Native OK 7/5 Weekly Newsletter

The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington

U.S. Supreme Court restores state criminal jurisdiction in Indian Country

By Dustan Heistand

Gaylord News

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday narrowed the impact of the historic 2020 ruling that restored reservations for six of the state’s Native American tribes.

The Court’s decision in Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta is the latest of a string of controversial rulings this term. In a 5-4 decision, the Court determined that the state can prosecute non-Native Americans for crimes committed on tribal land when the victim is Native.

“The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling today in Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta is an alarming step backward for justice on our reservation in cases where non-Native criminals commit crimes against Native people” the Muscogee Nation said in a statement. “It hands jurisdictional responsibility in these cases to the State, which during its long…history of illegal jurisdiction on our reservation, routinely failed to deliver justice for Native victims.”

In siding with Oklahoma, the decision written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh determined that no law prohibits states from having concurrent jurisdiction and that Congress does not need to expressly grant that power. A lack of Congress’ need to expressly grant power to validate a ruling directly contradicted the rationale used to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that gave women the right to seek an abortion.

Governor Kevin Stitt celebrated the Supreme Court decision as a victory for Oklahoma.

“For two years, as a fourth generation Oklahoman, member of the Cherokees, and Governor of the state of Oklahoma, I have been fighting for equal protection under the law for all citizens,” said Stitt. “Today our efforts proved worthwhile and the Court upheld that Indian country is part of a State, not separate from it.”

The state’s crusade to narrow the impact of the McGirt case, which held that Native Americans charged with a crime on tribal land must be prosecuted in federal court, has fundamentally altered the over a century-long understanding of how criminal jurisdiction of non-Natives on tribal land nationwide.

The nation’s more than 500 Native American tribes saw the decision as a direct assault on their power.

“The Supreme Court’s decision today is an attack on tribal sovereignty and the hard-fought progress of our ancestors to exercise our inherent sovereignty over our own territories,” said Fawn Sharp, president of the National Congress of American Indians.

Chickasaw Nation Governor Bill Anoatubby, Oklahoma’s longest serving Native leader, agreed.

“The Supreme Court's decision in Castro-Huerta is unsettling to criminal justice administration throughout the Western United States,” he said. “This ruling does not change our sovereignty, and the Chickasaw Nation will continue to administer justice programs within our boundaries.”

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr., who less than two months ago ordered the Oklahoma state flag to be removed from tribal property only to relent, called for Stitt to sit down with the state’s tribes.

“We hope that with these legal questions behind us, Governor Stitt will finally lay his anti-tribal agenda to rest and come to the table to move forward with us – for the sake of Oklahomans and public safety,” Hoskin said.

While Stitt celebrated the ruling, Mayor G.T. Bynum of the City of Tulsa, a city that primarily resides on Native reservations, said he believes that a collaborative future between state and sovereign tribal nations is necessary.

“We remain committed to working with the State of Oklahoma and the sovereign tribal nations who are our partners in building a safe city of opportunity for future generations,” said Bynum. “The Court has also reaffirmed that McGirt is the law of the land, and as governments existing to serve the people we have a responsibility to work together in developing new frameworks for collaboration that honor this reality.”

But expanded funding for tribal police and courts has been slow to make its way to the state’s tribes.

Shortly after the court’s ruling, U.S. Rep. Tom Cole (R, Moore) proposed an amendment to the appropriations bill now making its way through Congress to bring attention to the burden of funding that has impacted Tribal Nations due to the McGirt decision. Currently, at least $62 million has been allocated in federal funds to support expanded public safety and justice on tribal lands, although it has yet to be dispersed.

The court’s verdict in Castro-Huerta demonstrates the impact of Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s replacement of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In the 2020 McGirt v. Oklahoma ruling Ginsburg was in the five-justice majority along with Justices Neil Gorsuch, Stephen Breyer, Sonya Sotomayor and Elana Kagan. Barrett flipped the court with Castro-Huerta just as she did with Roe v. Wade.

Gorsuch wasted no time in voicing his displeasure with the Court’s decision in his dissent.

“Where this Court once stood firm, today it wilts,” Gorsuch stated. “Where our predecessors refused to participate in one State’s unlawful power grab at the expense of the Cherokee, today’s Court accedes to another’s. One can only hope the political branches and future courts will do their duty to honor this Nation’s promises even as we have failed today to do our own.”

Gaylord News is a Washington-based reporting project of the University of Oklahoma Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication. For more stories by Gaylord News go to GaylordNews.net.

