US HIGH COURT DECIDES HALF OF OKLAHOMA IS NATIVE AMERICAN AREA

The US Supreme Court on Thursday (Friday, July 10, 2020 in Manila), recognized about half of Oklahoma as Native American reservation land and overturned a tribe member’s rape conviction because the location where the crime was committed should have been considered outside the reach of state criminal law.

In his report for Reuters, Lawrence Hurley said the justices ruled 5-4 in favor of a man named Jimcy McGirt and agreed that the site of the rape should have been recognized as part of a reservation based on the historical claim of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation - beyond the jurisdiction of state authorities.

The decision means that for the first time much of eastern Oklahoma is legally considered reservation land. More than 1.8 million people live in the land at issue, including roughly 400,000 in Tulsa, Oklahoma’s second-largest city.

Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the ruling, joining the court’s four liberals in the majority. Gorsuch referenced the complex historical record that started with the forced relocation by the US government of Native Americans, including the Creek Nation, to Oklahoma in a traumatic 19th century event known as the “trail of tears.” At the time, the US government pledged that the new land would be theirs in perpetuity.  “Today we are asked whether the land these treaties promised remains an Indian reservation for purposes of federal criminal law. Because Congress has not said otherwise, we hold the government to its word,” Gorsuch wrote. Gorsuch rejected the state’s arguments, which he said would require turning a “blind eye” to the federal government’s past promises.