The Cherokee Nation granted citizenship to formerly enslaved people known as Freedmen in 2017. Now, other tribes are feeling pressure to do the same. And Congress is beginning to get involved.
One of those people who is pushing the issue is LeEtta Osbourne Sampson.
Pulling out a census sheet from the late 1800s, she talks about one of her ancestors.
"My great, great-grandmother Minerva Moppins was a medicine woman," explained Sampson
The sheet has other names and some details about her family, including her grandfather, Lane Osbourne-who learned how to treat sick people from Minerva.
"She taught my grandfather how to do the herbs and everything," explained Sampson. "She helped take care of the people in the nation."
Sampson is carrying on the family legacy: she's a home healthcare worker and a band chief for the Seminole Nation tribal council.
Even though she sits on that tribal council and votes on important tribal business, she can't receive any tribal benefits like housing or healthcare. That's because she doesn't have full citizenship.
"To tell me that I don't belong where I am, it's very disrespectful," she says.
Sampson is a Seminole Freedmen descendant. Freedmen were formerly enslaved people of the Five Tribes that were removed to Oklahoma from the Southeast on the Trail of Tears.
A quick history lesson: after the civil war-these same Five Tribes signed treaties in 1866. Each of the treaties were different, but as part of those treaties, tribal nations agreed to free their slaves and give them the same rights as other tribal citizens. To Sampson, that means citizenship in the Seminole Nation. She points back to that census.
The Seminole Nation declined to be interviewed for this story, but says they are considering Freedmen citizenship.
Sampson's struggle was bolstered by the Cherokee Nation allowing Freedmen into their tribe. And, more recent protests over racial injustice.
Last month, she and other Freedmen traveled to Washington, D.C. for a hearing on a key housing bill for Native Americans called Native American Housing and Self Determination Act, or NAHASDA. They want language put in that legislation allowing them to receive benefits — just like other Seminole citizens do.
The Seminole Nation says it comes down to sovereignty. They decide who is a citizen, not the U.S. government.
"They've used lots of arguments: this violates their sovereignty, these people are not part of our community," said Matthew Fletcher, who is a professor of law & director of the Indigenous Law & Policy Center at Michigan State University.
Fletcher says the Freedmen should be citizens.
"The treaty requires the tribes to accept and enroll the freedmen," he said, referring to the 1866 treaty.
Because of the bill in Washington, Freedmen now have the attention of some of the members of the Congressional Black Caucus, including House Committee on Financial Services Chairwoman Maxine Waters.
"This is a fight that's about fairness and equality," said Waters at last month's hearing on NAHASDA. "For one minority group to discriminate against a minority group cannot stand, and I don't intend to let it stand," she concluded at the end of the hearing.
For LeEtta OsBourne Sampson, who is proud of her Seminole heritage, she says it's simple. She is and always has been part of the tribe.
"My grandfather had it on his wall, it said, 'As long as the rivers flow and the grass grow, that we are Seminoles' and we're talking about the Freedmen."
The Seminole Nation just had an election and Sampson hopes new leadership will finally grant her — and all Freedmen — tribal citizenship.
