Home The News National News Lumbee meeting does little to assuage contract's critics

Lumbee meeting does little to assuage contract's critics

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Tuesday, 11 May 2010

Lumbee meeting does little to assuage contract's critics By Mike Hixenbaugh Staff writer 05-10-2010    A closed-door meeting between Lumbee government officials and tribal members Friday did little to calm critics who oppose the tribe's contract with a Las Vegas gaming consultant. About 300 people attended the meeting at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, multiple sources said. Dozens more were turned away at the entrance to the Givens Performing Arts Center because they weren't registered on the Lumbee tribal rolls, attendees reported. The meeting - an attempt to soothe public outrage over the recently signed consulting contract - was closed to the media and all nontribal members. Tribe Chairman Purnell Swett spoke at length during the meeting, sources said. Swett detailed the tribe's 120-year push for federal recognition and made the case for hiring Nevada-based Lewin International LLC to finish that fight, attendees reported. The contract grants Lewin the exclusive right to push for federal recognition of the tribe, and, should it succeed, guarantees the firm a stake in all future Lumbee economic ventures, including casinos. The deal includes more than $35 million in penalties if the tribe backs out of the contract. The agreement - signed in December by outgoing Chairman Jimmy Goins and ratified by the Tribal Council three months later - has outraged some tribal members, who fear the deal signs away the tribe's sovereignty for a chance to open casinos. Swett and other Tribal Council members did not return phone messages Monday seeking comment about the meeting. Attendees said Swett reportedly defended the Lewin deal as the tribe's best hope to win recognition in Congress. Swett told the crowd that the contract has no effect on the tribe's sovereignty, sources reported, and he denied claims that the agreement is a ploy to win a gaming allowance. Swett said partnering with a well-heeled firm was the only way the tribe would ever overcome the lobbying efforts of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and other Indian groups that oppose Lumbee recognition, sources said. "It's about politics and money," Swett reportedly told the audience. Lawyer, chairman spar At one point during the meeting, multiple sources said, Swett and the tribe's lawyer, Ed Brooks, sparred with Arlinda Locklear, the Maryland-based Lumbee lawyer who led the push for federal recognition, unpaid, for more than 20 years. Locklear reportedly stood up from her front-row seat and challenged Brooks' description of the contract and the process by which it was signed. The exchange drew cheers from the crowd, sources said. Reached at her office in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Locklear confirmed that she attended the meeting but declined to speak in detail about the gathering. "I attended because ... tribal leadership had passed out a letter indicating, among other things, I had not been replaced - that I had chosen to walk away," Locklear said. "That is simply not true, and I wanted to be there to make it clear to the tribe that it was not the case." Members of the Lumbee Sovereignty Coalition, a group formed in opposition of the Lewin contract, attended the meeting in large numbers on Friday, group organizers said. The protest group has threatened to recall Swett and council members who continue supporting the Lewin contract. Melinda Locklear, 44, said she attended the meeting "to figure out what all the fuss was about." She walked away unsure, she said. "I wanted to come hear it for myself," she said. "I think a casino would be good for the area, but I'm still not sure about this contract they signed. Seems like a big risk." There are about 50,000 Lumbees, most of whom live in and around Robeson County. Congress recognized the tribe in 1956 but denied it financial benefits. Full recognition would bring the tribe millions of dollars in aid for education, health and child welfare. http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2010/05/10/997877?sac=Home

 

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