AN ACT amending the state RECOGNITION of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation of North Carolina.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 71A‑7.2 reads as rewritten:

§ 71A‑7.2.  Occaneechi Band of Saponi Nation in North Carolina; rights, privileges, immunities, obligations and duties.

The Indians now living primarily in the old settlement of Little Texas in Pleasant Grove Township, Alamance County, who are lineal descendants of the Saponi and related Indians who occupied the Piedmont of North Carolina and Virginia in precontact times, and specifically of those Saponi and related Indians who formally became tributary to Virginia under the Treaties of Middle Plantation in 1677 and 1680, and who under the subsequent treaty of 1713 with the Colony of Virginia agreed to join together as a single community, shall, from and after July 20, 1971, be designated and officially recognized as the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation of North Carolina, and they shall continue to enjoy all their rights, privileges, and immunities as citizens of the State as now or hereafter provided by law, and shall continue to be subject to all the obligations and duties of citizens under the law.an American Indian Tribe with a recognized tribal governing body carrying out and exercising substantial governmental duties and powers similar to the State, being recognized as eligible for the special programs and services provided by the United States to Indians because of their status as Indians.

SECTION 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law.