Oklahoma ILS CLE: “From Ramsey to O’Brien: The Changing Landscape of Jurisdiction in Oklahoma”

Here:

 A ZOOM CLE Program, this Wednesday, December 18, 2024 from 9 am to noon, focusing on jurisdiction in Oklahoma’s Indian Country, focusing on cases spanning from U.S. v. Ramsey in 1926 to the recent Hooper & O’Brien Cases authorizing state jurisdiction over Indians in Indian country under novel and unprecedented theories

3 hours of Oklahoma Continuing Legal Education credit applied for, including 1 hour of ethics.

Presented by the Oklahoma Indian Bar Association (“OIBA”)

Email to OklahomaIndianBarAssociation@yahoo.com for more information. Contact Arvo Mikkanen via text at 405/420-9912 with any questions.

Online registration deadline is 12/18/24 at 9:00 am.

REGISTRANTS WILL RECEIVE A ZOOM LINK BY EMAIL ON THE DAY OF THE SEMINAR 12/18/24. DO NOT ASK FOR LINK BEFORE THAT TIME. LINK WILL BE SENT ONLY TO THE EMAIL ADDRESS YOU PROVIDE WHEN YOU REGISTER.

A DROPBOX WILL BE SET UP AND EMAILED TO YOU FOR YOU TO DOWNLOAD THE WRITTEN MATERIALS

Registration is $ 75.

Current paid 2024 & 2025 OIBA members with paid membership are entitled to $15 discount and can register for $60.

Elected Tribal Leader / Tribal Employee Registration is $ 30.

Student registrations are $20.

Attorneys: 3 Oklahoma Continuing Legal Education (“CLE”) Credits Applied for, including 1 hour of ethics. If you wish for credits for other states, that is your responsibility to submit to your own state bar for approval.

If you are not an Oklahoma bar member, please enter 00000 in the registration form.

AGENDA

9:00 am – 10:00 am – Arvo Mikkanen (Kiowa/Comanche), Attorney & Former Tribal Judge

OIBA President Mikkanen will discuss the recognition of Indian country post statehood in the Osage murder trials, the re-establishment of tribal and federal jurisdiction under the Littlechief and Ahboah cases, and the constructs for analysis provided in the Bracker and Castro-Huerta cases. Ethics for practicing attorneys in the Indian law field will also be discussed throughout.

10:00 am – 11:00 pm – Patti Palmer Ghezzi, Attorney & Trial/Appellate Consultant

Ms. Ghezzi will discuss the critical cases litigated and decided involving Oklahoma’s Indian country after Littlechief, leading up to the Murphy and McGirt cases which recognized the continuing boundaries of the Muscogee Nation Reservation.

11:00 am – 12:00 pm – Jeri Wisner (Muscogee), Attorney General – Muscogee Nation

AG Wisner will discuss the City of Tulsa’s attempts to undermine the McGirt decision which re-established Indian country in eastern Oklahoma within the boundaries of the Muscogee Nation reservation through the recent Hooper and O’Brien cases. The focus will be on assertions that the state has criminal jurisdiction over Indians within Indian country, under a variety of novel theories.

Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals Enables Tulsa to Prosecute Indians

Here is the opinion in City of Tulsa v. O’Brien:

Briefs are here.

Montana SCT Rejects Municipality’s Claim to Reimbursement for PL280 Costs from State

Here are the materials in Lake County v. State of Montana:

Opening Brief

Montana Answer Brief

Reply

Opinion

Tenth Circuit Reverses Dismissal of Indian Country Murder Case

Here is the opinion in United States v. Martinez.

Oklahoma Federal Court Denies Habeas Petition of Non-Indian Freedmen Descendant Convicted of Indian Country Crime

Here are the materials in Cook v. Dunn (N.D. Okla.):

1 Habeas Petition

9 Response

10 Reply

11 DCT Order

Blast from the Past: Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Amicus Brief in Solem v. Bartlett

Teaching “Indian country” today. . . .

Authors: Rick West, Susan Williams, Kevin Gover, Art Lazarus, Reid Chambers, and William Perry.

Fort Peck COA Decides Dicey Indian Status Case

Here is the opinion in Jackson v. Fort Peck.

An excerpt:

Congress amended the Indian Civil Rights Act to define Indian status for purposes of tribal court criminal jurisdiction in order to address the United States Supreme Court decision in Duro v. Reina, 495 U.S. 676, 110 S.Ct. 2053, 109 L.Ed.2d 693 (1990). In Duro, the SCOTUS held that Indian tribes lack inherent criminal jurisdiction over non-member Indians. Congress disagreed and passed federal legislation amending the Indian Civil Rights Act to recognize tribal inherent authority over all Indians who commit criminal offenses in Indian country. Unfortunately, for Indian tribes, Congress referred to the definition of Indian under the Major Crimes Act, 18 USC § 1153, in amending the ICRA. However, there is no definition of Indian under 18 USC § 1153 and the federal courts have generally used a federal common-law definition of Indian, first enunciated in United States v. Rogers, 45 US 567, 572, 4 How. 567, 11 L.Ed. 1105 (1846), to establish Indian status for purposes of federal court Indian country jurisdiction. This has created a whole host of problems in the federal courts, see Skibine, Indians, Race and Criminal Jurisdiction in Indian Country, 10 Alb. Govt. L. Rev. 49 (2017). As Professor Skibine notes in this excellent article, the federal courts, especially the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, are perplexed by this whole issue of Indian status for purposes of Indian country jurisdiction and have struggled with whether the definition is a race-based one, that could potentially run afoul of the 5th amendment, or is sufficiently tied to tribal status to survive scrutiny under Morton v. Mancari, 417 U.S. 535, 94 S.Ct. 2474, 41 L.Ed.2d 290 (1974) (holding that disparate treatment of Indians is constitutional because of the unique political relationship Indian tribes have with the United States).
¶ 10 Tribal Courts are being dragged into this whole mess, apparently, because of the Duro fix and its reference to the Major Crimes Act. Whereas Indian tribes historically know who is and who is not Indian under tribal customary and common law, those customary practices may not be countenanced any longer under federal law. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has been making itself a pretzel over this common-law definition that is the standard under the MCA and the ICRA. See e.g. United States v. Cruz, 554 F.3d 840 (9th Cir. 2009). However, other federal court decisions recognize that the first prong of the United States v. Rogers test for determining whether a person has some degree of Indian blood may be met by that person having native blood from a non-federally-recognized Tribe, See United States v. Maggi, 598 F.3d 1073 (9th Cir. 2010)(en banc) (reversing panel decision finding that an Indian from the state-recognized Little Shell Band of Pembina Indians did not meet the definition of Indian under United States v. Bruce, 394 F.3d 1215, 1227 (9th Cir. 2005)) provided the person meets the second prong of the Rogers test for affiliating with a federally-recognized Tribe). See also State v. Daniels, 104 Wash.App. 271, 16 P.3d 650, 654 (2001) (having Canadian Indian blood meets the first prong of Rogers, but Court finds second prong was not met thus the Defendant was non-Indian and subject to state court jurisdiction).

Idaho State Bar Journal Article on Nez Perce Tribe’s Special Tribal Criminal Jurisdiction

Here.

Tenth Circuit Allows Pre-McGirt Evidence Collected by State to be Used in Post-McGirt Federal Prosecution

Here is the opinion in United States v. Little.

Briefs:

Opening Brief

Federal Answer Brief

Reply

Tenth Circuit Holds CDIB Copy + Tribal Authenticating Testimony Insufficient to Prove Indian Status

Here is the opinion in United States v. Harper.

Briefs:

Opening Brief 

Federal Response Brief

Reply