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THE MUSCOGEE CREEK Indian Freedmen Band Association, under the leadership of Ron Graham Sr. in Okmulgee, OkIa., is working diligently on a petition to present to the Bureau of Indian Affairs to become a federally recognized Indian tribe.
"This is one of several steps the association is working on towards this goal," said Graham, a descendant of a Muscogee Creek Indian Freedman and president of the NAACP, Okmulgee, OkIa., branch. "We are trying to garner as much support as we can for this endeavor. So far, we have thousands of documents for submission - records of who we are as an association, our ancestors and why we are trying to be recognized as an Indian tribe. We want to make the process as perfect as possible."
According to the Muscogee Creek Indian Freedmen Band Association's website, the Muscogee Creek Indian Freedmen were former slaves owned by the Muscogee Creek Nation and/or were free persons of African descent. In the 1830s, the...