Wait! Oklahoma belongs to whom?
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a large part of eastern Oklahoma remains a Native
American reservation, a decision state and federal officials warn could
throw the entire state into chaos.
The court’s 5-4 decision, written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, means that
Oklahoma prosecutors lack the authority to pursue criminal cases
against Native American defendants in parts of Oklahoma that include most of Tulsa, the state’s second-largest city.
“On the far end of the Trail of Tears was a promise,” Gorsuch wrote
in a decision on Thursday, joined by the court’s liberal members.
“Forced to leave their ancestral lands in Georgia and Alabama, the Creek
Nation received assurances that their new lands in the west would be
secure forever ... Today we are asked whether the land these treaties
promised remains an Indian [Native American] reservation for purposes of
federal criminal law. Because Congress has not said otherwise, we hold
the government to its word.”
No comments:
Post a Comment