Two Black Muscogee Creek Freedmen scored a victory in their fight to maintain their tribal affiliation after they were denied by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation (MCN).
In September, Rhonda Grayson and Jeff Kennedy were granted citizenship to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation — after their applications were previously denied in 2019.
Grayson and Kennedy’s fight for citizenship is not over.
In late September, the Creek Freedman plaintiffs visited a citizenship office in Jenks, Oklahoma, to pick up their ID cards. Still, they were told that it would take “four to six weeks” to have their application reviewed by the Citizenship Board. The devastating blow came a week before the MCN Supreme Court issued a stay, which will set back the September court ruling until Wisner’s appeal is reviewed, 2 News Oklahoma noted.
The Creek Treaty of 1866 was at the center of the controversial suit.
In September, Judge Mouser ruled that Grayson and Kennedy’s application must be approved under Article II of the 1866 Creek Treaty. The law granted Black Creek Freedmen and their descendants citizenship. It also abolished slavery in the Okmulgee, Oklahoma-based tribe.
The Black Creek Freedmen were listed as tribe members under the Creek Freedmen Dawes Roll, while native-born tribal members were listed under the Creek By Blood Dawes Roll. Together, they were known as the Final Rolls.
According to the National Archives, the Final Rolls were a list of individuals deemed eligible for tribal membership under the “Five Civilized Tribes,” which included the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws and Seminoles. Tribe members on the list were entitled to land and other freedoms granted to native citizens.
“The Rolls contain more than 101,000 names from 1898-1914 (primarily from 1899-1906). They can be searched to discover the enrollee’s name, sex, blood degree and census card number,” the website notes.
However, in 1979, MCN reversed the treaty rule, ousting Creek Freedmen’s descendants who could not trace their lineage to an ancestor documented on the Creek By Blood Dawes Roll. Grayson and Kennedy’s applications were denied despite them being able to show proof of their heritage.
During the ruling, Mouser argued that the 1979 amendment violated “the clear language” of the 1866 Treaty. Wisner argued the MCN’s decision to change citizenship requirements should be protected due to tribal sovereignty.
“We respect the authority of our court but strongly disagree with Judge Mouser’s deeply flawed reasoning in this matter,” Wisner said after announcing her move to appeal September’s verdict. “The MCN Constitution, which we are duty-bound to follow, makes no provisions for citizenship for non-Creek individuals. We look forward to addressing this matter before our Nation’s highest court.”
Judge Mouser also accused Wisner of making “veiled threats” during a June hearing. According to the sanction, Mouser claimed that AG Wisner handed her an order from the MCN Supreme Court, which detailed the “grounds for recalling an MCN District Court Judge.” Mouser called the move “a veiled threat” and accused the AG of trying to “intimidate the Court before its ruling.”
Another detail emerged regarding the case. Mouser gave Wisner enough time to submit documents during the discovery phase of the trial, setting a deadline for Feb. 24, according to the outlet.
According to a court order obtained by the Black Wall Street Times, on July 3, MCN District Judge Denette Mouser, the magistrate responsible for September’s historic ruling, sanctioned MCN Attorney General Geri Wisner after she failed to turn over critical documents supporting the MCN Citizenship Board’s decision to deny Grayson and Kennedy’s application. She also accused the AG of making “a veiled threat” before her ruling.
The judge sanctioned Wisner after she failed to respond to a March 30 court order.
“Even then, Defendant waited nearly two full months (until just days before the scheduled hearing) to act on or at minimum acknowledge Plaintiffs’ motion, and yet still failed to demonstrate any genuine defense of its inaction and non-compliance,” Mouser noted in her ruling.
Damario Solomon-Simmons, the civil rights attorney who represented Grayson and Kennedy throughout the trial, accused Wisner of intentionally trying to delay the lawsuit’s outcome.
“We’re on the phone with the Creek Nation. We’re sending them emails, and we’re meeting with them,” the attorney told the Black Wall Street Times in February. “We’re saying let’s move this case along.”
The MCN isn’t the only nation that attempted to cast out and alienate its Black members.
Freedmen of the Cherokee Nation – descendants of Black people once enslaved by the tribe — were also stripped of their citizenship rights in 2007. Under the “By Blood” amendment, Freedmen were required to have an Indian ancestor listed on the Dawes Roll to prove their lineage to the tribe, according to Cherokee Phoenix.
In 2011, District Court Judge John T. Cripps amended the stringent policy, which helped around 2,800 Cherokee Freedmen regain their citizenship status.
Sadly, Cripps’s ruling was reversed in August of that year. Still, in 2021, the Freedman were delivered a historic victory when the Cherokee Supreme Court ruled to remove the “By Blood” amendment from the constitution. The legal victory granted Cherokee Freedmen tribal citizenship, access to healthcare and the right to run for tribal office, according to CNN.
The decision was confirmed based on a 2017 ruling from the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court that granted Freedman descendants the right to full citizenship based on the 1866 treaty.
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