Ruling: Nearly half of Okla. under tribal control

[Beartracks]

Millions of acres in the eastern half of Oklahoma remain part of a Native American reservation for criminal law purposes, the Supreme Court said today in a sharply divided ruling that could have implications for oil and gas development in the state.

This morning's 5-4 decision put an end to a stalemate over whether 3 million acres of land, including part of the city of Tulsa, remained within the boundaries of Indian Country under an 1832 treaty struck with the Creek Nation after the U.S. government forced members of the tribe from their lands in Georgia and Alabama. The decision also recognized four other reservations in the state, bringing the total reservation land to 19 million acres.

"Today we are asked whether the land these treaties promised remains an Indian reservation for purposes of federal criminal law," Justice Neil Gorsuch, joined by the court's four liberal justices, wrote for the majority. "Because Congress has not said otherwise, we hold the government to its word."

The case, McGirt v. Oklahoma, had drawn the attention of at least one oil and gas association, which warned of the potential consequences to energy development if the high court found that the lands were still under tribal control.

The rest: https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063534203

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[Marcuse]

1. Only half because of the Civil War.

[BigmanPigman]

2. Really? Because "most Indian chiefs were slave holders"?

Interesting.

[Beartracks]

3. That would have been the State of Sequoyah.

The eastern half of the state was prepping for statehood on its own, as the State of Sequoyah. Had a draft constitution and everything. Ultimately, the plan fell through and both territories became a state, although much of Oklahoma's constitution came from the what had been drafted for Sequoyah.

https://sites.rootsweb.com/~oktttp/IT/sequoyah/index.html

"The convention drafted a constitution, drew up a plan of organization for the government, put together a map showing the counties to be established, and elected delegates to go to the United States Congress to petition for statehood. Two of the “hot” topics of discusion of the convention were Woman Suffrage and prohibition. The Cherokee delegation wished to allow women the right to vote, but the rest were against it. The convention's proposals were put to a referendum in the Indian Territory, where they were overwhelmingly endorsed.
The Sequoyah delegation received a cool reception in Washington. Eastern politicians, fearing the admission of two more Western states, with a relative increase in political power, put pressure on the U.S. President, Theodore Roosevelt. He ruled that the Indian and Oklahoma territories would be granted statehood only as a combined state."

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