A Promise Kept: The Muscogee (Creek) Nation and McGirt v. Oklahoma

Summary

"At the end of the Trail of Tears there was a promise," United States Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the decision issued in the case of McGirt v. Oklahoma. And that promise, made in treaties between the United States and the Muscogee (Creek) Nation more than 150 years earlier, would finally be kept. With the Court's ruling, the full extent of the Muscogee (Creek) Reservation was reaffirmed—meaning that 3.25 million acres of land in Oklahoma were recognized as "Indian Country." A Promise Kept explores the circumstances and implications of McGirt v. Oklahoma, likely the most significant Indian law case in well over a hundred years. Combining legal analysis and historical context, this book gives an in-depth, accessible account of how the case unfolded and what it might mean for Oklahomans, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and other tribes throughout the United States.

Robbie Ethridge traces the history of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation from its inception to its resurgence in Oklahoma in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Robert J. Miller considers McGirt v. Oklahoma, examining important related cases, precedents that informed the Court's decision, and future ramifications. Their work clarifies the stakes of a decision that, while long overdue, raises numerous complex issues profoundly affecting federal, state, and tribal relations and law.