Summary
Tribal citizens whose Black ancestors were enslaved by citizens of several Oklahoma tribal nations are starting to see wider access to health care, education and other social services, but a Government Accountability Office report released ahead of Black History Month says barriers still affect Freedmen descendants.
The GAO report, described by activists as a follow-up to years of complaints about uneven treatment, points to changes in eligibility rules and training efforts by federal and tribal agencies. It also documents continuing problems in how some programs evaluate whether Freedmen descendants qualify for benefits.
In explaining why the issue has persisted, longtime activist Marilyn Vann said the COVID-19 pandemic helped reveal what she called disparate treatment—when people were sometimes denied vaccines and financial aid while the virus surged. Vann later described a “chilling effect” she said keeps many Freedmen descendants from seeking services they are entitled to.
The tribes at the center of the dispute include the Cherokee, Seminole, Muscogee, Chickasaw and Choctaw nations. After the Civil War, each signed treaties with the United States that abolished slavery and guaranteed tribal citizenship to Freedmen and their descendants, but the extent of citizenship rights and eligibility for benefits differs among the nations today.
The GAO report says that enrolled Cherokee and Seminole Freedmen descendants are sometimes asked for proof of “Indian blood” when seeking aid. It also says the Seminole Nation has prevented some Freedmen descendants from receiving federally funded housing, education and elder assistance through program rules that rely on ancestry standards tied to the tribe’s earlier definitions of citizenship.
One example described by the report involves Haskell Indian Nations University, a federally run tribal college in Kansas. John Beecham, a Freedman descendant and Cherokee Nation citizen, said he was eligible for low-cost education at the university in 2020 after the school shifted to remote learning, but he was later sent a letter requesting documents proving his degree of “Indian blood.”
Beecham told the letter “felt wrong” and said it made him feel treated unfairly, even though he provided his enrollment card as proof of tribal citizenship. Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin stepped in to verify Beecham’s citizenship and urged Haskell to reconsider his application, and after months of delay, the school reversed course and told Beecham he should reapply—though Beecham said he chose not to and instead decided against enrollment.
Separately, the U.S. Bureau of Indian Education, which oversees Haskell and another tribal college as well as dozens of K-12 tribal schools, issued a clarification in 2024. The agency said “eligible Indian students” include all citizens of federally recognized tribes and that tribal enrollment cards are enough to prove eligibility; a Bureau spokesperson said the agency cannot confirm whether any Freedmen descendants have enrolled because it does not differentiate such descendants from other tribal citizens in its records.
The GAO report’s account also includes complaints about the Indian Health Service, which provides care through federally funded clinics. Mark McClain, a Cherokee Nation citizen and Freedman descendant, said he conducted an informal audit of IHS clinics around Oklahoma and found that between 2018 and 2020, some clinics asked him for proof of “Indian blood” before establishing him as a patient, sometimes alongside hostility from staff.
McClain said the Indian Health Service later reviewed and clarified its own policies in 2021, stating that Freedmen descendants need only prove their citizenship in a federally recognized tribe to receive IHS care. The report says the agency also trained staff in Oklahoma City on how to assess eligibility, after which McClain said he began receiving care through the federally funded Kickapoo Tribal Health Center that had previously turned him away.
For programs run by the Seminole Nation, the GAO report describes what it says are technical barriers that exclude Freedmen descendants from federally funded assistance administered by the tribe. It cites elder assistance, college scholarships and burial stipends as examples that are accessible only through a fund limited to tribal citizens with a Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood and descended from the Seminole Nation as it existed in 1823—before “Black Seminoles” were recognized as citizens.
The GAO report says Seminole Nation housing assistance also uses a points system that prioritizes “by blood” citizens of all tribes, while Seminole Freedmen descendants are assigned zero points for priority consideration. The report says some Freedmen descendants have faced these restrictions even though they are already disaffiliated by the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow segregation in Oklahoma.
LeEtta Osborne-Sampson, who represents one of two Seminole Freedmen bands on the tribe’s general council, said the community is living in poverty and that the tribe’s restrictions effectively “lock” some Freedmen descendants out of housing assistance they need. The Seminole Nation did not respond to emailed questions about eligibility for federally funded social programs.
Beyond Cherokee and Seminole citizenship disputes, the GAO report also addresses Freedmen descendants in the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, and says they are not recognized as tribal members and do not have access to tribal services such as health care, education or housing. The report says Muscogee Nation has faced legal challenges to its own “by blood” requirement as well: last year, its Supreme Court struck down a constitutional requirement adopted in the 1970s that required Muscogee citizens to be “by blood,” though the ruling has not been enforced.
For the Cherokee Nation, Hoskin acknowledged the historical role of the tribe’s citizens in enslaving people and said slavery is a “moral stain” on the Cherokee Nation’s history. He said Freedmen descendants want to be “seen” and have their story understood, adding that he expects recognition by other tribes will “take time.”