The Muscogee Nation Supreme Court ruled two descendants of enslaved people are entitled to tribal citizenship. This could create a path to tribal citizenship for thousands of new members who are not Muscogee by blood.
The court found that the citizenship board violated a treaty from 1866 after it denied Rhonda Grayson and Jeffrey Kennedy’s applications. The board denied the applications in 2019 because it could not find a lineal descendant of the tribe, according to The Associated Press.
The justices also ruled that any references to “by blood” in the Muscogee Nation’s constitution are unlawful, impacting tribal governance.