MOUNT VERNON, Ala. (AP) — Testifying before Congress, Chief Framon Weaver said his Alabama-based tribe, with roots dating back to the 1830s, held a distinction no one else wanted when it came to being recognized by the U.S. government, a stamp of approval that can mean millions in federal funding for Native American groups.
“It is clear that our tribe, the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians, (is) the literal poster child for the structural failures evident in the federal recognition process,” Weaver told a committee.
That was in 2012, so long ago that Weaver is no longer chief. The MOWAs are still seeking federal recognition, and they’re one of two state-recognized tribes hoping Congress will right what they see as wrongs of the past with the help of two influential U.S. senators who are retiring. It’s an issue entwined not just with history but with the possibility of gambling revenues.
Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, the senior Republican on the Appropriations Committee, is sponsoring legislation that would provide federal recognition to the roughly 6,500-member MOWA Band. GOP Sen. Richard Burr is handling similar legislation for the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, which with 60,000 members calls itself the nation’s largest tribe not recognized by the federal government.
Both groups contend the process for gaining federal recognition has become adulterated and now favors money over history. They say that’s partly because of the billions generated by Indian gambling, something they can’t offer because of the lack of federal acknowledgement.
Similar recognition bills have failed repeatedly in the past, and it’s unclear whether either one will win approval this year. But the current chief of the MOWA Band, Lebaron Byrd, has taken over Weaver’s lobbying effort and hopes a final use of Shelby’s pull will mean the difference this time.
“We always are optimists,” he said. “We don’t give up hope.”
Neither Shelby’s nor Burr’s offices responded to messages seeking updates on the legislation.
Byrd said obtaining federal recognition would mean between $50 million and $100 million initially in benefits including health care, education and economic development for the MOWA, who take their name from the band’s location along the Mobile-Washington county line of southwest Alabama about 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of Mobile.
Passage of the Lumbee bill would cost about $363 million in expected spending from 2024-2027, according to an assessment by the Congressional Budget Office. The largest share, roughly $247 million, would come from benefits offered by the Indian Health Service, it said.
Both bills are opposed by a coalition of tribes already acknowledged by the U.S. government. A branch of the Bureau of Indian Affairs determines whether groups qualify as tribes through anthropological, genealogical and historical studies.
Groups that lose recognition bids before the agency can challenge those decisions through administrative appeals or lawsuits, something the MOWA have tried and failed. The Lumbee gained partial federal recognition through a bill in 1956 but are still blocked from key federal programs, a decision they continue fighting more than six decades later.
Politics shouldn’t be allowed to short-circuit the process that other tribes have used to gain federal recognition, Native American groups opposed to the bills argued during a forum held at the U.S. Capitol in July.
“It is egregious when you can buy your way in,” said Margo Gray, chairwoman of the United Indian Nations of Oklahoma.
Congressional action would encroach on the rights of other tribes by cheapening the process, said Richard French, chairman of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
“When you claim to be someone that you’re not, you’re messing with the other peoples’ sovereignty,” he said.
Both the MOWA Band and the Lumbee Tribe contend history is on their side, even if…
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