NPR – 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. Freedman citizenship has been a difficult issue for tribes as the U.S. reckons with its history of racism.
Breaking News at NPR
