PEMBROKE — Anita Hammonds Blanks, the speaker of the Lumbee Tribal Council, endorsed the sitting Chairman Harvey Godwin Jr. in his re-election bid on Thursday during the council’s meeting.
“I say we support Harvey as our tribal chairman for the next three years,” Blanks said after talking about the relief efforts in wake of Hurricane Florence and Godwin seeking a second consecutive term.
Blanks is serving her second term on the board, making her ineligible for re-election.
Godwin announced his re-election campaign on Aug. 22 and filed Aug. 29. He will be running against Robeson County Board of Commissioners Chairman Raymond Cummings, Everton Chavis Jr. and Randy Lewis.
Blanks also acknowledged the work of Sheila Beck, former director of the tribe’s Board of Elections. Beck, who was present at Thursday’s meeting, resigned her elections post to become one of the candidates running for Blanks’ council seat.
Also on Thursday, Godwin spoke about relief efforts underway in the wake of Hurricane Florence. He commended the council members for their work in their communities.
“In less than two years, our people and our community have been hit by two major hurricanes and epic flooding from these storms,” Godwin said. “Given what happened in our tribal territory after Hurricane Matthew, we began planning early to deal with Florence’s aftermath.”
Godwin said administrative staff members were able to check on residents in tribal housing and secure tribal properties, Still, the Tribal Administrative Complex, also known as the Turtle, was damaged.
“The Turtle building sustained tremendous damage to the roof and the interior during the storm,” Godwin said. “Tribal staff and professional disaster recovery teams have been working diligently to clean and repair our building.”
Until renovations are complete, tribal administration and staff will be running operations at the Lumbee Boys & Girls Club, behind the Turtle.
State Rep. Charles Graham stood during the meeting to say the county will have to go through some major changes to fix the problems contributing to massive flooding, such as in the wake of hurricanes Matthew and Florence.
“I believe we will have more like these in the future,” Graham said.
“Drainage is a problem in our county,” Graham went on to say. “The Lumber River is a mess.”
Graham said he will bring these issues up the state and federal governments.
Graham also gave a presentation on the launch of the Native American Agricultural Fund. The trust fund is responsible for distributing $266 million to organizations that support American Indian farmers and ranchers. The money comes from a settlement in the Keepseagle versus Vilsak case that spent more than 18 years in federal litigation. Graham will be serving as a trustee on the fund’s recently established 14-member board.
“This is an outstanding opportunity for our youth,” Graham said. “We are potentially talking about children receiving grants for higher education studying agriculture.”
In other business, council members approved a resolution to extend the 2017-18 fiscal year budget, which was set to end Sunday. Blanks said the Tribal Council was unable to complete the 2018-19 budget and this will allow operations to continue and employees to be paid. The extension will be from Oct. 1 through Nov. 30.
