Casino Vote Divides Lumbee Tribe

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Arlinda Locklear pushed for decades for the U.S. government to fully acknowledge the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. As a tribal member and attorney, she spent countless hours researching Lumbee history and building a case to show why the group deserved the benefits available to federally recognized tribes. 

Most recently, Locklear testified in November alongside Lumbee Chairman John Lowery before the U.S. Senate Commission on Indian Affairs. Together, they lamented—as Lumbee leaders had done for 137 years—lawmakers’ failure to act. 

“Let me tell you,” Locklear told the committee, “that has been a heartbreaking process for the Lumbee people.” 

Six weeks later, the U.S. Senate passed the Lumbee Fairness Act. President Donald Trump signed it into law the next day, on December 18, making the Lumbee the 575th federally recognized tribe in the nation.

During a celebration last month in Robeson County, where the 60,000-member tribe has its headquarters, Locklear joined a procession of tribal leaders and politicians, including both U.S. senators from North Carolina, who fought for recognition. They beamed as they waved and shook hands with tribal members, who proudly cheered them on. 

But amid the excitement, Locklear was troubled. She wore a T-shirt that read, “Vote No Demand Better.” 

Lumbees will vote June 23 on whether to amend the tribal constitution to open the door for a casino, an option available to federally recognized tribes. Critics, including Locklear, worry the change would give the tribal chairperson undue influence over major decisions made behind closed doors. 

Locklear is vice president of Lumbees United for Accountability, which encourages tribal members to vote against the proposed amendment. The group says it isn’t anti-gaming, but it wants oversight, transparency, and “a real balance of power, not the currently proposed concentration of power.” 

Some Lumbees have already questioned the tribe’s recent $6.8 million purchase of land along Interstate 95 for a casino and resort. Locklear, who was deeply involved in the tribe’s affairs for 40 years, said she knew nothing of the plans. 

Tribal leaders say they aren’t trying to be clandestine. Lowery has argued that a casino, accompanied by retail shops and restaurants, could transform rural southeastern North Carolina from a region struggling with high rates of poverty and crime into a tourist destination with good-paying jobs. 

“This amendment does not take away the rights of tribal members,” Lowery, who represents Robeson County in the N.C. House, said in a video the tribe posted online in mid-May. “It gives tribal members the right to decide whether the tribe moves forward with gaming or not. If the amendment passes, the Lumbee tribe will pursue gaming. If it does not pass, we will not.” 

The Amendment 

Lumbee leaders say the amendment is necessary because of what they consider an error in the constitution, which tribal members adopted more than 30 years ago. 

Grady Hunt, a Pembroke attorney, said in a video posted to the tribe’s social media last month that Lowery asked him and other lawyers to “determine the proper pathway to gaming.” The writers of the constitution called for a referendum on gaming if and when the tribe became federally recognized and wanted to open a casino. But they mistakenly pointed to Article V of the document when outlining the basis for the referendum, he said. Article VI actually describes the process for such votes. 

Unless Lumbees amend the constitution, any decision on gaming could be challenged in the tribal Supreme Court, according to Hunt. “This vote is too important not to get the process right,” he said. 

The proposed amendment wouldn’t fix what was likely a typo. Instead, it would allow the tribal government to bypass the referendum requirement. And it would grant the elected tribal chairperson the authority to negotiate gaming compacts with the state and nominate members to regulatory and enterprise boards, pending final approval by the 21-member tribal council. 

Under the Lumbee constitution, a majority vote isn’t enough to pass a referendum; at least 30% of the tribe’s eligible voters must participate. Locklear said she suspects the tribe wants to make the changes partly to avoid that tough-to-meet threshold. Constitutional amendments require a simple majority vote with no participation limits. 

“This vote is too important not to get the process right.”

Grady Hunt, Pembroke attorney

A spokesperson for the tribe did not respond to The Assembly’s requests to interview Lowery. 

The proposal has drawn strong reactions since the tribal council decided on April 16 to put it to a public vote. As the vote nears, divisions are playing out through yard signs, bumper stickers, and social media. 

Many supporters say a casino would inject an unprecedented economic boost into Robeson, where about 41% of the county’s 120,000 residents are Native American. Lowery has said the tribe would use casino-generated revenue to improve social programs, including those for tribal elders and children. 

Robeson County District Attorney Matt Scott and his wife, Jessica Scott, who is also an attorney, have publicly supported the proposed constitutional amendment. They say a casino would allow the tribe to invest resources in reducing crime and drug overdoses. 

Jessica Scott told the tribal council in April that she was dismayed by the online comments of people expressing their distrust of the tribal government. “Our constitution and this amendment is littered with checks and balances,” she said. “The tribal council can’t do anything without the chairman, and the chairman can’t do anything without the tribal council. 

“More importantly,” she continued, “the people are still voting on gaming. This has not been taken away from us.” 

At the celebration in May, tribal member Tonya Hunt said she was comfortable with the tribal chairperson making big decisions on gaming. “If we voted him in,” Hunt said, “hopefully he would make the right decisions for the tribe.” 

Others were more skeptical. “I like the people to have a voice,” said tribal member Carla Locklear. “We can’t ask for things and then not be a part of the discussion.” 

