Rep. Patrick Freeman Jr. is seeking a third term representing the Creek District “B” seat on the Muscogee National Council, but challenger Cody Phillips is hoping voters will choose change when they cast their ballots for the Sept. 20 election.
The Creek District encompasses all of Creek County in northeast Oklahoma. The Muscogee Nation holds elections every two years for its National Council, which has eight districts, each with an “A” seat and a “B” seat. While council candidates are required to live in their district, every Muscogee citizen may vote in every council election — for now. This year’s Sept. 20 ballot contains a question that would reinstitute district-based voting if passed.
Freeman was first elected to the Muscogee National Council in 2017Â and ran unopposed in 2021. Living in Sapulpa since 2001, he is of the Tiger Clan and a member of the Newtown United Methodist Church in Okmulgee, according to his candidate bio.
Seeking a third term, Freeman now faces challenger Cody Phillips, a member of the Oktchunualgi Clan and the Okfuskee Tribal Town, according to his candidate interview with Mvskoke Media. He graduated from Oklahoma State University with a degree in multidisciplinary studies and is currently teaching fourth grade at Bristow Public Schools. He has previously worked for Tulsa Public Schools and in social services for the Muscogee Nation.
Freeman did not respond to requests for an interview with NonDoc ahead of the Saturday, Sept. 20 election. Phillips said he could not conduct an interview owing to a family emergency. Early voting runs from Sept. 17 and 18.
Phillips: ‘Help more people who live outside of the reservation’
During his interview with Mvskoke Media, Phillips was asked by a viewer if he supported allowing all citizens to become eligible for all programs, regardless of their place of residence.
Phillips said that when he worked in social services, it pained him to see Muscogee citizens who lived outside the reservation’s boundaries not qualify for specific programs, like the NAHASDA program, which provides emergency assistance with shelter and utility costs for tribal members.
“At the end of the day, the tribe can’t control that, though those NAHASDA funds, those are federal funds, and so there’s only so much that you can do with those federal funds, and unfortunately, you have to be living in the jurisdiction,” Phillips said.
To counter the criteria of federal funding, Phillips said he would “100 percent support” the MCN investing more in its own programs, but he said the tribe would have to come up with the funding on its own. He suggested the tribe could invest in aerospace or cybersecurity.
“Anything that would bring us revenue, I would love to see (it) go into our own tribal funds to help more people that live outside of the reservation, absolutely,” Phillips said. “If there were any kind of way that we could up those programs that would help all the people that live outside of the reservation, then I would 100 percent back that.”
During a 2017 debate held by Mvskoke Media, Freeman was asked if he supported legislation that would allow at-large Muscogee citizens to receive tribal benefits.
At the time, he said he has family members who live outside the nation’s boundaries and that “they should feel free that they are entitled to the same benefits.” Still, he did acknowledge that some programs do have specific criteria to be met.
“You know that may exclude them, but that’s their choice of living outside our jurisdiction,” Freeman said. “But outside of that, I think all citizens, all at-large citizens, are due all of our services.”
In his interview with Mvskoke Media, Phillips was also asked about the proposed constitutional amendment that would only allow MCN citizens to be eligible to vote for National Council candidates within their home district. Currently, all registered voters in the tribe can vote in the races of all eight National Council districts, but if the amendment passes, each voter would only be able to vote for their district’s two representatives. (At-large Muscogee citizens declare a home district.)
“It’s going to hold a lot of people accountable, especially those in office,” Phillips said. “So my opinion is, if it happens, I don’t see it being a bad thing.”
Freeman focuses on MCN’s ‘economic and business potential’
In his candidate bio, Freeman stated that the Muscogee Nation has progressed in many areas, and he aims to continue that momentum.
“I would like to help enable and facilitate that progression by further strengthening the tribe’s economic and business potential,” Freeman said. “It is important to build economic development and sustain that growth.”
Freeman said a strong economic force will support and improve the tribe’s services to the Muscogee citizens.
As a representative, Freeman recently weighed in on jurisdictional disputes between the Cherokee Nation and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, co-sponsoring a resolution that would have called “upon the (U.S.) Congress to refrain from interfering” with a solicitor’s opinion that found the UKB to be a successor in interest to the Cherokee Nation Reservation.
As for the hotly contested issue of Freedmen citizenship in the Muscogee Nation, both Creek District candidates appear to have been mostly mum in the public sphere.
When read a question about Freedmen citizenship and how legislation could take months or years for Freedmen to receive their citizenship cards, Phillips declined to answer during his Mvskoke Media interview.
“Unfortunately, I’m just going to have to pass on that,” Phillips said.
Freeman, who is the son of the late Rev. Patrick Freeman, had not participated in Mvskoke Media’s candidate interview series by the time of this article’s publication, and he does not appear to maintain an online presence.
(Correction: This article was updated at 4:45 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 14, to correct reference to the dates of early voting. NonDoc regrets the error.)
