carolina","tag-oklahoma","tag-s-107","tag-scia","tag-senate","tag-termination","tag-thom-tillis","no-wpautop"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcoJ7g-1cJ0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/05\/SenateCommitteeonIndianAffairs-7.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287246"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":288616,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287246\/revisions\/288616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}