Ten Lumbee tribal council members attended an Indian education conference last October at the four-star Hilton hotel on Waikiki Beach – a junket that cost the tribe $4,000. Credit card statements provided, to WRAL News by a council member who asked to remain anonymous show that tribal officials also have traveled to Albuquerque, N.M., San Antonio, Texas, and Alaska in the past year. The television station reported today on its Web site that the charges include a limo service in Colorado and $500 for a hotel room in Florence, S.C., which is less than an hour's drive from the Lumbee community in Robeson County.
Council member Wendy Moore-Graham said the trips were paid for with money the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development gives to the tribe each year. This year's grant was $13 million, but HUD recently cut funding to the Lumbees by $1.7 million. The tribe shut down its housing rehabilitation program on Monday with more than 1,000 tribal members still on the waiting list for assistance.
