Muscogee Creek Nation Files Lawsuit Against City Of Tulsa

The suit claims that the City of Tulsa is "deliberately and unlawfully" prosecuting tribal citizens within the reservation despite the McGirt v. Oklahoma ruling.

Wednesday, November 15th 2023, 2:33 pm

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. -

The City of Tulsa is being sued by The Muscogee Creek Nation.

The lawsuit was filed on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma.

It claims the City is "deliberately and unlawfully" prosecuting tribal citizens within the reservation despite the McGirt v. Oklahoma ruling.

“Our Nation has always been a leader in the fight to defend tribal sovereignty. We continue to welcome government-to-government cooperation with the City of Tulsa. But we will not stand by and watch the City disregard our sovereignty and our own laws by requiring Muscogee and other tribal citizens to respond to citations in Tulsa city court because of the City’s make-believe legal theories," said Principal Chief David Hill.

The Muscogee Creek Nation claims the prosecutions violate federal law since the McGirt ruling affirmed that states and their political subdivisions have no criminal jurisdiction over Indians within those boundaries.

“We filed this suit today because the City of Tulsa is willingly and knowingly violating federal law," said Muscogee Creek Nation Attorney General Geri Wisner. "There is no legal basis for current city policies dealing with citizens of tribal nations and we are asking the court to require the city to follow the law.”

The nation says it looks forward to defending its sovereignty in federal court.

You can read the Muscogee Nation's release on the lawsuit HERE.

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A lot of revenue between tribes and the state of Oklahoma is due to compacts. Oklahoma lawmakers and tribes have maintained compacts for decades now.

However, disputes about the compacts have created challenges for lawmakers and contention between some tribes and Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt.

Lawmakers recently decided to override Gov. Stitt's veto of two bills that would extend compacts about how the state and tribes share revenue from taxes on tobacco sales and motor vehicle tags.

Stitt expressed concern that unless the compacts are renegotiated, the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark McGirt decision on tribal sovereignty, which says a large portion of eastern Oklahoma remains a Native American reservation, could allow tribes to undercut non-tribal retailers across that area.

For a brief overview of the conflict, CLICK HERE.

What is a tribal compact?

A compact is a type of contract between a state and tribes. Compacts between states and tribes put in place rules for the management of gaming activities, and how the state and tribes divide income from taxes on tobacco sales and motor vehicles. Although a compact is negotiated between a tribe and a state, the U.S. Secretary of Interior must approve it.

CLICK HERE for more information from Oklahoma.gov.

What is a gaming compact?

Oklahoma voters in 2004 approved SQ 712, which set up a model compact between the state and Native American tribes to regulate tribal gaming operations. The tribes were allowed to manage specific games in return for making payments to the state.

CLICK HERE for more information about Oklahoma's gaming compact.

What does Class III gaming mean?

The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) Class III includes all forms of gaming; lucrative, casino-style slot machines, and ball and dice games. Class III gaming needs a tribal ordinance to pass, but it also requires tribes to conduct Class III activities “in conformance with a Tribal-State compact entered into by the Indian tribe and the State.”

What is the State-Tribal Gaming Act?

Through the State-Tribal Gaming Act, the state laid out exact terms of its offer for a gaming compact to allow Class III gaming to each federally recognized tribe within Oklahoma. Oklahoma tribes interested in Class III gaming were able to simply accept those terms without negotiations that are usually necessary in other states.

CLICK HERE for more information from the Oklahoma Bar Association.