The Muscogee Nation has filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Henryetta, alleging the city is unlawfully prosecuting tribal citizens for crimes committed within the Muscogee reservation – a direct violation of federal law and tribal sovereignty.
Filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Muskogee, the lawsuit comes just weeks after the Muscogee Nation and the city of Tulsa reached a landmark agreement regarding jurisdiction in cases involving tribal members. That agreement allows the Muscogee Nation to handle all misdemeanor cases involving tribal citizens within its reservation boundaries.
In contrast, the suit against Henryetta claims the city has refused to acknowledge the Muscogee Nation’s jurisdiction and continues to prosecute tribal citizens despite knowing they fall under tribal and federal – not municipal authority.
“The City’s prosecution of Nation citizens and other Indians for conduct occurring within the Creek Reservation constitutes an ongoing violation of federal law,” the complaint states. “It irreparably harms the Nation’s sovereignty by subjecting Nation citizens and other Indians within the Creek Reservation to laws and a criminal justice system other than the laws and system maintained by the Nation.” The lawsuit relies heavily on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 Mc Girt v. Oklahoma decision, which affirmed that the Muscogee Nation’s reservation – established by treaties in the 1830s through the 1860s was never disestablished by Congress. Because the reservation still exists, the federal and tribal governments share jurisdiction over crimes involving Native Americans on that land, while the state and municipal governments do not.
“Within Indian Country (which includes federal Indian reservations), criminal jurisdiction over Indians is shared between the federal government and tribal governments, exclusive of state jurisdiction,” the lawsuit notes.
The Muscogee Nation said it attempted to address the issue directly with Henryetta officials before resorting to litigation. In September 2023, the Nation sent a letter to the Henryetta city attorney requesting clarification on the city’s prosecution policies regarding tribal members. No response was received.
Subsequently, Muscogee Nation officials learned that the Henryetta police chief had instructed officers not to contact the Muscogee Nation Lighthorse Police when tribal citizens were arrested or cited – a move the Nation alleges was a deliberate effort to avoid tribal jurisdiction.
According to the lawsuit, the city continued to prosecute Muscogee citizens “despite clear knowledge on the part of the city that the defendants in question were Creek citizens.” In some cases, these prosecutions reportedly caused significant hardship for the individuals involved.
The Muscogee Nation is seeking a declaratory judgment that Henryetta lacks criminal jurisdiction over tribal citizens for conduct occurring within the reservation.
This legal action marks the latest in a series of jurisdictional challenges and settlements sparked by the McGirt ruling. On June 25, the Muscogee Nation and the city of Tulsa finalized a settlement of a 2023 lawsuit, agreeing that the Nation would assume responsibility for misdemeanor prosecutions involving tribal citizens within Tulsa’s boundaries.
However, another lawsuit remains pending in Tulsa federal court regarding Tulsa County’s prosecution of tribal citizens who are not Muscogee members but who allegedly committed crimes within the Muscogee reservation. The Nation argues those prosecutions are also illegal under federal law, while Tulsa County officials defend their actions as consistent with rulings from the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Muscogee Nation reservation encompasses all or parts of 11 counties in Oklahoma. Within Tulsa, the reservation includes the entire area south of Admiral Place. North of that line – in Tulsa County – falls under the Cherokee Nation Reservation.
As tribal governments continue to assert their jurisdictional rights in the wake of McGirt, this latest lawsuit could set further precedent for how municipalities within reservation boundaries must navigate legal authority involving Native citizens.
