Lumbee Tribe Rejects Amendment Opening the Door for a Casino

Members of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina overwhelmingly rejected a proposed amendment to their tribal constitution that would have allowed the tribe to open a casino. 

About 62% of the roughly 9,000 tribal members who cast ballots voted no, according to unofficial results from the Lumbee Tribe Elections Board.

Tribal Chairman John Lowery expressed his disappointment in a statement Tuesday night. “A majority of the Lumbee people have spoken, and they have said no to progress and have decided to stay with the status quo.” 

Full federal recognition, which members sought for more than 130 years, allows the tribe to enter the gaming business. Congress passed legislation last December making the Lumbee the 575th federally recognized tribe in the nation. The same month, the tribe’s for-profit entity bought 241 acres of land along Interstate 95 in southern Robeson County in anticipation of a casino. 

Supporters said a casino, which would also include restaurants and retail stores, would be a financial boon for Robeson, Scotland, Hoke, and Cumberland counties–an economically distressed region with some of the state’s highest rates of unemployment, poverty, and crime. Lumbee leaders projected it could create between 2,750 and 3,500 full-time jobs with annual salaries starting at $45,000. 

But the casino question divided the tribe’s 60,000 members since the tribal council agreed in April to put the issue to a public vote. At least one tribal member filed a petition asking the tribal supreme court to stop Tuesday’s vote, said Alex Baker, speaker of the tribal council. The court denied the request. 

A newly formed group, Lumbees United for Accountability, urged tribal members to vote against the amendment, saying it went against the spirit of the tribal constitution. 

The group and other critics said the tribe diluted members’ power by asking them to amend the constitution instead of directly putting the casino issue to a referendum vote. The constitution, which members first adopted in 1994, called for a referendum on gaming if and when the tribe became federally recognized and wanted to open a casino. 

Tribal leaders said the constitution had to be amended, however, because of an apparent error. Writers of the document pointed to Article V when outlining the basis of a referendum on gaming, although Article VI actually described the process for such votes. 

A referendum requires at least 30% of eligible tribal members to participate, with a majority voting yes. Tribal leaders said it’s tough to meet that threshold. The tribe has between 30,000 and 40,000 eligible voters, said Baker. 

A constitutional amendment, on the other hand, requires only a simple majority of the votes cast and does not have participation limits. 

Some people who opposed the amendment argued it would have given the tribal chairperson too much power. Along with eliminating the need for a referendum on gaming, it would have allowed the chairperson to negotiate gaming compacts with the state and nominate people to gaming and regulatory boards, as long as the council agreed. It also would have cemented the council’s power to pass ordinances “that permit, license, regulate or otherwise govern gaming activities” consistent with federal law. 

Others offered different reasons for opposing the amendment. Some Christian tribal members argued that casinos go against God’s teachings by preying on people’s addictions and weaknesses. In a statement this month, elders of the nondenominational church CrossWay of Pembroke said they understand “the desire for economic opportunity, tribal advancement, and greater financial security.” 

“Yet as followers of Christ, we must ask a deeper question,” they said. “What should we do when something that appears financially beneficial conflicts with the way God has called us to trust Him, love our neighbor, and glorify His name?”

Some questioned whether the tribe was moving too fast on gaming. 

“I think we should have celebrated federal recognition first,” said Charles Graham, a Lumbee who served in the state House from 2011 to 2023. “To be honest, the ink on the federal legislation had not dried.” 

Lowery had said that the tribe needed to act quickly partly because South Carolina lawmakers are expected to consider a plan to expand gaming there. He even suggested the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, North Carolina’s only other federally recognized tribe that operates two casinos in the western corner of the state, could open a casino near the Lumbee territory. 

“These folks around us,” Lowery said Monday, “they’re not going to wait.”

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians opposed federal recognition for the tribe. While Congress acknowledged the Lumbee people in 1956, it denied them the full benefits. 

Now that it is recognized, the Lumbee tribe can receive millions of dollars a year from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Indian Health Service, and other government funds aimed at improving the lives of Native Americans. 

Lumbee leaders argued a casino would have generated millions more to support tribal programs. 

Lowery said in his statement Tuesday night that he will not pursue gaming again during the remaining 18 months of his second term as chairman. But that doesn’t mean the casino issue is dead. Tribal leaders could put gaming to a vote again, as either a referendum or a constitutional amendment.