Six years ago, the Supreme Court handed down a ruling that transformed the landscape of sovereignty across tribal nations in Oklahoma. On July 9, 2020, in McGirt v. Oklahoma, the 5-4 ruling affirmed the existence of the Muscogee Nation reservation, and consequently, tribes in Oklahoma have jurisdiction over major crimes committed on their land.
As well, the decision upheld that the state — which has the second-largest Native American population — is nearly 50% Native American land and therefore falls under tribal jurisdiction.
As Indian Country reflects on six years of McGirt, we look back at the case that brought about the biggest victory for tribal sovereignty in generations.
The Case
The original case dates back to 1997, when Jimcy McGirt, an enrolled member of the Seminole and Muscogee Nations, was convicted on three felony counts of sexual crimes against a child.
He appealed the charges in 2020 on the grounds that his crimes were committed on the Muscogee reservation, and therefore, the state did not have authority to prosecute him. The High Court agreed and ruled that Congress never “disestablished” the reservation established by treaty in 1866, when the government forced the Five Civilized Tribes to sign new treaties. The ruling overturned McGirt’s conviction and resulted in a sweeping judicial shift across Oklahoma, giving tribes jurisdiction over tribal citizens who commit major crimes on reservations.
Not only did the ruling reaffirm the rights of tribes as sovereign nations, but it also clarified reservation boundaries, including the fact that Tulsa, the state’s second-largest city, largely sits within the Muscogee reservation.
Why McGirt Matters
Indian Country is a proverbial Swiss cheese of jurisdictions among tribal, federal, and state courts, depending on the level of the crime and whether the perpetrator is Native or non-Native.
Over the years, state officials and tribal leaders have been at odds over the impact of McGirt, with Gov. Kevin Stitt, who is also a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, claiming that tribes controlling jurisdiction over nearly half of Oklahoma cripples the state’s capacity to enforce laws, collect taxes, and charge fees for vehicle registration.
Over the past six years, tribes have worked to rise to the occasion of absorbing the massive jurisdictional shift. Tribal court dockets have spiked by the thousands, and a slew of cross-deputization agreements enable tribal officers to enforce state laws and state police to enforce tribal law on tribal lands, creating a net of public safety that couldn’t be fully realized before the ruling.
The state’s tribal nations commemorate the McGirt ruling on July 9, known as Sovereignty Day. Last week, tribal leaders spoke about the reverberating effects of McGirt.
“That’s exercising our sovereignty,” Choctaw Nation Principal Chief Gary Batton said at the Inter-Tribal Council of the Five Tribes meeting on Friday. “…We’re just not about incarceration, we’re about making sure that people get well and get back into society.”
In a video released last week, Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. noted the tribe’s recent groundbreaking on a $40 million justice center in Tahlequah, Okla., that will hold the tribe’s supreme court and law enforcement departments.
“It’s not just a building,” Hoskin said. “It’s a declaration that the Cherokee Nation administers justice, fairly, respectfully, and permanently.”
“These decisions were not gifts from a court; they were the recognition of promises made and obligations that should never have been questioned,” Hoskin said.
