Black descendants of Freedmen who are seeking Muscogee Nation citizenship will have to wait for tribal IDs after Chief David Hill on Thursday blocked the tribe’s citizenship board from issuing them until leaders decide how to change the tribe’s constitution.
The move comes weeks after the Muscogee Nation's supreme court ruled that descendants of Black people who were once enslaved by the tribe are entitled to citizenship, striking down a constitutional requirement adopted in the 1970s that citizens be Muscogee "by blood.” The new ruling opened the door for Freedman descendants to apply for citizenship, however the chief said Thursday that the court had overstepped its authority.
