The Lumbee Fairness Act officially recognizes the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina as a federally recognized Native American tribe. This is significant because it opens the door for tribe members to access the same federal services and benefits that members of other officially recognized tribes receive, such as healthcare, education, housing assistance, and other support programs.

The bill specifically identifies four North Carolina counties—Robeson, Cumberland, Hoke, and Scotland—as the service delivery areas where Lumbee Tribe members can access these benefits. The federal government (through the Department of the Interior and Department of Health and Human Services) is required to work directly with the tribe to figure out what services are needed and how to deliver them effectively.

The bill also gives the federal government the ability to take land into trust for the tribe's benefit, which is a way of protecting tribal land from certain state taxes and regulations. On the legal side, North Carolina will have jurisdiction over crimes and lawsuits that happen on Lumbee tribal lands, unless the tribe and state agree to transfer that authority to the federal government. Essentially, this bill brings the Lumbee Tribe into the same legal and governmental framework as other federally recognized tribes, ending a long-standing gap in their official status.

Lumbee Fairness Act

Tillis, Thomas

Lumbee Fairness Act This bill extends federal recognition to the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina and makes its members eligible for the services and benefits provided to members of federally recognized tribes. Members of the tribe residing in Robeson, Cumberland, Hoke, and Scotland Counties in North Carolina are deemed to be within the delivery area for such services. The Department of the Interior and the Department of Health and Human Services must develop, in consultation with the tribe, a determination of needs to provide the services for which members of the tribe are eligible. Interior may take land into trust for the benefit of the tribe. Finally, North Carolina must exercise jurisdiction over all criminal offenses committed, and all civil actions that arise, on North Carolina lands owned by, or held in trust for, the Lumbee Tribe or any dependent Indian community of the tribe unless jurisdiction is transferred to the United States pursuant to an agreement between the tribe and the state.