Land Deal 

Much of the public debate about federal recognition for the Lumbees centered on identity. Members descend from several eastern North Carolina tribes that fled newly arriving Europeans and settled along the Lumber River in Robeson County in the 17th century. There, they mingled with white and Black residents. 

Opponents of Lumbee recognition argued the tribe’s complicated history should require a thorough review by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. North Carolina recognized the tribe in 1885, and Congress acknowledged the group in 1956 but denied it access to the benefits available to federally recognized tribes. 

The U.S. House passed legislation several times over the years to fully recognize the Lumbee tribe. But bills continually stalled in the Senate as the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and other tribes lobbied lawmakers to reject the designation, creating a political firestorm that forced Lumbees to prove they were Indian enough.

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said he worked hard to convince some of his colleagues to fully recognize the Lumbee. During last month’s celebration, he presented Lowery with a photo collage featuring tribal members in Washington, D.C. 

“Kids, hold your ears,” Tillis said, pointing to one of the group photos. “That was right before we were about to open a can of whoop-ass on people that were trying to slow us down.” 

Permission to operate casinos lurked below the layers of opposition. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the only other federally recognized tribe in North Carolina, operates two casinos in the western part of the state. The Catawba Nation, a federally recognized tribe in South Carolina that has publicly supported the Lumbees, also has a casino in western North Carolina and plans to open another. 

The Lumbee tribe’s for-profit entity, Lumbee Holdings, paid $6.8 million for 241 acres of land in southern Robeson County days before the Lumbee Fairness Act became law in December. The group bought the land from Western Agricultural Holdings, which reportedly purchased it days earlier for less than half that amount, $3.2 million. 

Western Agricultural Holdings is registered as a business in Wyoming but is based in Raleigh, according to records filed with the Wyoming Secretary of State’s office. 

Channing Jones, chief executive officer for Lumbee Holdings, told The Assembly and Border Belt Independent in April that he could not discuss details of the land deal, saying he had signed a nondisclosure agreement. 

“I like the people to have a voice. We can’t ask for things and then not be a part of the discussion.” 

Carla Locklear, Lumbee tribal member

Lumbee leaders have expressed interest in casinos before. In 2023, the Republican-led state legislature proposed four rural casinos, including one operated by the Lumbee tribe. But the effort failed amid pushback from stakeholders in other parts of the state. 

Virginia lawmakers have been expanding gaming for years. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has a stake in a $750 million casino that opened in 2024 in Danville near the North Carolina border. The Pamunkey Indian Tribe, which gained federal recognition in 2015, plans to open a casino and resort in Norfolk.

South Carolina is also eyeing the gaming business. A state House committee is considering legislation that would allow for a casino along the I-95 corridor, although the proposal has faced opposition, including from critics who say gambling is immoral.

Lowery told the tribal council in April that he doesn’t want the Lumbee tribe to miss out on gaming. “We can sit here, and we can wait, pass the buck,” Lowery said. 

Or, he said, the tribe can act now. 

Self-governance

Arlinda Locklear, who helped write the Lumbee constitution in 1993, said the document’s framers knew the tribe might want to open a casino someday. They wanted to ensure that tribal members would ultimately make that decision.

Back then, Locklear said, there was a sense of urgency to create a constitution that would establish a formal tribal government with legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The U.S. House had voted two years earlier to recognize the Lumbee, and although the measure stalled in the Senate, the tribe wanted to show it had a governing body prepared to handle an influx of federal money. 

A Constitutional Assembly made up of several delegates, including representatives from local churches, met monthly for a year and a half, Locklear said. The group gathered input from tribal members and worked through several drafts. In 1994, 8,010 Lumbees voted to adopt the constitution. Only 223 voted no. 

“It was a movement like I have not seen in our community,” Locklear said. “People seemed to feel excited about the prospect of actually governing their own affairs and were very serious about forming a government that would reflect our traditions of leadership and the issues that are important to us.” 

Legal snarls, however, delayed the formation of a new tribal government. The Constitutional Assembly had tried to break ties with the Lumbee Regional Development Association, which had overseen the tribe’s recognition efforts for years. The LRDA and a newly formed group under the constitution both argued they were the tribe’s rightful governing body. 

N.C. Superior Court Judge Howard Manning ruled in 1999 that neither was correct and that the tribe was without a government, according to court documents archived by Appalachian State University. The Lumbee people, Manning said in his order, have “the power and right to select the type and form of government they wish.” 

“The tribal council can’t do anything without the chairman, and the chairman can’t do anything without the tribal council.”  

Jessica Scott, Robeson County attorney

So tribal members went to the polls again in 2001 and adopted a constitution that largely mirrored the original, according to Locklear. 

Today, the tribal government oversees an annual budget of more than $30 million—an amount that will increase substantially when it begins receiving federal benefits in a few years. Lowery said the tribe will likely get between $70 million and $80 million a year from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Indian Health Service, and other sources are also available. Revenues from a casino could outpace federal funds, according to Lowery. 

“Imagine what you can do,” he told the tribal council, “with a $540 million budget.” 

But Locklear said the proposed constitutional amendment strips the Lumbee people’s “fundamental right of self-governance.” 

“I see our constitution as our sacred tribal government document,” she said. “I am just fundamentally opposed to transforming that document into basically a commercial transaction document.”