Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/21-429_8o6a.pdf
Page Number: 37.0

Cite as:  597 U. S. ____ (2022) 

9 

GORSUCH, J., dissenting 

authority on tribal lands and required States to adopt con-
stitutional provisions guaranteeing as much, Congress also 
authorized States to “amend, where necessary, their State 
constitution or . . . statutes.”  § 404, 82 Stat. 79 (25 U. S. C. 
§ 1324).  In doing so, however, Congress emphasized that 
affected  States  could not  assume  jurisdiction  to  prosecute 
offenses by or against tribal members on tribal lands until 
they  “appropriately  amended  their  State  constitution  or
statutes.”  Ibid.    To  date,  Oklahoma  has  not  amended  its 
state constitutional provisions disclaiming jurisdiction over
tribal lands.  Nor has Oklahoma sought or obtained tribal
consent to the exercise of its jurisdiction.  See The Honora-
ble E. Kelly Haney, 22 Okla. Op. Atty. Gen. No.  90–32, 72, 
1991 WL 567868, *1 (Mar. 1, 1991) (Haney).  Thus, Okla-
homa has remained, in Congress’s words, a State “not hav-
ing  jurisdiction  over  criminal  offenses  committed  by  or 
against  Indians  in  the  areas  of  Indian  country  situated 
within” its borders.  25 U. S. C. § 1321(a). 

C 
Rather than seek tribal consent pursuant to Public Law
280 or persuade Congress to adopt a state-specific statute 
authorizing it to prosecute crimes by or against tribal mem-
bers on tribal lands, Oklahoma has chosen a different path.
In the decades following statehood, many settlers engaged
in schemes to seize Indian lands and mineral rights by sub-
terfuge.  See  A. Debo,  And  Still  the  Waters  Run  92–125 
(1940) (Debo).  These schemes resulted in “the bulk of the 
landed wealth of the Indians” ending up in the hands of the 
new settlers.  See ibid.; see also id., at 181–202.  State offi-
cials  and  courts  were  sometimes  complicit  in  the  process.
See  id.,  at  182–183,  185,  195–196.    For  years,  too,  Okla-
homa courts asserted the power to hear criminal cases in-
volving  Native  Americans  on  lands  allotted  to  and  owned
by  tribal  members  despite  the  contrary  commands  of  the 
Oklahoma Enabling Act and the State’s own constitution.