The final citizenship rolls of the Creek Nation embrace a considerable number of persons not Creeks by blood. These persons are known as freedmen and are of African descent. It becomes necessary, therefore, to consider the rights of these freedmen and their descendants, born since the closing of the final rolls, to share in the distribution of the Creek judgment of December 4, 1933. Prior to 1861 slavery existed in the Creek Nation, and there were within the limits of such nation many persons of African blood who were held as slaves. During the Civil War the Creeks, like others of the Five Civilized Tribes, threw in their lot with the Southern Confederacy and renounced allegiance to the United States. By a treaty concluded June 14, 1866 (14 Stat. 785), the United States renewed its relations with the Creek Nation and confirmed their rights to their lands. Article II of the treaty admitting the freedmen and their descendants to citizenship in the nation reads:
"The Creeks hereby covenant and agree that henceforth neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the parties shall have been duly convicted in accordance with laws applicable to all members of said tribe, shall ever exist in said nation; and inasmuch as there are among the Creeks many persons of African descent, who have no interest in the soil, it is stipulated that hereafter these persons lawfully residing in said Creek country under their laws and usages, or who have been thus residing in said country, and may return with in one year from the ratification of this treaty, and their descendants and such others of the same race as may be permitted by the laws of the said nation to settle within the limits of the jurisdiction of the Creek Nation as citizens (thereof,) shall have and enjoy all the rights and privileges of native citizens, including an equal interest in the soil and national funds, and the laws of the said nation shall be equally binding upon and give equal protection to all such persons, and all others, of whatsoever race or color, who may be adopted as citizens or members of said tribe."
In conformity with the foregoing article, the laws of the Creek Nation (see chapter 7, Article I, Section 2, Constitution and Laws of the Creek Nation, edition of 1890) declare that "All persons of African descent, who were made citizens by the treaty of June 1866 between the Creek Nation and the United States, shall hereafter be recognized as citizens of the Muskogee Nation." Further recognition of the rights of the freedmen and their descendants to membership or citizenship in the Creek Nation is extended by the act of June 10, 1896 (29 Stat. 321, 341); the Curtis Act of June 28, 1898 (30 Stat. 495, 503); and the act of April 26, 1906 (34 Stat. 137, 138).
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Thus, by treaty, act of Congress and the laws of the Creek Nation, the freedmen have been admitted to membership or citizenship in the Creek Nation, not as members by blood but as members by adoption with all the rights incident to such membership, including the right to share in all distributions of tribal property on an equal footing with blood members. This includes the right to share in the per capita payment provided for by the act of June 19, 1934, unless the provisions of that act expressly exclude them from such participation. The act does not do so. It makes no distinction between the freedmen and the members or citizens by blood. The direction is that the payment be made to the "members of the Creek Tribe of Indians entitled thereto", and this embraces all members of that tribe including the freedmen, who have been admitted, as we have seen, to all the rights and privileges of blood members. The new roll of Creek freedmen will accordingly be made in like manner as that of the Creeks by blood, that is to say, freedmen whose names appear on the final rolls and who were in being on December 4 will first be added to the roll. The names of deceased enrollees will then be stricken and there will be added the descendants of all freedmen enrollees born since the closing of the final rolls, provided such descendants are living on December 4, 1933, and meet the residential requirements of the Creek Law of October 26, 1889, the provisions of which law extend to the freedmen as well as to persons possessing Creek Indian blood.
Source:
CASES AND MATERIALS ON
PROBLEMS IN LANDS ALLOTTED TO AMERICAN INDIANS
Revised First Permanent Edition
BY
Joseph F. Rarick, J.S.D. David Ross Boyd Professor of Law College of Law University of Oklahoma
Reproduced with permission of Louise S. Rarick
Copyright 1980 and 1982 by Joseph F. Rarick
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