Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. of the Cherokee Nation speaks at the National Congress of American Indians 76th annual convention in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on October 23, 2019. Photo by Kevin Abourezk
Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr., of the Cherokee Nation Statement on U.S. Supreme Court Decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma
July 9, 2020
“I agree with Justice Gorsuch’s opinion today that the United States government should be held to its treaty obligations, and its word. The Cherokee Nation is glad the U.S. Supreme Court has finally resolved this case and rendered a decision which recognizes that the reservation of the Creek Nation, and by extension the reservations of the Cherokee Nation, Chickasaw Nation, Choctaw Nation and Seminole Nations, were never diminished and that our respective governments were never dissolved. This ruling does not mean that those who commit crimes on reservation lands will not face justice, no tribe would ever welcome that, and now we will continue to work with the state of Oklahoma and our tribal partners on legal parameters under the decision today.”