<p>OKLAHOMA CITY — The Choctaw and Muscogee nations in Oklahoma are considering changes to their constitutions that would allow descendants of Freedmen, Black people once enslaved by tribal citizens, to become tribal citizens. </p>
<p>“The story of Choctaw Freedmen deserves our attention and thoughtful consideration within the framework of tribal self-governance,” Choctaw Chief Gary Batton said in a letter posted on the tribe’s <a href="https://www.choctawnation.com/chief-blog-full">website</a> Thursday.</p>
<p>"To be successful, we’ll have to tell the story of why we believe this is necessary and listen to tribal members’ input," Batton wrote.</p>
<p>The Muscogee Nation <a href="/Users/kamiller/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/INetCache/Content.Outlook/RETHH5T3/Official%20Freedmen%20Statement%202021.04.29%20(1).pdf">called the question</a> of allowing citizenship to the Freedmen descendants complicated.</p>
<p>“Our shared history has to be acknowledged and discussed,” according to the statement. “This is a challenging issue, with implications that cut to the core of self-determination and will require a thoughtful conversation among our citizenry.”</p>
<p>The <a href="https://apnews.com/article/race-and-ethnicity-health-coronavirus-82d8c7b62bb548055263487c9cab5cb1">issue</a> of tribal citizenship for Freedmen has long been the subject of litigation for the Five Tribes, known historically as the Five Civilized Tribes: the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee and Seminole nations.</p>
<p>The Cherokee Nation earlier this month became the first to grant full citizenship to its Freedmen after its new constitution <a href="https://apnews.com/1c3374e8da6396e426907becfa05ac73">was approved</a> by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.</p>
<p>Some <a href="https://apnews.com/874fade343fc7515210117c4efe1335f">descendants of the freed Black people</a> enslaved by Native American nations also once owned much land in Tulsa where a violent attack by white people in 1921 left an estimated hundreds dead.</p>
<p>A commemoration of the May 31-June 1 violence is planned in Tulsa.</p>
