Whether today's Supreme Court ruling concerning the disposition of the Indian Territory will affect any land title cases is anybody's guess.?ÿ But the highest court in the Nation has ruled that pretty much all of Eastern Oklahoma is technically still the rez...or rezzes as the case may be.?ÿ I'm not sure of a comprehensive list of nations that are affected, but the 5 that come to mind are Creek, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw and Seminole.
If you're interested the historic U.S. Congress and its approach to the disposition of tribal lands in Oklahoma is a horribly fascinating read.?ÿ About this same timeline (1890) at Wounded Knee the United States military used bullets.?ÿ Down here the congress apparently just used fountain pens...but they didn't dot their i's or cross their t's according to SCOTUS.
I wish I could live long enough to see how this will eventually play out.?ÿ
I hope u do also. ?ÿShould be interesting. ?ÿTitle companies sweating spent bullets
I would think the Oklahoma Land Title Association would??ve excluded any claims originating prior to the US Patent in their standard boilerplate.
I see CHEROKEE NATION, CREEK NATION, CHOCTAW NATION and CHICKASAW NATION writ out large on that map. The way I read the Constitution a vote of those four nations would have been required to make that part of Indian Territory part of the State of Oklahoma. I would not worry about the title companies, any white man claims are based on Government surveys of sections descriptions. If the Government surveys were bogus, then the Government has a big problem. On the other handle the Feds could just reimburse every claimant the cost of their claim with interest and walk away.
Because each of those four are Sovereign Nations there can be no claim of title by adverse possession.
The first thing those Nations need to do is establish a revenue stream. They can begin by taking over the interstates, railroads, pipelines and airports and start charging tolls. I would suggest they hesitate on the military bases. Then they want to begin leasing all those homes, schools and stores to the banks that hold the mortgages. Then they tax all those improvements. They have to look ahead and not be too concerned with reparations.
Paul in PA
I'm sure they do. In a real world I don't think any of the tribal nations have any interest in any title to surface rights...too dirty and messy and big to attempt any sort of litigation. But minerals is where the money is at. Eastern Oklahoma is chock full of oil, gas and coal. I would bet there will soon be some large caliber legal pow-wows going on behind closed doors.
Our native American brothers and sisters are far more educated than they were 130 years ago. Oklahoma tribes boast some of the sharpest legal minds around when it comes to federal treaty litigation history.
You're right. A vote was required..by the non-native (mostly European descent) citizens of the Indian Territory.?ÿ "Indians" couldn't vote until the Snyder Act in the 1920s...
Just FYI, the Seminole Nation is the small light blue rectangle almost centered in the state, just to the east of the red boundary line.
I didn??t realize the Nez Perce were so far South. My Grandfather was in charge of Nez Perce Indian affairs in Canada before I was born.
I saw SEMINOLES but not SEMINOLE NATION. It is the word NATION that makes each of those four parts of Indian Territory a separate state.
FL/GA,
The Nez Perce were driven that far South. As the Delaware Indians were driven that far West.
The Choctaw became US Citizens by the 1830 Treaty of Dancing Creek. About 8% of Indians were US Citizens because they were taxed or had served in the military.
Paul in PA
And water rights....
And water rights....
One lawsuit that comes to mind is the water rights to Sardis Lake in SE OK.?ÿ?ÿ
The COE built the lake about 50 years ago and sent the state the bill.?ÿ Oklahoma never paid it.?ÿ Then about 20 years ago the City of Oklahoma City wanted to buy water rights from the state and build a water line up to the city.?ÿ The Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations said 'not so fast'...that's our water according to treaty.
The lawsuit ground on for about ten more years and in 2019 it was settled out of court.?ÿ Nobody thought that the enforcement of the original treaty would ever make it to the Supreme Court, let alone get a ruling favorable to the Nations.
The Nations should have held out another year or two...this recent SCOTUS ruling might have had a big impact on the whole thing.?ÿ
the current Supreme Court opinion applies to criminal cases only and the native litigants have said they are only interested in who can prosecute native Americans. The State can continue to prosecute everyone else in Eastern Oklahoma.
this case is about criminal prosecution.
when it comes down to the wealth position of the ruling elite the SC will cook up some reasoning why the Native Americans get nothing.
Giving back Eastern Oklahoma would be earth shattering, a repudiation of world wide European colonialism, I doubt that will happen.
There are not many patents in Oklahoma Indian country. Most private (non Idian) title originates with deeds from the various tribes, or individual Indians.
This decision doesn't transfer any interest in surface rights or minerals.
I figured the Native Americans were going to get their territory back one quarter at a time in the casinos.
This fits right in with another current thread.?ÿ Note how off the northwest corner of Paden's map the strip between Texas and Kansas is simply identified as PUBLIC LANDS.?ÿ That's the far eastern end of the Oklahoma Panhandle which was known as No Man's Land.?ÿ Prior to 1907 it was used as cattle range by whichever group of cowboys were the toughest in a specific spot.?ÿ No one cared about it and no one owned it, so those who could profit from it (the hard way) did so.?ÿ It was also a great place for unlawful people to avoid the law.?ÿ Robber's Roost being a favored spot.
https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=RO003
Very close to Robber's Roost one may look upon dinosaur tracks in a small stream bed (I have seen them several times).
https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/oklahoma/dinosaur-tracks-in-ok/
A short distance to the northwest of these sites is the tri-corner of Oklahoma, Colorado and New Mexico.
