Judge sides with US slave descendants in Indigenous citizenship dispute

Marilyn Vann, president of the Descendants of Freedmen of the Five Tribes Association of Oklahoma City, speaks at the US Capitol in 2022 about the legacy of slavery among Indigenous nations [J Scott Applewhite/AP Photo]

In the United States, a judge for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation (MCN) has ruled in favour 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.

Late on Wednesday, District Judge Denette Mouser, based in the tribe’s headquarters in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, sided with two Black Muscogee Nation freedmen, Rhonda Grayson and Jeff Kennedy, who sued the tribe’s citizenship board for denying their applications.