Two descendants of Black people once enslaved by the Muscogee Nation have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to compel tribal leaders to issue them citizenship cards, more than a year after a tribal court ruled they were entitled to membership.
The suit, filed Thursday 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 argues that the tribe’s leadership is violating an 1866 treaty between the Muscogee Nation and the United States by refusing to recognize Black Creek Freedmen as citizens.
In July 2025, the Muscogee Nation Supreme Court ruled that Grayson and Kennedy were entitled to tribal citizenship, overturning the citizenship board’s 2019 denial of their applications. The board had rejected them on the grounds that they could not identify a lineal ancestor listed as a Muscogee Indian.
Despite that ruling, the citizenship cards have not been issued. The lawsuit contends that the delay denies the pair their “right to vote and the ability to participate fully as members of the Nation.”
Last August, Hill blocked the tribe’s citizenship board from issuing new cards until leaders determine how to amend the Muscogee Nation’s constitution. The tribe’s headquarters is located in Okmulgee, roughly 100 miles (160 kilometers) northeast of Oklahoma City.
The dispute stems from a legacy that predates the modern tribe. The Muscogee Nation is one of five Oklahoma tribes that once practiced slavery. Under the 1866 treaty, the tribe abolished slavery and extended citizenship to the formerly enslaved and their descendants, known as Freedmen.
That guarantee has been contested for decades. In 1979, the Muscogee Nation adopted a constitution restricting membership to descendants of people listed as “Muscogee (Creek) Indians by blood” on the Dawes Rolls, a census of tribal members compiled around 1900. Because many Freedmen were recorded on separate rolls, the provision effectively excluded their descendants from citizenship.
The case reflects a broader reckoning among several Native American nations over the citizenship status of Freedmen descendants, a debate that touches on treaty obligations, constitutional autonomy, and the enduring effects of slavery within tribal communities.
Messages seeking comment from Hill and the citizenship board were not immediately returned. The federal court has yet to schedule proceedings in the matter, which could carry implications for how the 1866 treaty is interpreted and enforced.