To the tumultuous and bloody history of the conquest of the West in the United States America was still missing a chapter.
It was written this week by Supreme court with a sentence that recognizes that almost half of the territory of Oklahoma it belongs to the indigenous tribes that settled there when they were forced to abandon their lands to make room for the white settlers. Despite the indignities suffered and the creation of the state in 1907, the judges recognize that the reserve never ceased to exist and today it is who has jurisdiction over the territory.
“At the end of the Trail of Tears there was a promise. Forced to leave their ancestral lands in Georgia and Alabama, the creek nation received guarantees that they would have their new lands to the west forever insured, ”Judge Neil Gorsuch recalls in the sentence, referring to the treaties signed in 1832 and 1833 by the government. from the USA with this Amerindian tribe to get them to give their land east of the Mississippi River.
“Today we are asked whether the promised land remains an Indian reservation for the purposes of federal criminal law. Since Congress has not said otherwise, the word of the government remains“He concludes. If the validity of similar treaties signed in the 19th century with the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw and Seminole tribes is recognized, almost half of Oklahoma’s territory will be classified as an Indian reservation.
19th century treaties
“At the end of the Trail of Tears there was a promise” that the country “maintains”, says the ruling
The sentence, approved by five votes in favor and four against, is a belated reward for the tears shed between 1831 and 1838 by thousands of members of indigenous tribes, a human caravan in which some 4,000 people died. The US government did not follow through on its promises and from the outset engaged in undermining and torpedoing the action of indigenous government bodies, but Congress never officially dismantled the Indian reservation. “He was very close but never approved the type of text that is generally used in these cases,” says Gorsuch, whose opinion was added by the four progressive judges.
Among those who opposed is the president, Judge John Roberts. In a separate report, he recalled that “the five tribes, whose members collectively had at least 8,000 slaves, signed alliance treaties with the confederation” during the Civil War and “contributed forces to fight on the side of the rebel troops.” By granting citizenship to tribal members and giving them a vote in the formation of the state, “Congress incorporated them into a new political community.”
While the progressive judge Sonia Sotomayor highlighted the humiliating treatment suffered by the tribes and the exile of the Trail of TearsConservative Brett Kavanaugh argued that if Washington encouraged the arrival of whites in the territory it was in response to the support of the tribes to the Confederates. It was the beginning of the attempts of “assimilation” of the native population. Rather than allowing Indians to rule over or drive out a white population, Congress opted to create a new state in 1907, Kavanaugh emphasizes. Fourteen years later, Tulsa, the main reserve city and second largest in the state, would star in one of the worst racist massacres in US history with the lynching of hundreds of blacks.
The origin of the Supreme Court sentence is not in any lawsuit by the native peoples, but in the recourse of an Oklahoma neighbor convicted of child abuse who questioned whether the state authorities had the power to prosecute him. The man, Jimcy McGirt, from the Seminole tribe, alleged that he should be tried in federal court. There have been more cases of this type but this one reached the Supreme. At the oral hearing in May, the Trump Administration and the state of Oklahoma argued that recognition of the reservation’s existence could cause legal chaos. Gorsuch disagreed. To accept all the tricks that the state used to pass over the native tribes would be to accept “the law of the strongest, not the rule of law.”
Origin of the sentence
A convicted of sexual abuse questioned the power of the state to try him
The ruling implies that only federal authorities can file charges against Native Americans who commit serious crimes in that territory, where 1.8 million people live (15% of them are Native Americans). The ruling opens the door to an indefinite number of criminal sentences handed down by state courts and likely to tax changes as states have no right to impose taxes on Indian reservations. The state of Oklahoma, the Creek Tribe, and the other four affected nations have pledged to work together to enforce the ruling and ensure public safety, the economy, and private property rights.
“Over time, Oklahoma and its tribes have demonstrated that they can successfully function as partners,” Gorsuch writes in the ruling, optimistic for the future. His sensitivity to the history of indigenous peoples and institutions, built during his time as a judge in (Denver) Colorado, has surprised many. Gorsuch is one of the conservative judges appointed by Donald Trump, who has among his idols to Andrew Jackson, the president who in 1830 signed and executed manu militari the Indian expulsion.
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