Posted on 11/12/2025 5:18:58 AM PST by TroutGuy
A North Carolina senator is holding up Mississippi’s nominations for federal judgeships and U.S. attorneys because he wants Sen. Roger Wicker to help an indigenous group in his state gain federal recognition as a tribe.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis told a reporter from NOTUS that his block on four Mississippi nominees is due to negotiations with Wicker, Mississippi’s senior senator, over federal recognition of the Lumbee and other issues unrelated to the nominees themselves. Wicker serves as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which has enormous sway over the legislation in which the Lumbee tribe would be recognized.
“Roger’s one of my favorite people here, and, you know, it’s just a matter of using the leverage people use every day here,” Tillis said.
The Lumbee is a group of indigenous people in North Carolina that has been seeking federal recognition as a tribe for over a century. But other federally recognized tribes have opposed the effort.
Tillis has been a vocal supporter of federal recognition for the Lumbee. He is not running for reelection in 2026, so next year will be his final opportunity to secure a bipartisan bill for the indigenous people.
Language granting them federal recognition was added to the House version of the Pentagon’s annual spending blueprint.
But language about the Lumbee was not included in the Senate’s version of the blueprint.
Tillis also said he is negotiating with Wicker over other issues, but he declined to say what the issues were.
In August, Trump nominated Robert Chamberlin and James Maxwell, both justices on the Mississippi Supreme Court, to vacant federal judgeships in northern Mississippi. Trump in July nominated Scott Leary and Baxter Kruger, his choices for U.S. attorney for the Northern and Southern districts of Mississippi, respectively.
(Excerpt) Read more at mississippitoday.org ...
The US Constitutions say “advise and consent” not blackmail to gain votes.
Uniparty JERK.
It can’t come soon enough that this guy Tillis leaves. I’m sure he’s trying to feather his nest with future casino profits from this tribe.
The Lumber or the Lumbee?
Lumbee are blue eyed folk wanting a casino.
Some believe the blue eyes result from Roanoke Island Lost Colony genes
100%. There’s no way an exiting Senator would care this much about helping a fake tribe except he has a big financial payout waiting for him if his blackmail goes through.
And they are mostly “them” and not so much “indigenous”.
The differing tribes were to have enacted a controlling governing body well over a century ago. Those that did are doing very well with casino and the money from it. This tribe did not. They should have.
I had to deal with a lot of these new casino tribes with the job I had after retiring from the Army. I was shocked at how many of them are run by honkies. Back in the seventeen and eighteen hundreds a lot of grandmothers were Indian Princesses who used to sit by a lake churning the butter for the tribes. Many of the warriors were blue-eyed and painted on the sides of tractor trailers traveling the highways and byways.
LOL! I saw pictures of them and this seems lame.
There was a time when such horse trading would be tolerable, but in case Tillis and Wicker haven’t noticed, total warfare has been declared on our president, our values, and what remains of our institutions. Judges are a critical part of the enemies undermining the president’s mandate. We do not have the cushion to horse trade over penny-ante stuff when our time to act is quite limited.
The Lumbee are very crooked. I lived in Fayetteville NC for 25 years. Watch out for the Locklears Oxendine Hunts Chavis and Jacobs surnames.
They are descendants of the Cherokee tribe. I’m guessing the major tribes don’t want to recognize splinter groups.
EC
It seems like some anthropologist college would have a DNA study to confirm whether this is a real tribe and whether they are intermarried with the Roanoke colony.
“The US Constitutions say “advise and consent” not blackmail to gain votes.”
That “advise and consent” must have looked good to the Founders in theory, but in practice it was a mistake.
Because the politicians are not Christian men of honor upon which our constitutional government is meant to be based, they are corrupt to the core and use it as a tool for personal gain.
As in Heather Locklear.
The Cherokee pretty much own N Carolina so doubtful this is going anywhere.
They are about as “Indian” as most of the newly-formed “tribes” in California that are basically Hispanic.
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