Supporters of Justice for Black Creek Freedmen will rally ahead of a court hearing demanding the Muscogee Creek Nation reinstate them. Lawsuit alleges discrimination against Black Indigenous people and denying them status & benefits.
Black Creek Indians are demanding their Muscogee Creek Nation citizenship restored in a federal lawsuit.
The Muscogee Creek Indian Freedmen Band says the tribe’s 1979 update of its constitution goes against the Creek Treaty of 1866 by making only Creeks by blood eligible for citizenship, leaving out the black Creeks federally designated as freedmen and their descendants.
“The Creek Nation, relying upon this openly racist Dawes rolls, decided to segregate, strip and steal the heritage, culture and citizenship of those so-called Creek freedmen and their descendants,” said attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons.
The ‘”freedmen” designation includes Creeks of African descent or mixed blood, whether they lived as free citizens or former slaves.
Muscogee Creek Nation Attorney General Kevin Dellinger said in a statement said the tribe has not been served with the lawsuit.
“When the Nation receives legal documents related, the Nation will respond accordingly,” Dellinger said.
Solomon-Simmons said he and his 86-year-old grandmother, Johnnie Mae Austin, are among the freedmen’s descendants.
“My grandmother tells me how she grew up speaking Creek, going to Creek events. She was a Creek. Our family has been Creek for as long as we’ve been around. We’re doing this for people like her,” Solomon-Simmons said.
According to a report from KTUL, the group, called The Muscogee (Creek) Indian Freedmen Band, Inc, says the Muscogee (Creek) Nation “with full knowledge and approval of the [Department of Interior], continues to deny so-called ‘Creek Freedmen’ and their Descendants their Creek citizenship in violation of the Creek Treaty of 1866, the Constitution of the United States, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the Indian Civil Rights Act.”
Attorney Kris Koepsel said the freedmen are demanding full citizenship to avoid being treated as second-class citizens.
“The right to vote, the right to hold office, the right to run for office, the right for all benefits that are granted to all equally situated Creek citizens. We can’t accept anything less,” Koepsel said.
The plaintiffs include descendants of:
- Creeks of “African Descent”
- Free “Africans” living as citizens of the Creek Nation
- “Mixed blood” Creek Nation citizens
- Individuals who were enslaved by Muscogee Creek Nation, who were listed as Creek Freedmen on the Dawes Rolls because of the color of their skin
The group is seeking “judicial recognition of their lawful heritage, not monetary compensation.” The federal lawsuit asks the U.S. Department of the Interior be barred from granting benefits to the tribe until the freedmen are granted citizenship. Cherokee and Seminole freedmen have won citizenship in their tribes through similar actions.
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Some of the record sources that can be used for African-American genealogy research are:
- Birth, marriage, and death records
- Federal census records were recorded every 10 years starting in 1790
- State, territorial, and colonial censuses
- Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company (often called the Freedman’s Bank) from 1871 to 1874
- Land records
- Probate records
- Churches sometimes kept records of the christenings, marriages, deaths, or other information about their members
- Newspapers were written in many areas and time periods which contain information such as notices of marriages, notices of death, and obituaries
- Town and county histories may include details regarding African-American settlers and slaves
- Slave records from 1600s
- Tax records
- Southern Claims applications from 1871
- Military records from 1775
