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14 

MCGIRT v. OKLAHOMA 

Opinion of the Court 

Creek.  But, just as plainly, they left the Tribe with signifi-
cant sovereign functions over the lands in question.  For ex-
ample, the Creek Nation retained the power to collect taxes,
operate  schools,  legislate  through  tribal  ordinances,  and, 
soon,  oversee  the  federally  mandated  allotment  process. 
§§39, 40, 42, id., at 871–872; Buster v. Wright, 135 F. 947, 
949–950,  953–954  (CA8  1905).    And,  in  its  own  way,  the
congressional incursion on tribal legislative processes only
served  to  prove  the  power:  Congress  would  have  had  no
need  to  subject  tribal  legislation  to  Presidential  review  if
the Tribe lacked any authority to legislate.  Grave though
they  were,  these  congressional  intrusions  on  pre-existing 
treaty rights fell short of eliminating all tribal interests in 
the land. 

Much  more  ominously,  the  1901  allotment  agreement
ended  by  announcing  that  the  Creek  tribal  government 
“shall  not  continue”  past  1906,  although  the  agreement 
quickly qualified that statement, adding the proviso “sub-
ject  to  such  further  legislation  as  Congress  may  deem 
proper.”  §46, 31 Stat. 872.  Thus, while suggesting that the 
tribal government might end in 1906, Congress also neces-
sarily  understood  it  had  not  ended  in  1901.    All  of  which 
was  consistent  with  the  Legislature’s  general  practice  of 
taking allotment as a first, not final, step toward disestab-
lishment and dissolution. 

When  1906  finally  arrived,  Congress  adopted  the  Five
Civilized  Tribes  Act.  But  instead  of  dissolving  the  tribal 
government  as  some  may  have  expected,  Congress
“deem[ed] proper” a different course, simply cutting away
further at the Tribe’s autonomy.  Congress empowered the
President to remove and replace the principal chief of the 
Creek, prohibited the tribal council from meeting more than 
30 days a year, and directed the Secretary of the Interior to 
assume control of tribal schools.  §§6, 10, 28, 34 Stat. 139– 
140,  148.  The  Act  also  provided  for  the  handling  of  the