Lenzy Krehbiel-Burton

Tulsa World Reporter

A Tulsa-area state legislator said he does not plan on bringing back a bill next year that would terminate compacts between the state and tribes that do not extend citizenship to freedmen descendants.

Speaking at a Monday afternoon meeting of the nonprofit organization Descendants of Freedmen of the Five Tribes, Rep. Ron Stewart said he filed House Bill 1118 earlier this year in an attempt to provoke conversations and get the attention of the Muscogee Nation leadership.

At the time Stewart filed the bill, litigation was still pending before the Muscogee Nation Supreme Court regarding the citizenship status of the tribe’s freedmen descendants.

In July, the court upheld a lower court ruling that under the terms of the Treaty of 1866, the Musc

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