SCOTUS: McGirt v. Oklahoma -- Almost Half the State is Now on Reservation Land
Danny Stone
Lead Certified Peer Recovery Support Specialist at Northwest Center for Behavioral Health
While I've had issues with the United States Supreme Court in the past, their decision yesterday concerning the Indian jurisdictional powers in the state of Oklahoma is nothing short of historic. Slightly less than half of the state is now on Indian reservations, mostly on the eastern side of the state (to include Tulsa), and the south.
From the Office of the Attorney General of Oklahoma, a Joint Statement was released to help clarify the intent of what happens next:
State, Muscogee (Creek), Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole Nations Release Joint Statement in Response to SCOTUS Decision in McGirt Case
OKLAHOMA CITY – The State of Oklahoma, Muscogee (Creek), Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole Nations released this joint statement today following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the McGirt v. Oklahoma case.
The State, the Muscogee (Creek), Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole Nations have made substantial progress toward an agreement to present to Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice addressing and resolving any significant jurisdictional issues raised by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma.
The Nations and the State are committed to ensuring that Jimcy McGirt, Patrick Murphy, and all other offenders face justice for the crimes for which they are accused. We have a shared commitment to maintaining public safety and long-term economic prosperity for the Nations and Oklahoma.
The Nations and the State are committed to implementing a framework of shared jurisdiction that will preserve sovereign interests and rights to self-government while affirming jurisdictional understandings, procedures, laws, and regulations that support public safety, our economy, and private property rights. We will continue our work, confident that we can accomplish more together than any of us could alone.
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I'm part Choctaw, so this ruling is justice for a tiny fraction of the injustices my forebears went through when they were forcefully relocated from the other side of the Mississippi River to Oklahoma during the "Trail of Tears." The Supreme Court will likely uphold federal agreements with tribes throughout the states, which means that the political landscape of who has what jurisdiction has been radically changed. If my research holds, there are 10 other states in the queue about to have their landscape changed as well.
In the 1968 Rock song "Lament of the Cherokee Nation" by Paul Revere and the Raiders, it ends with "...the Cherokee nation will return." We shall see.