[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 150 (Wednesday, September 25, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H5755-H5756]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           ENFORCING THE OFA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Stauber). The Chair recognizes the 
gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Edwards) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. EDWARDS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my deep opposition 
to circumvention of the merit-based process, and instead, grant Federal 
recognition to the Lumbee community through political means.
  Mr. Speaker, I am proud to have the representatives of the Eastern 
Band with us in the gallery today. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians 
are the descendants of those that fought to stay in their traditional 
homelands in the face of forcible Federal removal efforts.
  Some Cherokee, including a man named Junaluska, made the forced 
journey and then walked back to the mountains of western North Carolina 
to return home.
  It must be noted that the Lumbee community has no standing treaties 
with the Federal Government, no reservation land, and no common 
language.
  As Members of Congress, one of our most sacred duties is making sure 
that laws are drafted and implemented in an objective and an equal 
manner.
  For over 40 years, the Department of the Interior has carried out a 
merit-based process, as set out by Congress and administered by the 
Office of Federal Acknowledgment, the OFA, to make determinations on 
Federal recognition of Tribes.
  If the administration or Congress allows the Lumbee to bypass the 
OFA, it sends a clear message that other groups with dubious claims for 
Tribal recognition can also avoid the deliberation and scrutiny that 
the OFA petition process is designed to provide.
  We need the OFA process to protect Indian Country and the public. The 
process requires verification that the persons who claim to be Tribal 
members actually have Native American descent.
  Believe it or not, the OFA has determined that some petitioning 
groups are comprised entirely of people that can't demonstrate Native 
American ancestry; not a single person.
  Regarding the Lumbee, in one fell swoop, the Federal Government would 
recognize a Tribe that would then soon be the largest in the country, 
and all enrolled members would likely gain full access to all Federal 
benefits, which will further strain the Bureau of Indian Affairs and 
Indian Health Services' already stressed budgets.
  As a member of the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies 
Subcommittee on House Appropriations, I am proud that we funded the 
needs of the Indian Health Service and other critical priorities for 
our Nation's Tribes in fiscal year 2025, the bill that was recently 
approved in the House.
  That said, if the overall Tribal population covered by the services 
is allowed to swell by tens of thousands of

[[Page H5756]]

people, many of whom have no native ancestry, I fear that necessary 
appropriations cannot feasibly keep pace.
  That is the crux of the issue. If there was an actual merit-based 
system behind the Lumbee case for Federal recognition, they would go 
through the OFA process as set out in the current law.
  As they know, it won't hold up under a deliberative process. They 
have instead sought to seek special treatment through other avenues, 
all in the face of credible opposition by multiple federally recognized 
Tribes.
  More than 140 established Tribes from across the country have said 
that the Lumbee and other groups should go through the Federal 
recognition process at the Department of the Interior to demonstrate 
the merits of their claim to be a Tribe. I agree.
  I urge all my colleagues to take these concerns into account, and I 
hope that the merit-based process put in place by Congress decades ago 
on Federal Tribal recognition will be adhered to.
  Mr. Speaker, while I have the floor, I would also like to urge you 
and my colleagues to move H.R. 7227, the Truth and Healing Commission 
on Indian Boarding School Policies Act, to create a commission to get a 
better understanding of the grievous wrongs done to Native American 
children in federally run boarding schools.
  Our Tribal nations deserve the dignity to understand what happened to 
their family members at these schools. It is the very least this 
country can do.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The chair would remind Members that the 
rules do not allow references to persons in the gallery.

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