Guest speakers will be on campus in the upcoming weeks to discuss their legal struggles for tribal membership.
Marilyn Vann, Ron Graham, Jon Velie, and more will be on campus Feb. 11 to share their experiences as both freedmen descendants and attorneys, covering the legal undertakings they are or were in to attain tribal membership.
This presentation will give the history of the freedmen descendants and their journey to claim citizenship within their individual tribes.
Russ Tallchief, director of student diversity and inclusion, said he chose these speakers while programming for black history month because it is not your typical black history month story.
“I was looking for ways to explore the intersections between cultures,” Tallchief said.
This topic focuses on the history between African American and Native American cultures and how they intersect throughout time.
Many people are not aware that many tribes in Oklahoma had or have groups of African Americans as members.
This presentation will specifically go in depth on how many African Americans have lost their citizenship within their individual tribe and the story of how they are fighting for their right to regain it.
Recently, tribes have changed their position on whether or not the freedmen descendants in their tribes should have citizenship.
This is because the federal government has started requiring membership by blood to prove that you are a descendant.
“Many people don’t want to sign up and be identified as African American or Native, but just live their lives and not have a relationship with the federal government that requires documentation of who they are,” Tallchief said.
Tallchief said the guest speakers have been asked to come and share their story as it relates to black history, and many people may not know it.
Ron Graham, freedman descendant and invited panelist, said he first applied for membership in 1983.
“I am a Creek freedman descendant, and when I first applied for membership, I didn’t know anything about the Creek freedmen,” Graham said.
Graham said his identity was taken away because of a change in the Creek nation in 1979.
“A law was changed by the creek nation that took away my citizenship,” Graham said.
Graham’s citizenship has not yet been approved, and he is still trying to get Creek nation citizenship.
“I am still trying to, I hate to say fight, but educate others on what’s going on by utilizing the judicial system of the Creek nation,” Graham said.
Graham will be on campus to share his story and present his father’s documentation that gave him citizenship previously.
“I am looking forward to this presentation and being able to educate people on what went on in the creek nation at the time,” Graham said.
Marilyn Vann, Cherokee nation member and invited panelist, is a lead plaintiff in the Cherokee nation case.
Vann said some tribes have limited rights they have agreed on to become federally recognized.
“The tribes wanted to end termination in order to restore federal government relationships,” Vann said.
Vann said she thinks this presentation will be important for people to see.
“It is important for people to know the true history of the state of Oklahoma, because a lot of people are not aware that there were tribes with slaves and African Americans in them,” Vann said.
Vann said she commends both the former chief and current chief of the Cherokee nation for following the law and treaty with their best effort.
Another invited panelist, Jon Velie, has been the lead counsel for around four different lawsuits on these cases that have spanned over the past six years.
“The slaves and descendants became citizens of tribes during the Civil War period because of the Treaty of 1866,” Velie said.
Velie said the tribes became divided once they gained wealth and let the freedmen descendants have rights to the tribe but denied them all benefits.
Eventually, the freedmen descendants were removed from the tribe, and Velie sued the United States government for not following the treaty.
Velie won cases in 2000 and 2002.
Kaycee Kernell, president of the OCU Native American Society, said she thinks this will be an interesting presentation to educate OCU’s students and factuly on the topic.
“I think people should come with open minds and have the ability to learn, because this is a perspective we don’t get to see often,” Kernell said.
Kernell said she thinks this is a good way to support diversity on campus.
This presentation will be at 4 p.m. Feb 11 in The Great Hall in Tom and Brenda McDaniel University center.
For more information, contact Russ Tallchief at trtallchief@okcu.edu.
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