Seminole Nation of Oklahoma - Land Claims and Trust Suits

Land Claims and Trust Suits

By 1961 the Oklahoma and Florida Seminole independently filed claims with the Indian Claims Commission for compensation for lands seized in Florida in 1823 at the time of the Treaty of Moultrie Creek, by which the Seminoles had moved into a reservation in central Florida, giving up their northern lands.

The federal government combined the claims and in 1976 awarded a total of $16 million to the peoples. They struggled for more than a decade to allocate it, leading to negotiations between the Oklahoma and Florida groups and more sustained contact than they had had for a century. The Miccosukee and Traditionals initially opposed settling for claims rather than seek the return of land.

By this time the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida had achieved federal recognition and the Traditionals had legal representation. Richmond Tiger was Principal Chief of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma. The settlement was put into trust earning interest.

In 1990, the groups agreed to the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma receiving three-quarters, based on early records from 1906-1914, when members had blood quantum, and the Florida Seminole to receive one-quarter, based on a reconstructed early 20th-century censuses. The Florida tribes and Traditionals had a higher percentage of full-bloods, and blood quantum requirements for membership. By 1990, the total settlement award was valued at $46 million with interest.

The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma declined to share the settlement benefits with Seminole Freedmen members, as the Black Seminoles had not been legally recognized in 1823 as members of the tribe. They contended they also had lost land which they owned and occupied. After failing to gain concessions from the Nation, two Freedmen's Bands filed suit against the Department of Interior in 1996. The BIA noted that, as legal citizens of the Seminole Nation since 1866, the Freedmen were supposed to share in all benefits. Their case was dismissed from federal district court, which said the Freedmen could not bring suit without the Seminole Nation's joining. Their appeal at that level also lost, and in 2004, the US Supreme Court affirmed that they could not sue without participation of the Nation.

In the meantime, in 2000, the Seminole Nation voted to restrict members to those of one-eighth blood quantum, essentially those with documented descent from ancestors listed as Seminole-Indian on the Dawes Rolls. This excluded numerous Freedmen who, although descending from an Indian ancestor, had only a Freedman ancestor listed on the Rolls. The registrars had tended to classify all persons of visible African ancestry as Freedmen, even if the individual had Seminole ancestry and was at the time considered an Indian member of the tribe. About 1200 Freedmen were dropped from tribal membership rolls.