The Creek Freedmen

"Every Muscogee citizen, whether his skin is red, white or black, has equal rights and privileges in this (Creek) Nation. Even the most abject, poor and ignorant is entitled to equal consideration with the most distinguished, rich and learned at the hands of our officers." Isparhecher

"Still wearing the badges of slavery, Este-Vpuekv"
Copyright © 2004, Toni Scott
All images are the copyright property of the artist
and may not be used for any reason without express written permission.
All rights reserved.

Our Ancestors, Our Stories, Our Fight

Creek Freedmen Descendants, a call for action!

On June 14th 2008, 142 years of Freedom!
The Creek Freedmen Descendants will celebrate 142 years of freedom from the nightmare of Creek bondage.
To celebrate our freedom, we are going to apply in unison for citizenship in the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.
We know there are at the very least, more than 30,000 Creek Freedmen descendants. This organization hopes to send a message to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation that we are still here. We have not disappeared or gone away. Copies of the applications will also be sent to the BIA and the Congressional Black Caucus. Lets get the word out together.
If you are interested in helping, please contact the association at
405-227-9810

Welcome to the Creek Freedmen website.
Please remember the words of the great Dr. Martin Luther King,

"Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood."

"..there were some 10,000 or 12,000 negroes in the five nations,....Those negroes were held as slaves, and were the subjects of barter and sale as were the same class in the States of the south."
Mr. T. J. Mackey
Washington, May 19, 1866

The Creek Freedmen were former African slaves of the Creek Nation of Indians, one of the Five Civilized Tribes. They were emancipated after the Civil War and by a new treaty signed in 1866 between the United States and the Creek Nation, they were adopted as tribal members with full rights of Indians. In 1979, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation decitizenized the Creek Freedmen descendants by reorganizing the Creek tribal government. The racist members found a way to disenfranchised it's black slave descendants by a vote of the people, which the Freedmen descendants believed was grossly illegal.
No more will these Creek slave descendants wear the badges of slavery. The Creek Freedmen descendants have vowed to fight for their citizenship and equal rights as members of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. This web-site was created to inform the American public about the truth of slavery among the Creek Indians. The promise made to black slaves and the treaty broken.

A NOTE FROM THE HISTORY PAGES
  It will be remembered that at the outbreak of the Civil War Gen. Albert Pike went over into Indian Territory and induced a large majority of Creek Indians to join the Southern Confederacy. After the close of the Civil War, without any consideration passing to the Creek Indians and as a penalty for their having joined the Southern Confederacy---as declared in the preamble---certain agents of the Government caused the Creek Indians to enter into the Creek treaty of 1866 (14 Stat, 785), volume 2, Kappler Treaties, page 931.
   The Creek treaty of June 1866 recites in the preamble that---

the Creeks made a treaty with the so-called Confederate States on the tenth of July, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, whereby they ignored their allegiance to the United States and unsettled the treaty relations existing between the Creeks and the United States, and did so render themselves liable to forfeit to the United States all benefits and advantages enjoyed by them in lands, annuities, protection, and immunities, including their lands and other property held by grant or gift from the United States, and whereas, in view of said Habilities, the United States required of the Creeks a portion of their land wherein to settle other Indians

    But in article 2 of the Creek Treaty of June 14, 1866, it is provided that---

   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 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 and equal interest in the soil and national funds.

thus putting freedmen on a parity with blood citizens, having an equal interest in both the land and tribal funds, using stronger language in recognition of freedmen's equal participation with blood citizens in property rights of the nation than any other of the Five Civilized Tribes.

R.C. Allen, National Attorney for the Creek Nation, March 3, 1914

Creek Freedmen, Joe (Grayson) Hutton and family circa 1892

The Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Indians,
No Freedmen=Ethnic Cleansing!

The Muscogee (Creek) Nation in 1979 reorganized the government and constitution by using the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act of 1936. Racist members of the tribe used this stature to remove its Freedmen descendants. Similar events in history was Hitler removing the Jews, and Andrew Jackson removing the Creeks in the 1830s from their original homelands of the southeast.
The moral implications are astounding.
Ethnic cleansing in the worst way.
The Creeks by blood claimed that the Freedmen don't have Indian blood, however most do, but its hardly the issue when our ancestors didn't need Indian blood when they were purchased on the slave auction blocks.Shame on Creek Indians who voted for this new way of government. Shame. For more than 30 years, the Creek Freedmen have pleaded with leadership of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation to do the right thing and return the tribe back to God's grace, but our cries have fallen on deaf ears. We realized after trying this issue before the Creek Supreme Court, with no satisfaction of justice, that the Creeks are blinded by their hatred of black people, revealed by their blatant racism. We have now taken our claim to Washington before members of the Congressional Black Caucus and other members of Congress who will listen and understand our suffering. Our citizenship was based on the same citizenship theory of enslaved Africans who received American citizenship after the emancipation. The Creek slaves received Creek citizenship because they were not owned by Americans, they were the property of Creek citizens,therefore their freedom, and citizenship was of the nation they served.
The Creek Freedmen Descendants say to you, what if the Governor of Mississippi take it to a vote of the people to de-citizenize every black person who does not have a drop of white blood from his State.
Think about it.

The Creek Descendants ask Congress was it your intent for the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act to be used as a instrument of racial injustice by allowing the Creek Nation to remove its Freedmen members?

sec. 3. That such election shall be void unless the total vote cast be at least 30 per centum of those entitled to vote.
Can the Muscogee (Creek) Nation give the names of the 30 percent of Creek Freedmen who voted in 1979? Creek Freedmen Descendants can you name one of your family members who voted in 1979?
Can the Secretary of the Interior name the 30 percent of Creek Freedmen who voted in 1979?
Can anybody name a Creek Freedmen who voted in the 1979 election that reorganized the
Muscogee (Creek) Nation government?

Mission Statement

Enhance the social welfare and work for enforcement of treaty rights of the Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes.

Toni Scott, African/Creek Artist, provided the art for this site, Mvto!

Please review all the Creek Freedmen webpages of this site.