U.S. Senate panel delves into tribal freedman issue

The long-running discussion over the relationship between Oklahoma’s Five Tribes and descendants of their freedmen resumed in the halls of Congress on Wednesday as U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters of California, longtime activist Marilyn Vann and tribal representatives testified before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

The two-hour session did not produce much new information but did bring the issue back to Congress’ attention.

“We must stand by the rights promised to freedmen and the treaties that guaranteed those rights over a century ago and hold these tribes accountable,” said Waters, long a freeman advocate.

“I’d like to say how proud I am of the descendants of native freedmen, who have never wavered in their fight for human dignity and equal recognition, even when it seemed no one would listen.”

Exactly what those rights are is a matter of considerable discussion. Freedmen were former Black slaves under tribes.

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Cherokee Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin said freedman descendants are currently treated the same as all other citizens, although that has not always been the case. He acknowledged freedman descendants cannot access all services offered American Indians because of federal law.

With the other four, the status is more complicated.

Chief Lewis Johnson said Seminole freedman descendants can be citizens but not members of his tribe. He noted that two of the 14 bands that elected members of the tribal council trace their ancestry to freedman.

Representatives of the Choctaws, Chickasaws and Muscogees said freedman descendants with no Native American ancestors of their particular tribes are eligible for citizenship.

Each gave a different explanation for the current situation. They disputed the “conclusory” assertion that the 1866 treaties guaranteed all tribal freedman citizenship, maintained the right to set the terms of their memberships, and said the United States has repeatedly broken the treaties anyway.

Jonodev Osceola Chaudhuri, representing the Muscogee, said tribal leadership has “begun a process of developing historical, cultural, and legal research that will help our citizens engage in a thoughtful, informed exploration of this issue as they exercise their sovereign right to determine the future of the Muscogee Creek Nation.

Later, Chaudhuri warned against “colonialists” imposing solutions on the tribes.

Vann presented the committee a 22-page summary, including 11 recommendations, and concluded: “The freedmen position is that the freedmen still have their treaty rights … Even if they are not tribally registered, they are to be treated the same as Indian tribal members in accordance to treaty language. It is the responsibility of the US government to enforce the treaty.”

The relationship of the southeastern tribes relocated to what is now Oklahoma in the first half of the 19th century and the people of African descent living among them is complicated. Most Blacks came as slaves; some did not. Intermarriage was not uncommon, particularly among the Muscogee and their Seminole cousins.

Each tribe had different laws and customs related to slavery and tribal membership, and each reached different although similar agreements with the U.S. government following the American Civil War.

By those agreements, known as the treaties of 1866, the Five Tribes banned slavery. The treaties also included provisions for incorporating the resulting freedmen into the various tribes. The Chickasaws absorbed a financial penalty rather than accept freedman; the Choctaws did so belatedly.

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