Indian reservations are triumphant in a Supreme Court ruling that establishes a big portion of eastern Oklahoma to be their land.
Multiple American Indian tribes have headquarters stationed in Oklahoma, and now, with the protection of this SCOTUS decision, the state of Oklahoma legally has no jurisdiction over this area and is unable to prosecute a major crime that takes place on their land. The boundaries include Tulsa, which is a major city in Oklahoma.
Considering we know it to be quite a conservative state that usually votes Republican in elections, some backlash and disagreement about the decision has been vocalized on online platforms. Even Ted Cruz, a Texan conservative senator, tweeted that the five justices who voted in favor of the reservations “…just gave away half of Oklahoma, literally. Manhattan is next.”
But, in the eyes of the Supreme Court, what really happened was that they’re giving back half of Oklahoma to the tribes. Regardless, this is an extremely important decision; a very victorious one, that is, for Native American rights.
