Lumbee tribal members overwhelmingly voted against a constitutional amendment during a historic tribal election on Tuesday held in Robeson County, the Lumbees' homeland.
Almost 10,000 enrolled tribal members voted in the election across 21 different voting precincts and through absentee voting.
The constitutional amendment proposed changing the tribal constitution to give the tribal chairperson and tribal council more power over casino gaming development.
The vote reflects the division and fierce debate that emerged over tribal governance.
Lumbees United for Accountability, an opposition campaign, argued the amendment concentrated power among tribal leaders and undermined democracy by removing a referendum voting system for gaming decisions that is part of the existing Lumbee constitution.
Tribal leadership was largely in favor of approving the amendment as an effort to fast-track the building of a proposed Lumbee Dark Water Resort and Casino on tribal land near Interstate 95. They launched the website lumbeeschoose.com as part of a campaign to support a 'yes' vote.
The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina published the unofficial voting results late Tuesday:
- No: 5,553
- Yes: 3,363
In a statement on social media, Lumbee Tribe Chairman John Lowery said the vote "ensures we will not move forward with gaming."
"A majority of the Lumbee people have spoken, and they have said no to progress and have decided to stay with the status quo or simply staying with the way things are," said Lowery. "As a federally recognized Indian tribe, we had the opportunity, like so many of our brother and sister tribes, to exercise our sovereign rights to the fullest and generate billions of dollars to assist our tribal members and lift this entire region."
Lowery said he will not bring "this issue forward again" for the remaining 18 months of his time in office as chairman.
Opposing voters have emphasized their vote is against altering the constitution rather than opposing a tribal casino.
The existing unamended Lumbee constitution allows gaming to be pursued under a required a referendum vote with the necessary threshold of a minimum of 30% of all eligible Lumbee voters.
Tribal lawyer Arlinda Locklear, who helped her tribe secure full federal recognition last year, is in favor of a casino but was against the amendment as part of the Lumbees United for Accountability group.
"They basically write gaming into our constitution, and I'm not aware of any other recognized tribe that has gaming, a commercial enterprise, written into their organic governing document," Locklear previously told WUNC News. "They would change the authority of the Tribal Council, they would change the authority of the chair, they would expand the definition of tribal territory ... all because of an economic enterprise."
Locklear helped draft the original constitution and helped the Lumbee secure their historic recognition during hearings in Washington, D.C.
"I view our constitution as almost a sacred tribal document, and you undertake these changes in a serious, thoughtful, conservative way," Locklear said.
The Tribal Council previously passed the amendment 17-2 in April to put it up to a vote on Tuesday.
