Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/21-429_8o6a.pdf
Page Number: 30.0

2 

OKLAHOMA v. CASTRO-HUERTA 

GORSUCH, J., dissenting 

in its history, Oklahoma has chafed at this limitation.  Now, 
the State seeks to claim for itself the power to try crimes by
non-Indians  against  tribal  members  within  the  Cherokee 
Reservation.  Where our predecessors refused to participate
in  one  State’s  unlawful  power  grab  at  the  expense  of  the
Cherokee, today’s Court accedes to another’s.  Respectfully,
I dissent. 

I 
A 
Long before our Republic, the Cherokee controlled much
of  what  is  now  Georgia,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,
and Tennessee.  See 1 G. Litton, History of Oklahoma at the
Golden  Anniversary  of  Statehood  91  (1957)  (Litton).    The 
Cherokee  were  a  “distinct,  independent  political  commu-
nit[y],”  who  “retain[ed]  their  original”  sovereign  right  to 
“regulat[e] their internal and social relations.”  Santa Clara 
Pueblo v. Martinez, 436 U. S. 49, 55 (1978) (internal quota-
tion marks omitted).

As  colonists  settled  coastal  areas  near  Cherokee  terri-
tory,  the  Tribe  proved  a  valuable  trading  partner—and  a 
military  threat.  See  W.  Echo-Hawk,  In  the  Court  of  the 
Conqueror  89  (2010).  Recognizing  this,  Great  Britain
signed a treaty with the Cherokee in 1730.  See 1 Litton 92. 
As was true of “tributary” and “feudatory states” in Europe,
the Cherokee did not cease to be “sovereign and independ-
ent” under this arrangement, but retained the right to gov-
ern their internal affairs.  E. de Vattel, Law of Nations 60– 
61 (1805); see Worcester, 6 Pet., at 561.  Meanwhile, under 
British  law  the  crown  possessed  “centraliz[ed]”  authority
over diplomacy with Tribes to the exclusion of colonial gov-
ernments.  See C. Berkey, United States–Indian Relations: 
The Constitutional Basis, in Exiled in the Land of the Free 
192 (H. Lyons ed. 1992). 

Ultimately, the American Revolution replaced that legal
framework with a similar one.  When the delegates drafted