Oklahoma v. Brester: The Latest Significant Tribal Sovereignty Reservation Win for the Peoria

Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma in which the court found that Congress had never disestablished the Muscogee Nation’s reservation, several more criminal cases have materialized involving the interpretation of Tribal jurisdiction on reservations outside of the Five Tribes (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee, and Seminole). One case in particular, Oklahoma v. Brester, involved crimes committed on the Peoria and Ottawa reservations and therefore should be tried in federal court given that the Tribe’s 1867 Treaty boundaries remain intact. Indian Law & Gaming Practice Group Chair Mike McBride represents the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma before the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals and the district court. Mike discusses the history of the Peoria Tribe’s terminated, but later restored, federal relationship, and how the decision in Brester affirmed that the reservations had never been disestablished and the Peoria Tribe’s significant powers over the reservation remain intact.

About Mike McBride

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