The Lombie tribe of North Carolina got a major boost this week in its decades-long fight to become a federally recognized tribe.

President Trump yesterday signed a presidential memo directing the Secretary of the Interior to submit a plan for full federal recognition of the tribe.

That status would unleash hundreds of millions of dollars in support for the 60,000 member

Lumby. Their chairman, John Lowry, joins us now. Thanks for being with us. Thank you for having me.

So how confident are you that this action by President Trump will finally result in the recognition

that your tribe has sought for more than a century now? Well, we are very

confident. As you may know, we have been through the United States House numerous times over the

past decade, and we've always seemed to come up short in the United States Senate. And we've

never had this level of support directly from the White

House, from the president himself. And so we feel like with him weighing in, with him letting

Congress know that he would like to see us have full fellow recognition, we feel like this will

help us to finally cross the finish line and get this bill passed in both houses of Congress and sent to his desk.

Why have previous efforts fallen short?

We've been on this road for a long time.

During the 50s, during the 1950s, the United States was trying to get out of what they called the Indian business.

And they were terminating relationships with tribes.

And so we actually got caught up in that.

Because of that, we've been in this legal limbo now.

We've had a lot of support from different congresspeople in the past.

And so, you know, it's just a lot of work trying to get this bill passed.

How would full federal recognition change the day-to-day lives of your 60,000 members?

Well, we have a tribal government now that is set up and we have a budget over $40 million.

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