My name is Mary Ann (Wells) Cunningham. I am a descendant of both Creek Freedman and Creek by blood. I was always told of my ancestry, admittedly mostly oral history.

This is no longer accepted as valid by the Creek Nation unlike the olden years when basically oral history was all we had for both the Creek freedman and by blood.

I lived in the state of Oklahoma, McIntosh County. Born and reared.

About 7 years ago, I decided to make application for citizenship in the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. I was told by the Creek citizenship office the enrollment was only for descendants of the by blood Creeks.

It did not matter that all my ancestors both freedmen and blood were natives of Indian Territory and citizens of Creek Nation. Legally enrolled and admitted as citizens.

The earliest documents I have of my fore parents are from the 1800's.

I have old documents stating that two of grandmothers were enslaved by the Creek Grayson family when in reality they were their relatives. On one census it shows that they were owned by Watt Grayson. One of my grandmothers, who was owned by the Grayson family, married into their family. Thus, my grandmother Judy carried the Grayson name.

Judy Grayson had a daughter named Louisa who married a full blood Creek (Haynes) and they produced five children. One of her daughters was my great grandmother Delilah Haynes Hutton.

In books by Claudio Saunt and the GW Grayson Bio, they only stated that one of Robert Grierson’s sons married one of his Negro slaves, using no name. But only the names Delilah and one of Delilah’s grandsons is mentioned by name. Various accounts have been written about my family, but never written using first names. These writers and researchers knew the given names yet deliberately chose not to use them. Strangely, always nouns and never proper nouns.

This has been a weary journey and a tedious task. It is a path littered with distorted history, destroyed documents, racial prejudice and injustice and misspelled words.

If it is to stripe a person of their citizenship for no justifiable reason, the Creek Nation should not be allowed or permitted to do so. Knowing the history of the Creeks, their hardships, misuse, abuse and all the other horrors they endured, to think that the Nation now have become exact copies of the people who inflicted their pain, tore their families apart, and taken their promised land.

Evidence show that many of my ancestors were citizens long before the Dawes enrollment.

Fact: The community, in which I live, Huttonville, was settled by my family and others before the Dawes enrollment or any of the other roll or Oklahoma statehood.

My Freedmen family was very much a part of the Creek Nation, not just a part in. They were Creek Nation citizens in every sense of the word.

These are the surnames of my family: Grayson, Haynes, Huttons, Greirsons, Berryhills, Bruner, Ross, McNac, Sears, Hope, Holt, Spencer/Wolfe, Perryman, all Creek family names.

 Sincerely,
Mary Ann Cunningham
ps. The people on the picture are my siblings and I enjoying a Oklahoma day.