Cherokee Nation celebrates Black History Month

Shirley SneveICT

An exhibit that explores Black slavery in the Cherokee Nation through the eyes of Freedmen and their descendants is on display through April 26 at the Anna Mitchell Cultural & Welcome Center, in Vinita, Oklahoma.

“We Are Cherokee: Cherokee Freedmen and the Right to Citizenship,”  features original art, stories, histories, images and documents of Cherokee Freedmen with a focus on their struggle to reclaim a treaty-protected right to Cherokee Nation citizenship.

A road sign points visitors to the Anna Mitchell Cultural & Welcome Center, in Vinita, Oklahoma. The center is hosting an exhibit, “We Are Cherokee: Cherokee Freedmen and the Right to Citizenship,” featuring original art, stories, histories, images and documents of people enslaved in the Cherokee Nation – and their descendents. A special focus of the exhibit is on their struggle to reclaim a treaty-protected right to Cherokee Nation citizenship. (Courtesy photo.)

Freedmen were former slaves set free by the Cherokee Nation in 1863. According to the Oklahoma Historical Society, in 1861 there were between 8,000-10,000 slaves throughout Indian Territory alone.

Of the Cherokee Nation’s 450,000-plus tribal citizens today, more than 15,000 are descendants of Cherokee Freedmen. Over the years, their citizenship rights fluctuated, until a 2017 federal court ruling determined that Freedmen citizens have full rights as Cherokee citizens based on the Treaty of 1866.

Melissa Payne is the Freedmen Community Liaison for the Cherokee Nation. She was a member of the committee that developed the exhibit and said that the enslaved people were immersed in Cherokee culture. “All they knew was the Cherokee way … being in these environments with the culture of the Cherokee Nation, learning the way they spoke the language,” she said.

“They even were interpreters at some point. They existed before the removal (from Eastern homelands to Indian Territory in what is today Oklahoma), during the removal, and after the removal. And so they were extremely vital to the Cherokee Nation and rebuilding the nation once we got over into Oklahoma,” Payne said.

But not without difficulties.

“We’ve come a long way, but due to all of the rejection, you’ve got a lot of trauma that occurred within those individuals of Freedmen descent. And today, the Cherokee Nation is doing such a phenomenal job embracing the Cherokee Freedmen descendants fully. And we’re trying to shed light on those things that occurred, acknowledge the dark chapters in Cherokee Nation and actually connect with one another and right those wrongs.”

Payne credits Chuck Hoskin, Jr., the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation with supporting the Freedmen citizens.

“He’s just moved forward with equality within the Cherokee Nation. It’s extremely important. He’s implemented different things within the tribe and I’m grateful for that. Equality is important,” Payne said. “He speaks boldly about the history of the Cherokee Nation – not to discredit them or make them feel bad. The only way you can heal as a nation is by confronting those dark chapters so that they’re not repeated again and embracing one another and moving forward. It’s just, it’s the step of healing. It’s a step towards healing within the nation.”

On February 21 Hoskin signed an executive order to ensure that Cherokee Nation Museums, Historic Sites and related materials accurately and fully reflect the Cherokee Nation Experience Enslaving Black People, Emancipation and the Freedmen Experience.

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. (in necktie) signs on February 21, 2026, an executive order to ensure that Cherokee Nation Museums, historic sites and related materials accurately and fully reflect the history of the Cherokee Nation enslaving Black people and emancipating them and that their descendents are full citizens of the nation. Top row from left: Travis Owens, vice president of Cherokee Nation Cultural Tourism; Ty Wilson, Cherokee Freedmen Art and History Project community member; Cherokee Nation District 5 Councilor Ashley Grant; Ashawna Miles, director of Self Governance; Mark Harrison, Cherokee Freedmen Art and History Project community member. Bottom Row from left: Kendra McGeady, Cherokee Nation District 11 councilor; Shella Bowlin, Cherokee Nation secretary of state; Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr.; Melissa Payne, Cherokee freedmen community liaison. (Courtesy photo)

The Cherokee Phoenix reported that Hoskin contrasted the Cherokee Nation celebration of its Freedman descendants with recent federal actions that include orders to remove interpretive National Park Service signs that describe the experiences of enslaved people and Native Americans.

“All of this whitewashing of history, this denial of the dark and difficult chapters of America’s story – the suppression of the experiences of marginalized communities in this country – are certainly one direction for this country to go,” Hoskin told the paper. “We’re going in another direction.”

An emphasis of the celebration was a newly released report from the Task Force Examining the Impact of Slavery, assembled at the tribe’s 2024 Juneteenth celebration to assess the economic ramifications of enslavement on the Cherokee Nation’s 19th Century economy.

“Reading this report forces us to confront the truth that we built our economy in the 19th Century in part by enslaving Black people under our own laws,” Hoskin said. “We built it in part on the backs of people we enslaved.”

Payne welcomed Hoskin’s efforts.

“What we’re doing at Cherokee Nation today is, it’s most definitely needed around the world. It’s almost the opposite of what you’re seeing with the federal government, taking down history … removing history,” she said. “They don’t want to hear and face the stories of what occurred previously. And unfortunately, you can’t heal that way.

“We’re not trying to silence those individuals that endured so much by removing their stories. And so I think that we’re moving forward as a nation, an extremely strong nation, the strongest nation, if you ask me, because of what we’re doing. And unity is the key.”

One of the individuals highlighted in the exhibit is Payne’s mother, Rodslen Leearn Brown, who was the first Cherokee Nation Freedmen Liaison in 2018. Her work centered on helping people with disabilities and youth at risk. Brown died in 2020.

“My mother, a phenomenal woman, truly missed,” Payne said. “She was an amazing woman. I always said, ‘I don’t know that I can fulfill her footsteps, but I will be the best version of myself I can possibly be, for what she did for the community of the Freedmen descendants and Cherokee Nation in general.’ It’s in my DNA, it’s in my bloodline, my lineage to treat people equally. The most beautiful part of it is sharing knowledge and educating individuals that were ignorant to what occurred in the past. They get clarity and understanding and they connect on a level that is beyond beautiful.”

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