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Native American Freedmen

Descendants of the Five Civilized Tribes

The term "Freedmen", when referred to in Native American genealogy, is somewhat confusing to many. This page contains information and links that will help provide a better understanding what Freedmen means in Native American research.

Freedmen of the Indian Nations, both Black and Indian, descend from African and American Indian ancestors. Many mixed blood families were forced to choose one culture over another. Because of US contempt for both Blacks and American Indians, many families chose to hide their heritage. But history of survival opens the story of the union of these two resilient peoples.

Freedmen of Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, who lived within the Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole Nations), were former slaves and Free Persons of Color. Many of these Africans intermarried with Native Americans, and many were slaves owned by Native Americans, who fathered children with African slave women. A much smaller number were Free People of Color who also lived and married persons from within the Nation they were living, their descendants clam ancestry from the Oklahoma Black Indian people. The result being thousands of Americans have Indian and African ancestry. The Treaty of 1866 abolished Slavery in Indian Territory, and the adoption of the former slaves into 4 of the 5 nations. There were over 20,000 Africans that were adopted into these nations before the end of the 19th century.

Tribal Adoption of Slaves

Only 4 of the 5 tribes (Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole), the Chickasaw being the one tribe that did not adopt their slaves. After the treaty of 1866, the government gave the Chickasaw the option of adopting their former slaves as citizens of the nation. With the agreement of the Treaty of 1866, if the tribe did not adopt their former slaves the government agreed to remove the blacks from Chickasaw Country. The Chickasaw tribe did not adopt the freedmen, and the government failed to remove the freedmen from Chickasaw County. With the failure on both the Chickasaw and government to follow through with their agreement of the treaty, the freedmen lived in the Chickasaw Nation, for over forty years, without protection of the law or civil rights.

For more information, see The Dawes Commission, March 3, 1893 to March 4, 1907.

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