Tribal Chairman John Lowery Weekly Video Update Jan. 9, 2026
- Jan 9
- 2 min read
On Wednesday of this week, we held our first official meeting with the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs. It was a productive and informative discussion that marks an important step forward for our Tribe. Before the end of this month, the BIA will release its annual list of federally recognized tribes, and I am honored to share that, for the first time, the Lumbee Tribe will officially appear on that list. Being added to the list of Federally Recognized Tribes published in the Federal Register annually will finally open the door to every avenue available to protect the sovereignty of the Lumbee people. It will give the Tribe and our members access to new tools to protect our land, our children, our ancestors’, and most importantly, will remind anyone with questions that we are here and will be here, now and in the future.” We were also informed that over the coming months we will begin receiving what is called “new tribe” funding which will support infrastructure costs and technical assistance for this transition. We will work closely with the BIA to access and implement this funding as it becomes available. These resources will allow us to thoughtfully build systems and gradually bring programs online as we enter this New Era of Possibilities and Prosperity. We also discussed the process by which the Secretary of the Interior will verify our tribal rolls, which will be based on our enrollment as of December 18, 2025. Regarding enrollment, we will resume updates for currently enrolled citizens later this month. Once the Secretary’s verification procedures are finalized, I will work with the Tribal Council to establish a date for open enrollment for those individuals who have decided to wait until now to finally become enrolled citizens of the Lumbee Tribe. Also, we have learned that our Lumbee students working towards a vocational certificate or diploma, associate’s, bachelors, masters, doctoral or professional degree, are now eligible for the Cobell Scholarship which is the first of the many opportunities that will be available for our youth. For more information you can visit the website, cobellscholar.org For the foreseeable future, I will provide weekly video updates as we continue to move forward in this new and evolving relationship with the United States government. As I have shared with many over the past three weeks, this is a learning process—one step at a time. I ask for your patience, because as we learn, you will learn, and I remain committed to keeping you informed every step of the way. As a tribal government, we are actively engaged in discussions around the Indian Child Welfare Act, cultural and historic preservation, funding opportunities beyond the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Indian Health Services, land-into-trust, updates to state statutes that reflect our new status as a fully recognized tribe, and how best to strengthen and exercise our political and sovereign might to better serve our people for generations to come.
