Tribal high court ordered Black Creek citizenship in 2025
Rhonda Grayson and Jeffrey Kennedy, both descendants of Black people once enslaved by Muscogee (Creek) Nation citizens, filed their complaint Thursday in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City. The lawsuit names Principal Chief David Hill and the Muscogee Nation Citizenship Board, along with its individual members, as defendants.
The suit alleges that Hill and the board have acted beyond their lawful authority by withholding citizenship cards and obstructing implementation of the 1866 treaty and the court’s final judgment, according to the complaint. The lawsuit alleges the 1866 treaty requires citizenship, but the tribe has not complied.
In July 2025, the Muscogee Nation Supreme Court ruled that Grayson and Kennedy are entitled to tribal citizenship. The citizenship board had denied their applications in 2019 because they could not identify a lineal descendant of the tribe, the suit said. Despite the tribal high court’s ruling, the board has not issued citizenship cards, according to Grayson and Kennedy.
“We won in the Nation’s highest court, but one year later we are still being treated as though the judgment never happened,” Grayson said. Grayson is chairwoman and band leader of the Muscogee Creek Indian Freedmen Band. “A right that exists only on paper is not justice.”
The lawsuit seeks a court order directing the defendants to issue citizenship cards to Grayson and Kennedy and to comply with the tribal supreme court’s ruling.