WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th July, 2020) The US Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision on Thursday ruled that nearly half of the state of Oklahoma is considered tribal land belonging to the Muscogee Creek Indian reservation, court documents revealed.
"Today, we are asked whether the land these treaties promised remains an Indian reservation for purposes of Federal criminal law. Because Congress has not said otherwise, we hold the government to its word," Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the opinion of the Supreme Court.
Gorsuch said the US federal government promised the Muscogee tribe a reservation in perpetuity, but over time the Congress diminished that reservation. However, Congress had never withdrawn the promised reservation, Gorsuch added.
The United States had promised the Muscogee tribe their reservation through a series of treaties in 1832, 1833 and 1866. The US federal government promised the tribe a permanent reservation in exchange for leaving their eastern homelands in the states of Georgia and Alabama.
Gorsuch wrote that if Congress wants to withdraw from its promises then it must say so. Longstanding injustices reward the wrong and fail those in the right, Gorsuch noted.
The state of Oklahoma argued in the case that the Muscogee reservation was disestablished during the "allotment era," a period when Congress sought to pressure many Indian tribes to abandon their communal lifestyles and divide lands into smaller lots owned by individual tribal members.
