Dan Bishop: “I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank Representative Butterfield for those fine comments. I agree with him 100…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank Representative Butterfield for those fine comments. I agree with him 100 percent. That bill that Congress passed back in 1956 said this, even as it recognized the Lumbee: ``Nothing in this act shall make such Indians eligible for any services performed by the United States for Indians because of their status as Indians, and none of the statutes of the United States which affect Indians because of their status as Indians shall be applicable to the Lumbee Indians.'' My goodness. What an error, what a mistake, and what an injustice. But that is what the Congress of that time said, and it is high time for us to correct that injustice. Therefore, I am proud to be a cosponsor with Representative Butterfield and Representative Hudson of this legislation. The Lumbee have for three centuries been a cohesive and distinct community of aboriginal origins and durable institutions, especially schools, living near the Lumber River in Robeson County. The Lumbee have been called by several names, but it cannot be disputed that they are the continuously present and vital people shown on a map drawn in 1725 whose common modern surnames appear on a document written in 1771: Locklear, Chavis, Dees, Sweat, and Groom. They are the Lumbee who were living in Long Swamp in the 1730s, the community now known as Prospect.…”