Half of Oklahoma Is Now Indian Territory. What Does That Mean for Criminal Justice There?
When police officers found the bodies of two children inside a hot pickup truck in Tulsa, Oklahoma, blame quickly fell on their father. Dustin Lee Dennis was supposed to be watching the 3- and 4-year old; instead, he slept the June afternoon away while they climbed into the truck, prosecutors said.
The children died June 13 from heat exhaustion as the temperature outside rose to 94 degrees. Tulsa County prosecutors charged Dennis with second-degree murder and felony child neglect.
But a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court upended the case. The court ruled July 9 that, under treaties dating back two centuries, much of eastern Oklahoma is Indian Country. That means tribal law and federal law, apply there in criminal cases involving Native citizens—not state law.
The children were members of the Cherokee Nation. So the district attorney, Steve Kunzweiler, had to dismiss the case.
When he gave their mother the news, he recalled, “She just had this thousand-yard stare. And I didn’t have any better answer. I can’t do anything to help them anymore.” The mother, Cheyenne Trent, declined to comment.
The Supreme Court ruling is a long-awaited triumph for the Five Tribes, which were forced from their homes and onto the Trail of Tears in the early 1800s by the U.S. government. Today, half a million tribal citizens live in dozens of Oklahoma counties covering more land than the state of South Carolina.
For tribal citizens, the ruling involves much more than the boundaries of criminal jurisdiction; it constitutes an important victory in the struggle to strengthen tribal sovereignty. Meanwhile, Indigenous plaintiffs are filed in July by the Native American Rights Fund and several tribes builds off the decision to challenge President Donald Trump’s massive reduction of the Bears Ears National Monument in southern Utah.
