As we celebrate #Juneteenth , it is important to remember that not all slaves were freed on June 19th, 1865. In Indian Territory, Blck slaves continued to be owned by Chickasaw and Choctaw masters. They weren’t freed until 1866. #BlackLivesMatter (thread)

#Juneteenth is supposed to represent the day that all slaves in the United States were freed from bondage.

However, slaves in #IndianTerritory in present day #Oklahoma were exempt from the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments because they were owned by masters of separate sovereign nations. So they remained enslaved event after the 13th Amendment was passed.

In the #Choctaw and #Chickasaw Nations, enslaved people continued to be held in bondage. Eventually, the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations signed a treaty with the United States in July of 1866, where they freed their slaves and promised them equal rights.

#Emancipation was very important to slaves owned by Choctaw and Chickasaw masters, as it represented a freedom of choice, movement, and freedom from the violent exploitation they experienced as slaves. Below is a quote from Kiziah Love, a Choctaw-Chickasaw Freedwoman.

After emancipation, the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations resisted adopting their slaves as citizens, and Chickasaw Freedmen were a “people without a country” until they were adopted as US citizens with the adoption of land allotments. Choctaw Freedmen were adopted in 1885.

Today, both tribes deny the descendants of Freedmen citizenship. Their tribal wealth and survival was based in slave ownership and they promised their slaves citizenship in the treaty they signed. However, their Freedmen are still excluded from equal rights and citizenship.

The #Seminole, #Cherokee, and #Creek Nations have similar histories of slave ownership. However, Cherokee Freedmen are the only group of Freedmen who are granted equal citizenship rights, after a federal court ruled against the CNO’s attempts at excluding Freedmen in 2017.

#NoAntiBlackRacism #BlackLivesMatter