A North Carolina House committee has given a key nod to a long-running fight for recognition, advancing a bill that would grant official state status to the Tuscarora people. House Bill 600 cleared its first hurdle this week and is now moving deeper into the legislative maze, a rare win for a tribe that has spent decades pressing its case. Tribal leaders cast the vote as a long overdue nod to old treaties and community records they say already document their presence in the state.
Committee Clears Recognition Proposal
The House Federal Relations and American Indian Affairs Committee signed off on the proposal in a 6-2 vote, sending it to the powerful Rules Committee, which controls what reaches the House floor. As reported by The News & Observer, backers framed the move as a way to correct years of administrative denials, while some state officials urged lawmakers to move carefully.
What House Bill 600 Would Do
House Bill 600 would formally recognize the Tuscarora as a tribe under state law, giving them a recognized governing body and “the rights and immunities of a recognized tribe under state law.” It would also extend their voice inside state government. According to the bill text from the North Carolina General Assembly, the Tuscarora would receive two seats on the North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs and one seat on the American Indian Heritage Commission.
Tribal Testimony And Stakes
During the committee hearing, Tuscarora members used their few minutes at the microphone to press the case that their roots in the region run deep. “It took 50 years to get through the doors to speak,” Kaya Littleturtle told lawmakers, underscoring how long the tribe has sought this moment. Tribal Council Co-Chair David Rahahę-tih Webb added that elders had “been fighting for this for generations,” testimony recorded by The News & Observer.
A History Of Denial
The path to this week’s vote has been rocky. In 2019, the North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs rejected the Tuscarora’s recognition petition, labeling the group a “splinter” of the Lumbee. That decision, detailed in a North Carolina Department of Administration commission report that also spells out the technical criteria petitioners must meet, pushed tribal leaders toward the legislature instead of the administrative route they had pursued.
Who The Tuscarora Are In North Carolina
Today, Tuscarora communities in North Carolina are organized through longhouses and traditional clan structures, primarily in Robeson County. Estimates of their membership inside the state vary. Some accounts place the population in the low hundreds, while other reporting counts about 1,200 people and notes multiple longhouse communities and clan networks, according to The Assembly.
Politics Behind The Push
On the political side, Republican Rep. Ed Goodwin of Chowan County has been a steady ally, sponsoring or backing Tuscarora recognition efforts since his election in 2018. Supporters say the legislature now offers the clearest route to state benefits that flow from official status. “It’s about fairness. I want people’s grandchildren to know who they are,” Chief Cecil Hunt told The Assembly, capturing why advocates see a state law as crucial.
What Comes Next
According to the General Assembly’s bill record, H.B. 600 has been re-referred through the committee process and now sits with the House Rules Committee. That gatekeeping panel will decide whether the measure gets a full House vote. If it reaches the floor, lawmakers will still have to hash out questions over intertribal funding, how much weight to give past administrative decisions and whether the legislature should effectively override the commission’s 2019 findings.
