Muscogee Nation部落的黑人后裔Rhonda Grayson和Jeffrey Kennedy向俄克拉荷马城联邦地方法院提起诉讼，要求部落领导人发放公民证。[1]被告包括部落首长David Hill和Muscogee Nation公民委员会。[1]
部落最高法院曾在2025年7月裁定Grayson和Kennedy有权获得部落公民身份，但首长和公民委员会拒绝执行该裁决。[1]诉讼指控这一行为违反了1866年Muscogee Nation与美国政府签署的条约。[1]根据该条约，部落被要求废除奴隶制并向被解放奴隶及其后裔授予公民身份。[1]
诉讼所涉及的Black Creek Freedmen，是指部落内那些因历史原因被奴役后获得解放的黑人及其后裔。然而，部落在1979年通过的宪法规定，成员资格仅限于Dawes名册上记载的Muscogee血统人士。[1]这一条款有效地将Freedmen后裔排除在外。
根据律师Damario Solomon-Simmons的说法，美国约有100,000名Black Creeks。[1]Grayson表示："每一天的不遵从都是另一天Black Creek Freedmen被否认我们的权利。"[1]
在其他部落中，情况有所不同。Seminole Nation和Cherokee Nation已向Freedmen后裔授予公民权。[1]
Rhonda Grayson and Jeffrey Kennedy, descendants of Black Creek Freedmen, filed a federal lawsuit Thursday in Oklahoma City against the Muscogee Nation, seeking to compel tribal leadership to issue them citizenship certificates [1]. The lawsuit names Principal Chief David Hill and the Muscogee Nation Citizenship Committee as defendants [1].
The legal action follows a July 2025 ruling by the Muscogee Nation Supreme Court that determined Grayson and Kennedy are entitled to tribal citizenship [1]. Despite this decision, Chief Hill and the Citizenship Committee have refused to enforce it [1]. The plaintiffs contend that the tribe's non-compliance violates the 1866 treaty between the Muscogee Nation and the U.S. government, which required the tribe to abolish slavery and grant citizenship to the descendants of formerly enslaved people [1].
The dispute stems from a 1979 tribal constitution that restricts membership to descendants of Muscogee ancestry listed on the Dawes Rolls [1]. This policy excludes Black Creek Freedmen, whose ancestors were enslaved by Creek Nation members before emancipation. According to attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons, approximately 100,000 Black Creeks live in the United States [1].
"Every day of non-compliance is another day Black Creek Freedmen are denied our rights," Grayson stated [1].
Other tribes have taken different approaches to this issue. Both the Seminole Nation and Cherokee Nation have already granted citizenship to Freedmen descendants [1].