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Thursday, June 30, 2022

Supreme Court rules that states can prosecute non-Native Americans for crimes against Natives on tribal lands

On Wednesday the Supreme Court ruled that Oklahoma—and by extension all other state governments—can prosecute non-indigenous people for crimes committed against Native Americans on tribal lands. 

The 5-4 decision in Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta "cut back on the high court’s ruling from 2020 that said a large chunk of eastern Oklahoma remains an American Indian reservation," Mark Sherman and Ken Miller report for The Associated Press. "The first decision left the state unable to prosecute Native Americans accused of crimes on tribal lands that include most of Tulsa, the state’s second-largest city with a population of about 413,000."

A state court later ruled that "the Supreme Court decision also stripped the state of its ability to prosecute anyone for crimes committed on tribal land if either the victim or perpetrator is Native American," Sherman and Miller report. "That would have left the federal government with sole authority to prosecute such cases, and federal officials had acknowledged that they lack the resources to prosecute all the crimes that have fallen to them. But the high court’s new ruling said the state also can step in when only the victims are tribal members."

Conservative justice Neil Gorsuch joined the court's three liberal members in dissent, writing that the ruling "allows Oklahoma to intrude on a feature of tribal sovereignty recognized since the founding."

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said the Supreme Court "ruled against legal precedent and the basic principles of congressional authority and Indian law," Sherman and Miller report. He said the court "failed in its duty to honor this nation’s promises, defied Congress’s statutes and accepted the 'lawless disregard of the Cherokee’s sovereignty,'" quoting in part from Gorsuch’s dissent. Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt is a member of the Cherokee Nation, but his efforts to return legal jurisdiction to the state have strained relationships with tribes, Sherman and Miller report.

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