Tribal court ruled for Freedmen descendants in 2025

Descendants seek enforcement of tribal court ruling after year of inaction

Two descendants of Black people once enslaved by a Native American tribe asked a federal court in Oklahoma on Thursday to force tribal leaders to issue them citizenship cards as ordered a year ago by the Muscogee Nation Supreme Court.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City on behalf of Rhonda Grayson and Jeffrey Kennedy names Principal Chief David Hill and the Muscogee Nation Citizenship Board as defendants. It alleges that Hill and the board are violating an 1866 treaty between the tribe and the U.S. government by refusing to recognize Black Creek Freedmen as citizens despite the tribal court’s July 2025 ruling.

The citizenship board had denied Grayson and Kennedy’s applications in 2019 because they could not identify a lineal descendant of the tribe, according to the complaint. The Muscogee Nation Supreme Court, the tribe’s highest judicial body, subsequently ruled that the pair are entitled to tribal citizenship under the treaty.

MSI previously reported in February that tribal citizens whose Black ancestors were enslaved by citizens of several Oklahoma tribal nations have seen more inclusive access to some Native services, but barriers remain, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

The Justice for Greenwood organization said the complaint alleges that tribal officials have acted beyond their lawful authority by withholding citizenship cards and obstructing implementation of the treaty and the court’s final judgment.

“We won in the Nation’s highest court, but one year later we are still being treated as though the judgment never happened,” said Grayson, who serves as chairwoman and band leader of the Muscogee Creek Indian Freedmen Band. “A right that exists only on paper is not justice.”

The 1866 treaty, signed after the Civil War, granted citizenship to Black Creek Freedmen — people whose ancestors were enslaved by tribal citizens. The treaty was one of several between the U.S. government and tribes that had allied with the Confederacy, requiring them to abolish slavery and extend citizenship to freed people.

The Cherokee Freedmen won a similar Supreme Court case in 2017 that confirmed their right to enroll as citizens of the Cherokee Nation based on that tribe’s 1866 treaty.

Grayson’s attorney, Damario Solomon-Simmons, represents the plaintiffs in the case.