Thread by @MuscogeeNation

Principal Chief David Hill:
The City of Tulsa’s insertion of itself into the Governor’s unrelenting and untethered-to-facts push to provoke the US Supreme Court to overturn its McGirt ruling seems to be little more than political theater.
🧵 excerpts #McGirt #Tulsa

City of Tulsa attorneys last week seized the opportunity to send the U.S. Supreme Court a rehashed, recycled version of their year-ago rejected argument against key pillars of tribal sovereignty.
We are disappointed, but not surprised.

The fiction in the City of Tulsa’s legal filing that the McGirt ruling is bad for Indians is insulting, at best. Patently false. And, racist, at worst. Those who adhere to that storyline are on the wrong path.

The effect of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in McGirt is a win for everyone. For the Muscogee Nation and other tribes, the ruling is a transformational affirmation of our tribal sovereignty.

The City of Tulsa has no better partner – across the full spectrum of economic impact, infrastructure investment and public health and safety – than the tribes on whose reservations it is located.

We have valued our longstanding working relationship with the City of Tulsa, and this action is contrary to every discussion and the heart and sentiment that we have had.

Muscogee Nation and all Tulsans benefit from a cooperative and coordinated relationship we have with the Tulsa Police Department through our formal cross-deputization agreement.

Specifically, this means that TPD & Muscogee Nation’s Lighthorse officers are positioned to equally enforce laws and protect public safety without hesitation or regard for whether perpetrators or victims are Native or non-Native.
To argue otherwise is to argue against the truth.

On our reservation, we hold high regard for open debate and differences of opinion. In this case, the position the City of Tulsa takes in its filing is just wrong and unsupported by reality. As the saying goes, everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts.

I invite you to see for yourself and read the brief that the Muscogee Nation submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court in the plea that the State of Oklahoma is making for the court to reconsider and overturn its McGirt ruling. It’s eye-opening. tinyurl.com/2b835z4n

What is clear is that the governor and others are hard at work to manifest the chaos that is the steady drumbeat of the stories they tell themselves. In reality, the only disastrous part of McGirt is the state’s complete lack of willingness to make it work.

Putting the McGirt ruling into effect – after 113 years of improper and illegal jurisdiction by the state – takes coordination, cooperation and trust from all parties.

In large part, those positive, necessary actions define the effective transition and implementation of the McGirt ruling that is here for all to see.

Everyone in Oklahoma should examine the level and depth of resources and taxpayer dollars that are devoted to the governor’s efforts to actively make things not work.

We at the Muscogee Nation – & the thousands of people and entities with which we cooperatively work at the local, county, state, tribal and federal levels – are undeterred and remain focused on continuing the real work that is making the McGirt ruling work every day for everyone.