The news alert about a ruling from US supreme court took Kimberly Tiger by surprise.
On Thursday, the court ruled that the federal government never formally disestablished the expansive reservation that is home to Tiger’s tribe, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, in Oklahoma.
The decision means that the state of Oklahoma does not have the legal authority to prosecute cases involving American Indians across about 3m acres (1.2m hectares), including most of the state’s second largest city, Tulsa, and fourth largest city, Broken Arrow.
Tiger and many other tribal citizens, locally and nationally, see Thursday’s decision as a victory for tribal sovereignty and a precedent-setter for other tribes.
“The wording of the document was full of such intention and grace that I was moved to tears that all the work that came to fruition was before us and it was overwhelming,” Tiger said of the ruling.
However, Tiger acknowledged that there are legal gray areas looming. “Now that the dust has settled a little, I see a lot of questions that come to light, especially with the court systems,” she said.
Under US law, felonies such as murder, rape or arson are prosecuted in federal or tribal court if committed by or against a tribal citizen on Native land, including reservations. Cases that involve both a non-Native perpetrator and a non-Native victim are under the state’s purview.
The supreme court case focused in part on a citizen of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and of Creek descent, Jimcy McGirt, who was convicted in the state court system in 1997 of first-degree rape, sodomy and lewd molestation of his wife’s underage granddaughter. He is currently serving a 500-year prison sentence.
McGirt argued in his appeal that since Congress never formally disestablished the Muscogee (Creek) Nation’s reservation, and the crime happened within the tribe’s boundaries, the state did not have jurisdiction.
The 5-4 decision in favor of McGirt was authored by conservative justice Neil Gorsuch.
Thursday’s ruling means that McGirt could now potentially be re-tried in federal court. In a joint statement, leaders of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, Seminole Nation, Cherokee Nation, Chickasaw Nation and Choctaw Nation, along with Oklahoma’s attorney general, reiterated that neither McGirt nor Patrick Murphy, a Muscogee (Creek) defendant in a similar case, would automatically be released.
“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,” they said.
“The nations and the state are committed to implementing a framework of shared jurisdiction.”
Mike McBride III, the attorney general of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, said he does not anticipate that eastern Oklahoma will descend into legal chaos, which was the scenario depicted by attorneys from the state and federal governments during oral arguments.
“I don’t think life is going to change that much for the non-Indian,” he said. “The biggest change will be for Native Americans who live within the Muscogee (Creek) Nation reservation and whether they have to answer for crimes in federal court or tribal court. There is some uncertainty regarding civil jurisdiction and that will have to get those worked out between governments. However, nobody’s land is going to get seized.”
Since the ruling was handed down on Thursday, Tulsa county has already had two cases referred to federal rather than state prosecutors because the victims were Indigenous.
For Muscogee (Creek) Nation citizen Cherrah Giles, the McGirt case felt particularly personal. The Tulsa native is also a survivor of domestic violence and sexual assault, and is the chairwoman of the board of directors for the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, a national domestic violence non-profit organization that filed an amicus brief in the case.
Although she welcomed the ruling as an opportunity for her tribe to better protect its citizens, she empathized with the victims’ families involved in the McGirt and Murphy cases.
“It was a horrendous crime,” she said. “I don’t want those families re-traumatized. We just want the same safety and security in our communities. Everyone deserves the same right to protection.”
Giles said that she, like Tiger, was surprised by the ruling. And the opinion’s opening line, which acknowledged the tribe’s forced removal from the south-eastern United States to what is now Oklahoma, struck a chord with her.
“There’s no bad time to make good on a promise,” she said, speaking of the federal government’s 19th-century assurances that Native land rights would be respected.
“That was the icing on the cake. The court could have given us an opinion and been generic. To call that out that there was a promise … we’re going to make good on it.”