An estimated 5,000 art patrons attended the ninth annual Artesian Arts Festival, conducted June 25 at the Artesian Plaza in downtown Sulphur, Oklahoma

Artesian Arts Festival draws large crowd

Shackleford’s “Twin Turkeys” named Best of Show

SULPHUR, Okla. -- Thousands of art lovers descended upon downtown June 25 to experience the colorful art, scrumptious food and intriguing entertainment of the ninth annual Artesian Arts Festival.

More than 50 Chickasaw artists participated in the festival, offering a colorful array of paintings, jewelry, stained glass, textiles, photography, beadwork and more. An estimated 5,000 patrons attended the festival.

Earlier this year, Tanni' Tyra Shackleford, who earned “Best of Show” honors, quickly changed her plans to go out of state for the late June weekend when she learned the Artesian Arts Festival was resuming its in-person format after a two-year hiatus.

“It is wonderful to be back in person. It’s kind of like a family reunion,” the master weaver said early Saturday morning.

Shackleford’s 2D entry “Twin Turkeys,” which won “Best of Show,” features a design inspired by ancient Mississippian shell carvings, the Ada artist said.

“The design speaks to our place in the world,” she said. “Mississippian had this belief of three worlds. The world we live in, the underworld and the upper world.”

The massive piece created with soy-silk yarn was woven by hand and took about 30 hours to complete. Shackleford used Excel to design the pattern and plot each placement of the 300-string work of art, a massive task which took about 100 hours to complete.

Participating in all but one Artesian Arts Festival, this is the first time the Chickasaw artist has won the top honor at the event.

“I am speechless. It is such a huge honor, especially when you look at all the great artwork (in the show). To be selected for Best of Show, I can’t believe it. I am still kind of in shock,” Shackleford said.

The large, framed woven piece is the result of the acclaimed artist wanting to step out of her comfort zone with the “sprang” technique, which is an ancient lace making art form first introduced to her by Chickasaw weaver Margaret Roach Wheeler. Shackleford further researched this technique and taught herself.

“You don’t see anyone using this technique and creating 2D art with it, so I wanted to do something different and use the weaving technique to create 2D art and reach a broader audience,” she said.

Shackleford is a master fabric weaver whose work is in museums, premier First American arts festivals and in numerous private collections.

Typically, she creates wearable items, such as beaded stomp dance sashes, regalia, dresses and other fine, handmade garments.

Artesian Arts Festival Top Winners

Best of Show Tyra Shackleford “Twin Turtles”

Best of 2D Billy Hensley “Muskogean Sky Deer”

Best of 3D Jack Pettigrew “Eagle flute/Triple flute”

Best of Culture Joanna Underwood-Blackburn “Water Bearer”

In addition to the wide array of art on display at the 2022 Artesian Arts Festival, demonstrations by the Chickasaw Nation Dance Troupe and the Mitotiliztli Yaoyollohtli Aztec Dance Company, as well as performances by Emily Rhynes, NDN Soul, John Bomboy, High Water Gamble, Justin Logan and Redmen Blues Band entertained the crowds throughout the day.

The Artesian Online Art Market provides another opportunity to view the works of talented Chickasaw and First American artists. Hosted by the Chickasaw Nation at ArtesianArtsFestival.com, the 2022 virtual market opened June 27 and runs until Aug. 1, providing opportunities to browse and purchase the work of several First American artists. Transactions will be between the artist and the buyer. ArtesianArtsFestival.com will be updated with new artwork throughout the market.

The Cherokee Nation map of tribal transportation projects labeled completely, in progress, planned and planning.

Cherokee Nation makes history with USDOT

transportation compact

By Lauren Green

Gaylord News

The Biden administration took another step to improve relations with the nation’s nearly 575 Native American tribes by signing an agreement giving the Cherokee Nation greater control over road improvements within its reservation.

The Tribal Transportation Self-Governance compact allows the tribe to plan and oversee its own transportation projects without seeking federal authorization.

“Having oversight for the first time to plan, lead and oversee the finance of our own road projects will only mean more and better investments in terms of travel and infrastructure in the Cherokee Nation to the benefit of thousands of citizens,” said Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of Transportation Polly Trottenberg, visited Oklahoma to sign this compact in June.

“This is the first agreeance of its kind between a tribal nation and the U.S. government and we certainly hope in the Biden-Harris administration that this is the first of many to come,” said Trottenberg. “Thanks to the Cherokee Nation’s leadership, every tribe in the country now has a model that it can pursue in its own self-governance agreements.”

This agreement reaffirms the Cherokee nation’s right to determination and self-governance through control over how federal transportation dollars will be spent. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, this compact has come from many months of dialogue between USDOT and the Cherokee Nation.

