Did the United States Give Away Half of Oklahoma? | McGirt v. Oklahoma

Well, kind of. In episode 76 of Supreme Court Briefs, a pedophile and a murderer unwittingly cause Native Americans to gain more rights.

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McGirt v. Oklahoma was a huge win for Native American rights. Ever since, every Native American tribal citizen who had been convicted under state law for crimes committed on reservation lands could now seek a new trial in federal courts. Well, in Oklahoma, at least…for now. At the time of the McGirt decision, this applied to around 1,900 Oklahoma prisoners alone. More broadly speaking, the McGirt decision made it clear that around half of Oklahoma was NATIVE AMERICAN land, not Oklahoma land. This includes the state’s second-largest city, Tulsa. That’s a big freaking deal, folks.

Now, the McGirt decision was later somewhat weakened by the Supreme Court case Castro-Huerta v. Oklahoma of 2022. In that decision, the Court said non-tribal members could still be prosecuted for crimes in state and federal courts. Regardless, McGirt v. Oklahoma gave tribal sovereignty a huge boost.