Our Sovereign Land

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request by the state of Oklahoma to overrule its own landmark 2020 McGirt ruling but said it would consider whether to allow the state to prosecute non-Indians who commit crimes in Indian Country. The ruling is a blow to...

A friend-of-the-court brief filed by the Oklahoma Criminal Defense Lawyers Association in another McGirt-related case dismissed claims by the state that McGirt has caused chaos in state jurisprudence. “The reality is tribal courts and federal courts in Oklahoma have...

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. on Monday signed an executive order asserting the tribe’s treaty rights for its citizens to hunt and fish within the tribe’s reservation.

A long-standing agreement with two Native American tribes is coming to an end. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt announced that he will not renew standing hunting and fishing compacts with the governments for the Five Tribes after they expire this year. The agreements with...

Leaders of the Five Tribes say they’re disappointed Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt is canceling hunting and fishing license compacts that were up for renewal on Dec. 31.

Tribal leaders in Oklahoma continue to challenge the legal foundations upon which the state has built its arguments against the McGirt ruling before the U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 7. The Cherokee Nation, in a brief filed Oct. 29, expressed its stance that the state’s...

In the summer of 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court held in McGirt v. Oklahoma that the Muscogee (Creek) Nation continues to occupy a reservation Congress never disestablished. In doing so, it rejected Oklahoma's fearmongering as a misguided appeal to "the rule of the...

The U.S. Supreme Court’s McGirt decision has presented our state with a rare opportunity: an opportunity to provide a candlelight of sovereignty to tribal nations. Instead of taking and taking, it is a chance to give back, to return, to provide some justice. Statesmen...

Looking back on a Tulsa forum this past summer on the McGirt ruling, it is easy to understand the poisoned relationship between the Oklahoma tribes and Stitt. This was to have been a community impact program. But instead, the forum morphed into fear-mongering, with...

The state has two choices regarding the McGirt Supreme Court ruling: adapt to the ruling by working with tribal nations and U.S. attorneys or spend resources for a long-shot at the high court to reverse its decision. The first option would serve Oklahomans best. Right...