North Carolina state lawmaker Jarrod Lowery joining Trump administration as tribe seeks US recognition

Danielle Battaglia, The News & Observer on Oct 7, 2025

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WASHINGTON — North Carolina state Rep. Jarrod Lowery announced he is taking a job at the U.S. Department of Interior.

Lowery confirmed the news, first reported by Anderson Alerts, to McClatchy on Tuesday, saying he would serve as senior adviser to the department’s assistant secretary for Indian Affairs.

Lowery, 37, a Republican from Robeson County, was elected to his second term in the state House last fall but announced in a video posted to social media last month that he would step away in October to take a job in Washington, D.C. He had not yet confirmed which position.

Lowery has served as the only Native American in the Legislature. He is a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. His brother, John Lowery, is the tribe’s chairman.

The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina is the largest tribe east of the Mississippi River, made up of more than 60,000 members in Robeson, Hoke, Scotland and Cumberland counties. It’s the ninth largest tribe in the United States.

The tribe has been seeking federal recognition since 1888.

There’s a debate about whether the tribe needs to seek this recognition through an act of Congress or through the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

That’s due to a vote in 1956 in which Congress gave the tribe federal recognition, but not federal benefits that typically come with it.

That left the tribe continuing to fight.

In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order requiring the Department of Interior to find a legal path for the tribe. The Trump administration has not released those findings to the public. McClatchy has filed a public records request for the results of its study.

Meanwhile, members of North Carolina’s congressional delegation are also working to find a path toward recognition for the tribe.

Last month, Rep. David Rouzer, a Republican from Wilmington, led the U.S. House in passing Lumbee recognition as an amendment within the National Defense Authorization Act, a piece of legislation that sets the budget for the Pentagon.

That bill is now before the U.S. Senate, where the Lumbee have strong support from Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from Huntersville.