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Page Number: 4

Cite as:  591 U. S. ____ (2020) 

1 

Opinion of the Court 

NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the 
preliminary  print  of  the  United  States  Reports.  Readers  are  requested  to 
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash-
ington, D. C. 20543, of any typographical or other formal errors, in order that 
corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press. 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

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No. 18–9526 
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JIMCY MCGIRT, PETITIONER v. OKLAHOMA 

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF CRIMINAL 
APPEALS OF OKLAHOMA 

[July 9, 2020]

 JUSTICE GORSUCH delivered the opinion of the Court. 
On the far end of the Trail of Tears was a promise.  Forced 
to leave their ancestral lands in Georgia and Alabama, the
Creek Nation received assurances that their new lands in 
the West would be secure forever.  In exchange for ceding
“all their land, East of the Mississippi river,” the U. S. gov-
ernment agreed by treaty that “[t]he Creek country west of
the Mississippi shall be solemnly guarantied to the Creek 
Indians.”  Treaty  With  the  Creeks,  Arts.  I,  XIV,  Mar.  24,
1832, 7 Stat. 366, 368 (1832 Treaty).  Both parties settled 
on boundary lines for a new and “permanent home to the 
whole  Creek  nation,”  located  in  what  is  now  Oklahoma. 
Treaty  With  the  Creeks,  preamble,  Feb.  14,  1833,  7  Stat.
418 (1833 Treaty).  The government further promised that
“[no] State or Territory [shall] ever have a right to pass laws
for  the  government  of  such  Indians,  but  they  shall  be  al-
lowed to govern themselves.”  1832 Treaty, Art. XIV, 7 Stat. 
368. 

Today  we  are  asked  whether  the  land  these  treaties
promised remains an Indian reservation for purposes of fed-
eral  criminal  law.  Because  Congress  has  not  said  other-
wise, we hold the government to its word.