In miscellaneous news, the House
passed a bill recognizing the Lumbee Indians (around fifty thousand in North Carolina), which could amount to hundreds of millions of federal funds for housing, education and health benefits for them along with six much smaller Virginia tribes. The
tribe has had a
checkered history and the recognition is
controversial, both because their lineage is debated and they are not really reservation Indians. Top state leaders support it this time, so it might have a better shot in the Senate now.
