Cherokees lead rally against Tulsa’s attack on McGirt

by Chad Hunter, Cherokee Phoenix

Cherokees lead rally against Tulsa’s attack on McGirt | News | cherokeephoenix.org

TULSA – Cherokees and other tribal citizens “blindsided” by the Tulsa mayor’s support for overturning the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic McGirt v. Oklahoma decision descended on City Hall in protest Oct. 27.

The crowd first met at a downtown hotel to organize, then marched several blocks to City Hall shouting, “Honor the treaty” and other calls to arms while holding signs that reflected the group’s ire.

“I’m here to say that standing against us will not be fruitful at all,” said Cherokee Nation Tribal Councilor Joe Deere who represents Owasso and portions of Tulsa, both of which support McGirt’s demise. “Tulsa and Owasso have proven to be an opponent of tribal sovereignty. Cherokee Nation is ready to move forward together. The question is are Tulsa and Owasso.”

At City Hall, the Greater Tulsa Area Indian Affairs Commission met for an emergency meeting during which it voted to urge Tulsa to withdraw its amicus brief opposing McGirt. The rally’s organizer, CN citizen Sarah Gray, of Tulsa, said the march symbolized “a sign of support and respect to let the commissioners, who are our people, know that we have their backs.”

“We know they are in a tough situation,” Gray said. “They’ve enjoyed a nice relationship with the mayor’s office for so long. They were blindsided. The chiefs were blindsided. But this issue is just too important. It’s not going to go away. Folks like me and many other tribal leaders and activists are going to make damn sure that it doesn’t go away.”

The rally, sponsored by the North Tulsa Cherokee Community Organization, was held in response to Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum’s office filing a legal brief asking the Supreme Court to overturn McGirt. Tulsa joins the city of Owasso and the states of Texas, Kansas, Louisiana and Nebraska in support of Oklahoma’s request that the Supreme Court overturn its McGirt ruling that certain tribal reservations were never disestablished and that Oklahoma has no jurisdiction over crimes committed by or against Native Americans on tribal reservations.

“The McGirt decision is the most important decision in Indian law in generations,” Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. told the crowd before marching. “It is something that, when it comes time to implement, yes there are challenges, yes there are opportunities. But at its very basic essence, the McGirt decision is about whether the United States ought to keep its promise to Indian tribes. In 2021, in the 21st century, the United States ought to be keeping its promise to Indian tribes.”

Hoskin described Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt as “the most anti-tribal governor in the history of this state,” adding that Oklahoma’s opposition to McGirt “is about destroying reservations.”

Stitt has called the McGirt decision the biggest issue facing the state and praised the recent filings by Oklahoma cities and others. 

“Each of these briefs factually demonstrates the chaos created by McGirt as well as the dire consequences for all Oklahomans if the ruling is not overturned,” Stitt said.

The briefs in support of McGirt’s reversal allege crimes such as domestic violence have not been prosecuted because of the decision.

A day after the rally, CN Attorney General Sara Hill described to the Tribal Council what she called “a flood of misinformation and half-truths” surrounding the legal briefs filed in opposition to McGirt. Those filings, she said, “use pieces of information removed from their context to create a story that they hope will appeal” to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The adversaries of tribal sovereignty want Oklahomans to be afraid of tribal justice,” Hill said. “They want them to feel like tribal prosecutors, tribal victim advocates and tribal police don’t care about victims of crime, and that our courts cannot or will not protect the public. To make these arguments, they point often to the Tait case.”

Tyler Tait, 34, a non-Native doctor within the CN’s health system, was taken into custody earlier this month in connection with the murder of Moria Kinsey, 37, a former CN nurse. Tait was charged by the state with domestic abuse/assault and battery in January. That case, dismissed by the state in April, was referred to the tribe and was under review, according to the CN.

“The brief states that absent McGirt, this serial abuser may have been behind bars and his victim may not have died,” Hill said. “But the state itself never had the abuser behind bars when it did have jurisdiction nor did it prosecute any of the previous cases that were filed when they had jurisdiction. Instead, one by one, they dismissed them all, even without McGirt.”