On Jan. 16, 2025, North Carolina lawmakers introduced H.R. 474, the Lumbee Fairness Act, amending the Lumbee Act of 1956 to extend federal recognition to the Lumbee Tribe. Framed as overdue justice for one community, the measure carries grave consequences for another: the Tuscarora Nation of North Carolina.

Far from embodying fairness, this bill undermines the sovereignty, treaty rights and political independence of the Tuscarora people. Many of the lands originally occupied by the ancestral Tuscarora Nation are now claimed by the Lumbee, including Robeson, Cumberland, and Hoke Counties. After the Tuscarora Wars, several treaties promised that the Tuscarora would retain our sovereignty and our relationship with colonial and later state governments. The Tuscarora was recognized by treaties

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