"We are firmly committed to honoring tribal sovereignty, upholding our solemn trust in treaty responsibilities, and empowering tribal self-governance through agreements like this one," Trottenberg said.

Tribal Officials said the Cherokee Nation Transportation and Infrastructure Department invested $12.1 million and improved 67 miles of roadway in the fiscal year 2020, $19.2 million invested and 88 miles of roadway improved in the fiscal year 2021 and $10.3 million invested and 50 miles of roadway improved so far in the fiscal year 2022.

“The Cherokee Nation will continue to receive about $18 million per year for infrastructure investments, which is the standard annual amount it had received, but will now be forward funded,” said Michael Lynn, Cherokee Nation’s executive director of transportation and infrastructure.

“For transportation projects across the Cherokee Nation Reservation that the tribe deems a priority, the Cherokee Nation enters into cooperative agreements with counties and the state to construct.

“The Cherokee Nation performs project planning, survey, design, right-of-way acquisition, utility relocation coordination, construction contract letting, construction management and oversight and materials testing,” said Lynn.

Gaylord News is a reporting project of the University of Oklahoma Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication. For more stories from Gaylord News visit GaylordNews.net.

Quapaw Nation Business Committee Chairman Joseph Tali Byrd

Quapaw Nation calls Supreme Court ruling in Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta an affront to tribal sovereignty, erosion of well-settled federal law

QUAPAW, Oklahoma - The Quapaw Nation today responded to the Supreme Court of the United State's ruling in Oklahoma v. Castro Huerta . The case presented a jurisdictional question about whether the federal government has exclusive jurisdiction to prosecute certain major crimes in Indian Country or whether the federal government and the state of Oklahoma have concurrent jurisdiction to prosecute those crimes.

In a 5-4 ruling delivered by Justice Brett Kavanaugh and joined by Roberts, Thomas, Alito and Barrett, the high court dramatically expanded states' ability to prosecute crimes on Indian land. The Court’s majority opinion stated, "The Federal Government and the State have concurrent jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed by non-Indians against Indians in Indian country."

The ruling is a reversal of the precedent set in the landmark McGirt v. Oklahoma ruling only two years ago, which cited more than 120 years of federal law granting federal courts "exclusive jurisdiction" to try "all criminal causes for the punishment of any offense."

Justice Neil Gorsuch, who authored the majority opinion in McGirt v. Oklahoma, led a scathing dissent in Castro v. Huerta. Justices Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan joined him. He dissented, in part, by saying:

“This Court has no business usurping congressional decisions about the appropriate balance between federal, tribal, and state interests. If the Court’s ruling today sounds like a legislative committee report touting the benefits of some newly proposed bill, that’s because it is exactly that. And given that a nine-member court is a poor substitute for the people’s elected representatives, it is no surprise that the Court’s cost-benefit analysis is radically incomplete. The Court’s decision is not a judicial interpretation of the law’s meaning; it is the pastiche of a legislative process.”

Quapaw Nation Business Committee Chairman Joseph Tali Byrd joined Gorsuch's scathing review of the majority opinion.

"Today, the United States Supreme Court rendered a decision that is an affront on tribal sovereignty and erodes centuries of well-settled federal Indian Law. By inserting itself into an area reserved specifically for Congress, SCOTUS signals that plenary power is no longer absolute when it comes to Indian affairs," Chairman Byrd said.

Byrd graduated from the University of New Mexico School of Law and earned a Masters of Jurisprudence in Indian Law from the University of Tulsa College of Law. He served as a law clerk at the Department of Justice in Washington D.C. and the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of New Mexico.

"The Quapaw Nation remains steadfast and committed to ensuring public safety for all citizens within our reservation and will continue to work with the state of Oklahoma in a concurrent jurisdiction framework."

Chairman Byrd currently serves as the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Eastern Oklahoma liaison to the Biden administration on the Tribal Nations Leadership Council (TNLC). The TNLC confers with the Attorney General's Department of Justice on expanded criminal jurisdiction, taxation, tribal sovereignty and more. The BIA's Eastern Oklahoma Region includes nearly 20 tribes and all six tribes - Muscogee (Creek), Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Seminole and Quapaw - whose reservations were reaffirmed under McGirt and other similar cases since 2020.

The Quapaw Nation is the gateway to Indian Territory. Based in Ottawa County, Oklahoma, it borders Kansas and Missouri and is a stone’s throw from Arkansas. It’s also the first tribal reservation visitors encounter as they enter Oklahoma driving west on Interstate-44. Learn more at www.quapawtribe.com.