A federal judge has rejected a lawsuit from the descendants of black slaves who were once owned by members of the Muscogee Creek Nation and who are seeking citizenship in the tribe, saying that they should go through the tribe's own legal process first.
The Tulsa World reports that U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington, D.C., dismissed the Muscogee Creek freedmen descendants' lawsuit this week seeking citizenship in the Creek Nation. The Okmulgee-based tribe is the fourth largest in the country, with over 86,000 enrolled citizens.
The descendants filed a lawsuit last July against the Creek Nation and the U.S. Department of the Interior seeking full tribal citizenship and to have the tribe's constitution declared in violation of the Treaty of 1866.
The Cherokee Nation faced a similar lawsuit that was resolved last year.