Two descendants of Black people once enslaved by the Muscogee Nation have filed a federal lawsuit in Oklahoma, demanding tribal leaders issue them citizenship cards as previously ordered by a tribal court.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City, names Principal Chief David Hill and the Muscogee Nation Citizenship Board as defendants. It asserts that the refusal to recognize Black Creek Freedmen as citizens violates an 1866 treaty between the tribe and the U.S. government.
The Muscogee Nation Supreme Court ordered the issuance of citizenship cards in July 2025. However, the lawsuit claims that Principal Chief Hill and the citizenship board have failed to comply, thereby denying Rhonda Grayson and Jeffrey Kennedy their right to vote and full participation as tribal members.
The citizenship board had initially denied Grayson and Kennedy's applications in 2019, citing their inability to identify a lineal descendant of the tribe. Despite this, the tribal court ruled in their favor, affirming their entitlement to tribal citizenship.
Last August, Chief Hill reportedly blocked the citizenship board from issuing cards pending a tribal decision on amending the tribe's constitution. The Muscogee Nation, headquartered in Okmulgee, is one of five Oklahoma tribes that historically practiced slavery.
The 1866 treaty abolished slavery within the tribe and granted citizenship to the formerly enslaved. A 1979 tribal constitution, however, restricted membership to descendants listed as “Muscogee (Creek) Indians by blood” on the Dawes Rolls, a census compiled around 1900. These rolls included separate listings for Muscogee individuals and for Freedmen, who were identified by the U.S. government.
The 2025 tribal court ruling directed the citizenship board to apply the 1866 treaty to future applicants who can trace an ancestor to either roll. This decision could potentially open a path to tribal citizenship for thousands of individuals who are not Muscogee by blood.
Damario Solomon-Simmons, an attorney representing Grayson and Kennedy and a self-identified Black Creek Indian, stated that there are approximately 100,000 Black Creeks across the United States.
Similar legal actions against the Seminole Nation and the Cherokee Nation, two other Oklahoma tribes that historically practiced slavery, have resulted in those tribes granting citizenship to Freedmen descendants.
"Every day of non-compliance is another day that Black Creek Freedman are denied our birthright and our very identity as citizens," said Rhonda Grayson, president of the Muscogee Creek Indian Freedmen Band. She emphasized that the struggle is significant for all Black Creek Freedman descendants who have preserved their history and identity.