Supreme Court Decides Half of Oklahoma Has Been an Indian Reservation for Past 113 Years

The Daily Signal ^ | July 10, 2020 | Zack Smith

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

The Supreme Court issued one of the most consequential decisions of its term on its last day Thursday.

No, it wasn’t either of the decisions about President Donald Trump’s tax returns. Instead, it involved a case that received little attention at the time it was argued.

But how often can court watchers say that a case stripped a state of its sovereign power to prosecute crimes committed by certain individuals in nearly half of the territory it purportedly controls?

Not often—if ever—before Thursday.

But that’s exactly what the court did in a 5-4 opinion in McGirt v. Oklahoma that Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote, which Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor joined.

So, what happened?

Chief Justice John Roberts, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh, dissented from the decision and summarized it this way:

[Scram1]

Back to square one?

“His court was unique in the fact that he had jurisdiction over all of Indian Territory, covering over 74,000 square miles”

The Parker Court.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I scalp you, you scalp me . . .

[Reno89519]

Interesting. So that half of state is no longer under state control? Stop paying state taxes if you live there? And cities now report to tribes? Will tribes modify citizenship to allow for non-Indians?

[Reno89519]

An I identify as Indian while in their lands?

[laplata]

“Should have taken our own scalps”.

And picked our own damned cotton.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Think this will end up like the 1880s Oklahoma Indian Territory in which Tribal courts caught tribal offenders, tried them and executed them without interference from the Feds?

Whites committing crimes in Indian Territory were chased down by US Marshals and taken to Judge Parker’s court in Ft Smith Arkansas where many ended up dancing a jig at the end of a rope. We could use some of Judge Parker’s justice throughout the USA today.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Need maps? Here are lots of them.

http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2010/10/maps-and-history-of-oklahoma-county.html

[R_Kangel]

.... So the Indian Territory is now under Tribal Law? What about ownership of property??? If you own a home or property in that area ... Do you actually own that home or property any more??? How will the tax structure be set up .... Yup ...... We live in interesting times ...... Now .... What about all of the other states .... Are they about to pull the same legal move?

... Yup.... Interesting times .....

[who_would_fardels_bear]

Since the people in Eastern Oklahoma are now on an Indian Reservation I guess they should get drunk and drive around in overpriced pickups.

[elcid1970]

Or maybe Johnny Tired Eyes will show up on your doorstep and say, “this is my house, white boy, clear out NOW!!!”

[JudgemAll]

Deep state federalizing states... nothing to do with Indians.

ANd how cynical of supremes to take up the arguments of a serial pedophile but ignore the cases brought up by law abiding citizens on the 2A to its floor.

[higgmeister]

My Mother was born on the Choctaw Reservation in Hartshorne, Oklahoma.   Who would have thought?

[GOP Poet]

bookmark

[higgmeister]

That wasn't just the Creeks.   The Trail of Tears included the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole.   That was the "Five Civilized Tribes."

Examples of colonial attributes adopted by these five tribes include Christianity, centralized governments, literacy, market participation, written constitutions, intermarriage with white Americans, and plantation slavery practices.

I have visited the Chief Vann House Historic Site and the Cherokee Capital at New Echota several times in my youth and adulthood.   Odd though, I lived in Rome, Georgia for many years and never visited the home of another Cherokee Chief, Major Ridge, even driving by it numerous times through the years.

Chieftains Museum/Major Ridge Home

Come to think of it, I even went to an Indian Pow-Wow once just down the road at Ridge Ferry Park, but still never have been inside his home.   Oh, and yes, Major Ridge did own a ferry over the Oostanaula River.

[D Rider]

So if I buy a house in eastern Oklahoma can I turn it into a Casino?

[MSF BU]

Interesting. Now how many other areas will be brought into the same legal wasteland? Being in PR right now, maybe I’ll end up under Spanish jurisdiction when this is over?

[Dixie Yooper]

So after Andrew Jackson’s(D) trail of tears campaign, Southern Democrats took some non-legislative shortcuts to create another slave state? Is this the same land the homesteaders had to race each other to grab the land they wanted?

[ARW]

Incorrect. Gorsuch limited his decision to the proper jurisdiction to prosecute crimes but he recognized in his opinion that it may not remain there.

[Dutch Boy]

So many questions. Does that mean the Indian Reservations have to reimburse the US for all the capital improvements on their land? Does the US government have to return all the tax money collected from that land? Is the Indian Reservation now responsible for all the infrastructure on their lands? The unintended consequences of this will be a massive for generations.

[dila813]

I am waiting to hear that all the Federal & State Cigarette Tax Revenues have to be rebated to the tribes or something.