Marilyn Vann

Marilyn serves as President and a director of the Descendants of Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes Association, a nonprofit corporation which educates the public on the history, culture, and political rights of the African Indian peoples of the 5 Nations who were formerly known as the Five Civilized Tribes.

She is also President of the African Indians Foundation, a 501c3 Corporation, and is a litigant in Federal lawsuits such as Vann et Al Versus Norton and Cherokee Nation V Nash, which deal with the enforcement of the 1866  treaty rights of the Cherokee  Indian Freedmen Peoples tribal membership rights.

Marilyn is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. She is a descendant of  Joseph Vann and Rider Fields, who were native Cherokee citizens by blood who immigrated to what is now Eastern Oklahoma prior to 1840.  Her father, a member of the Cherokee nation was born in what is now Nowata County and was listed on the Dawes “Final Rolls” of  Cherokee citizens, the base tribal rolls prepared and recognized by the United States government and the Cherokee nation at the term of the 20th century.

Marilyn graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering with Distinction. She is the first known Female having African Descent to graduate from that discipline at the University of Oklahoma. After two years of employment with Exxon Mobil as an engineer, she was employed as a Federal Government Treasury Department engineer for 32 years in Oklahoma City before retirement.  She is married, with a daughter and son in law and is a member of the Protestant Faith.