Blue on Blue: Descendants of American Indian Tribe's Slaves Sue To Be Members Of Tribe

The irony, it hurts. "Descendants Of Black Families Enslaved By The Muscogee (Creek) Nation Seek Full Tribal Citizenship: ‘They Have Erased And Deleted The Contributions’." 

    The Muscogee (Creek) Nation, an Indigenous tribe in the American Southeast that enslaved Black people in the 1800s, continues to engage in a legal battle with descendants of enslaved families. The descendants, known as the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Freedmen, have been feuding with the tribe for decades as they seek full tribal membership, Axios reported.

    In September, the court granted citizenship to two Freedmen descendants. Muscogee Nation Attorney General Geri Wisner later released a statement to media outlets, saying the ruling was based on “deeply flawed reasoning.”

    “The MCN Constitution, which we are duty-bound to follow, makes no provisions for citizenship for non-Creek individuals,” Wisner stated.

    The Freedmen group cites the tribe’s Treaty of 1866, saying the descendants listed on the Creek Freedmen Roll have the right to tribal citizenship. Damario Solomon-Simmons, a descendant who is also a lawyer for the Creek Freedmen, said his group is being denied their rights because of hatred.

    “There’s just a level of anti-Black hatred that permeates the Creek Nation that is almost unseen anywhere else in this nation,” Solomon-Simmons said in an interview with Axios. “They have erased and deleted the contributions of Creek Freedmen, of Black Creeks like we just never existed.”

The Comanche were another tribe heavily involved with slavery, although it was mostly Hispanics and other Indian tribes, but it would be ironic if the victims of the various tribes that engaged in slavery were to sue to be counted as members of those particular tribes as well.