State of Oklahoma, Respondent
Mike Hunter, Counsel of Record
The Creek Indians were one of a number of Native American tribes forcibly moved from their ancestral lands in Alabama, Florida and Georgia to “Indian territories” in the 1830s in what is now the state of Oklahoma. As part of this process, the U.S. Congress approved several treaties with the tribes, granting them property rights and self-governing status in their new home. When Oklahoma formally became a U.S. state in 1907, however, these rights were largely ignored, as American Indians living in areas that were originally Indian territory were treated as state citizens subjected to the jurisdiction of state courts. In recent years, there have been several legal challenges from members of recognized American Indian tribes living in what was once the Oklahoma Indian Territory …
