services to its members, includes most of Seminole County in south-central Oklahoma, approximately 45 miles east of Oklahoma City. The Seminole Nation Tribal Complex is located in the town of Wewoka. The junction of U.S. 270 and Oklahoma Highway 56 is located at the town, approximately 30 miles southeast of the town of Shawnee. Wewoka is the site of several Seminole Nation programs and services. The Mekusukey Mission (which includes tribal offices, recreational areas, industrial and commercial areas, and a cultural area) is located 2 miles south and 2 miles west of the city of Seminole. Land claims and trust suits By 1961 the Oklahoma and Florida Seminole independently filed claims with the Indian Claims Commission for compensation for lands seized in Florida in 1823 at the time of the Treaty of Moultrie Creek, by which the Seminoles had moved into a reservation in central Florida, giving up their northern lands. The federal government combined the claims and in 1976 awarded a total of $16 million to the peoples. They struggled for more than a decade to allocate it, leading to negotiations between the Oklahoma and Florida groups and more sustained contact than they had had for a century. The Miccosukee and Traditionals initially opposed settling for claims rather than seek the return of land. By this time the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida had achieved federal recognition and the Traditionals had legal representation. Richmond Tiger was Principal Chief of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma. The settlement was put into trust earning interest. In 1990, the groups agreed to the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma receiving three-quarters, based on early records from 1906-1914, when members had blood quantum, and the Florida Seminole to receive one-quarter, based on a reconstructed early 20th-century censuses. The Florida tribes and Traditionals had a higher percentage of full-bloods, and blood quantum requirements for membership. By 1990, the total settlement award was valued at $46 million with interest. The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma declined to share the settlement benefits with Seminole Freedmen members, as the Black Seminoles had not been legally recognized in 1823 as members of the tribe. They contended they also had lost land which they owned and occupied. After failing to gain concessions from the Nation, two Freedmen's Bands filed suit against the Department of Interior in 1996. The BIA noted that, as legal citizens of the