Support Tribal Citizenship Rights for Native American Freedmen in H.R. 5195

I am writing to ask that you vote in support of NAHASDA Reauthorization Act H.R. 5195, which is now out of committee and will soon be debated in the House and Senate. It includes provisions that provide protections for Freedmen descendants from four of the Five Slaveholding tribes that once held several thousand black people as slaves. Today these four tribes, the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee Creek, and Seminole Nations, openly discriminate against the descendants of the formerly enslaved Black people enslaved by tribal members. All of these tribes signed treaties with the United States after the Civil War, agreeing to give citizenship to the now-freed formerly enslaved people held within the tribes and their descendants--labeled Freedmen--with all of the rights that come with citizenship. By the late 1970s and early 1980s, these tribes altered their constitutions to offer citizenship only to those who could prove a blood tie to ancestors on the blood-roll pages of the Dawes Roll. This meant that Freedmen, most of whom did not have a recorded blood quantum on the Dawes Rolls, were removed from their tribe. The Seminole Nation currently grants citizenship but does not allow Freedmen descendants to access tribal benefits. Freedmen descendants today, who can prove a tie to these tribes through the Dawes Rolls, but cannot document blood quantum, are eliminated from citizenship. When the United States signed treaties with the Five Slaveholding Tribes, there were no limitations on Freedmen’s citizenship rights based on their blood quantum. These federally funded Indian tribes should not be allowed to continue this racist policy. Despite treaties signed by the federal government in 1866 that guarantee citizenship and equal access to resources, Freedmen are still discriminated against in federal and tribal programs. Many Freedmen descendants still culturally identify with their tribes. But, they are denied citizenship, housing benefits, educational programs, COVID-19 relief, and more federal funding because they cannot prove blood quantum. Further, because descendants of Freedmen are taxpayers, Freedmen descendants are forced to pay for their own disenfranchisement. H.R. 5195 will soon be debated in the House and Senate with a clause offering protections and rights for Freedmen descendants. Congress and the federal government should not allow these tribes to receive federal funding from the reconciliation Build Back Better Act unless they grant Freedmen citizenship and provide them with equal access to federally and tribally funded programs. Therefore, your support for Bill H.R. 5195 is requested, and I am writing to request that the provisions pertaining to the Freedmen remain in the final version of the bill. Again, I ask that you vote in favor of H.R. 5195. I also would like to hear from you or your office once this letter is received.

▶ Created on September 23, 2021 by Choctaw and Chickasaw Freedmen