Muscogee Nation judge rules in favor of citizenship for slave descendants

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/28/ [login to see] /muscogee-nation-freedmen-citizenship
A judge for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in Oklahoma ruled in favor of citizenship for two descendants of Black slaves once owned by tribal members, potentially paving the way for hundreds of other descendants known as freedmen.

District Judge Denette Mouser, based in the tribe's headquarters in Okmulgee, ruled late Wednesday in favor of two Black Muscogee Nation freedmen, Rhonda Grayson and Jeff Kennedy, who had sued the tribe's citizenship board for denying their applications.

Mouser reversed the board's decision and ordered it to reconsider the applications in accordance with the tribe's Treaty of 1866, which provides that descendants of those listed on the Creek Freedmen Roll are eligible for tribal citizenship.