Homestead Deed, Creek Freedman Roll, No. 1370. Partly printed document signed by Pleasant Porter, as Principal Chief of the Muskogee (Creek) Nation. Muskogee (Creek) Nation, Indian Territory, 11 November 1903. 1 page, folio, 8 3/8 x 14 in. Docketed to verso. Undersigned by Ethan Hitchcock and Oliver Phelps of the Department of the Interior. With original gilt tribal seal.

A homestead land deed granted to Gussie Sewell, a Creek Freedman, notably signed by Muskogee Chief Pleasant Porter. 

Creek Freedman was a term for emancipated Creeks of African descent who were slaves of the Muskogee Creek tribal members and their descendants. The Muskogee enslaved African Americans in both upper and lower Creek territories in the southeast, but interracial marriage was common and many Creek Freedmen were partly of Creek ancestry. 

Most of the Muskogee allied with the Confederacy and, after the conclusion of the War, were forced into a new treaty in 1866. Along with the so-called "Five Civilized Tribes," the Muskogee were compelled to emancipate their slaves and offer them citizenship, voting rights, land settlements, and more.   

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Native Americans, Native American History, American Indian, Indian History] [African Americana, African American History, Black History, Slavery, Enslavement, Abolition, Emancipation] [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs]