Any legal eagles want to explain this? I'll hang up and listen
https://newrepublic.com/article/158408/neil-gorsuch-affirms-treaties-tribal-nations-law
Neil Gorsuch Affirms That Treaties With Tribal Nations Are the Law
In upholding the Muscogee (Creek) Nation's treaty-guaranteed lands, the justices did something simple but unexpected.
The United States Constitution established unequivocally in 1789 that treaties are the "supreme law of the land." On Thursday, the Supreme Court stood by the nation's original promise.
Ruling on McGirt v. Oklahoma, a case concerning how reservations are disestablished and the jurisdictional ability for states to charge and convict tribal citizens on sovereign tribal land, the justices held in a 54 vote that the Muscogee (Creek) Nation's reservation is still intact, with Justice Neil Gorsuch authoring the majority opinion. "Today we are asked whether the land these treaties promised remains an Indian reservation for purposes of federal criminal law," Gorsuch wrote. "Because Congress has not said otherwise, we hold the government to its word." The ruling is one of the most potentially consequential decisions from the high court on federal Indian law, both in recent memory and historically. It establishes that roughly three million acres of what is now known as Oklahoma have belonged to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation for the past 154 years and reestablishes the nation's sovereignty over those lands.
Joining Gorsuch were Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonya Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Stephen Breyer. Justices Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, John Roberts, and Clarence Thomas voted in favor of the state of Oklahoma, with Roberts penning the dissent. "A century of practice confirms that the Five Tribes' prior domains were extinguished," Roberts wrote. "The State has maintained unquestioned jurisdiction for more than 100 years. Tribe members make up less than 10%15% of the population of their former domain, and until a few years ago the Creek Nation itself acknowledged that it no longer possessed the reservation the Court discovers today." (This portion of Roberts's analysis conveniently ignores that the cited population data is the consequence of centuries of genocidal and displacement policies.)
The cases centered on the 1866 treaty that the Creek Nation signed with the United States following the Civil War. At the time, the land it occupied was officially designated as Indian Territory and was home to several tribal nations, including what were known as the "Five Civilized Tribes"the Creek, Cherokee Nation, the Seminole, the Chickasaw Nation, and the Choctaw Nation. But colonizers illegally flooded into the lands owned and occupied by the Native nations, systematically enacting a reign of violence and displacement. After decades of disregarding the Native nations, Congress declared statehood for Oklahoma in 1906. (In 1905, the tribal citizens of Indian Territory attempted to establish their own separate state, Sequoyah, but were denied by Congress.) During that period of land theft, though, Congress never took the time to disestablish the Creek reservation.
https://newrepublic.com/article/158408/neil-gorsuch-affirms-treaties-tribal-nations-law
Neil Gorsuch Affirms That Treaties With Tribal Nations Are the Law
In upholding the Muscogee (Creek) Nation's treaty-guaranteed lands, the justices did something simple but unexpected.
The United States Constitution established unequivocally in 1789 that treaties are the "supreme law of the land." On Thursday, the Supreme Court stood by the nation's original promise.
Ruling on McGirt v. Oklahoma, a case concerning how reservations are disestablished and the jurisdictional ability for states to charge and convict tribal citizens on sovereign tribal land, the justices held in a 54 vote that the Muscogee (Creek) Nation's reservation is still intact, with Justice Neil Gorsuch authoring the majority opinion. "Today we are asked whether the land these treaties promised remains an Indian reservation for purposes of federal criminal law," Gorsuch wrote. "Because Congress has not said otherwise, we hold the government to its word." The ruling is one of the most potentially consequential decisions from the high court on federal Indian law, both in recent memory and historically. It establishes that roughly three million acres of what is now known as Oklahoma have belonged to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation for the past 154 years and reestablishes the nation's sovereignty over those lands.
Joining Gorsuch were Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonya Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Stephen Breyer. Justices Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, John Roberts, and Clarence Thomas voted in favor of the state of Oklahoma, with Roberts penning the dissent. "A century of practice confirms that the Five Tribes' prior domains were extinguished," Roberts wrote. "The State has maintained unquestioned jurisdiction for more than 100 years. Tribe members make up less than 10%15% of the population of their former domain, and until a few years ago the Creek Nation itself acknowledged that it no longer possessed the reservation the Court discovers today." (This portion of Roberts's analysis conveniently ignores that the cited population data is the consequence of centuries of genocidal and displacement policies.)
The cases centered on the 1866 treaty that the Creek Nation signed with the United States following the Civil War. At the time, the land it occupied was officially designated as Indian Territory and was home to several tribal nations, including what were known as the "Five Civilized Tribes"the Creek, Cherokee Nation, the Seminole, the Chickasaw Nation, and the Choctaw Nation. But colonizers illegally flooded into the lands owned and occupied by the Native nations, systematically enacting a reign of violence and displacement. After decades of disregarding the Native nations, Congress declared statehood for Oklahoma in 1906. (In 1905, the tribal citizens of Indian Territory attempted to establish their own separate state, Sequoyah, but were denied by Congress.) During that period of land theft, though, Congress never took the time to disestablish the Creek reservation.
