A Promise Kept
The Muscogee (Creek) Nation and McGirt v. Oklahoma
by Robert J. Miller and Robbie Ethridge
Published by: University of Oklahoma Press
Imprint: University of Oklahoma Press
308 Pages | 6 x 9 | 6 maps
$65.00
$24.95
$21.95
“At the end of the Trail of Tears there was a promise,” U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the decision issued on July 9, 2020, in the case of McGirt v. Oklahoma. And that promise, made in treaties between the United States and the Muscogee (Creek) Nation more than 150 years earlier, would finally be kept. With the Court’s ruling, the full extent of the Muscogee (Creek) Reservation was reaffirmed—meaning that 3.25 million acres of land in Oklahoma, including part of the city of Tulsa, were recognized once again as “Indian Country” as defined by federal law. A Promise Kept explores the circumstances and implications of McGirt v. Oklahoma, likely the most significant Indian law case in well over 100 years. Combining legal analysis and historical context, this book gives an in-depth, accessible account of how the case unfolded and what it might mean for Oklahomans, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and other tribes throughout the United States.
For context, Robbie Ethridge traces the long history of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation from its inception in present-day Georgia and Alabama in the seventeenth century; through the tribe’s rise to regional prominence in the colonial era, the tumultuous years of Indian Removal, and the Civil War and allotment; and into its resurgence in Oklahoma in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Against this historical background, Robert J. Miller considers McGirt v. Oklahoma, examining important related cases, precedents that informed the Court’s decision, and future ramifications—legal, civil, regulatory, and practical—for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, federal Indian law, the United States, the state of Oklahoma, and Indian nations in Oklahoma and elsewhere. Their work clarifies the stakes of a decision that, while long overdue, raises numerous complex issues profoundly affecting federal, state, and tribal relations and law—and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
For context, Robbie Ethridge traces the long history of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation from its inception in present-day Georgia and Alabama in the seventeenth century; through the tribe’s rise to regional prominence in the colonial era, the tumultuous years of Indian Removal, and the Civil War and allotment; and into its resurgence in Oklahoma in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Against this historical background, Robert J. Miller considers McGirt v. Oklahoma, examining important related cases, precedents that informed the Court’s decision, and future ramifications—legal, civil, regulatory, and practical—for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, federal Indian law, the United States, the state of Oklahoma, and Indian nations in Oklahoma and elsewhere. Their work clarifies the stakes of a decision that, while long overdue, raises numerous complex issues profoundly affecting federal, state, and tribal relations and law—and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
Robert J. Miller is Professor of Law at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. He is the author of Reservation “Capitalism”: Economic Development in Indian Country and Native America, Discovered and Conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, and Manifest Destiny.
Robbie Ethridge is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Mississippi. She is the author of From Chicaza to Chickasaw: The European Invasion and the Transformation of the Mississippian World, 1540–1715 and Creek Country: The Creek Indians and Their World, 1796–1816.
“The McGirt Supreme Court decision upholding the Muscogee reservation is one of the most important legal victories for tribal sovereignty in this century. But it didn’t come out of nowhere. Miller and Ethridge provide the long history and important legal context for readers to understand how we got here: that on the far end of the Trail of Tears a promise was kept.”—Rebecca Nagle (Cherokee Nation), journalist and host of This Land podcast
“A Promise Kept places the blockbuster 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision of McGirt v. Oklahoma into historical perspective and presents a thorough legal assessment of the court suit, its arguments, and its ramifications. The book will have wide appeal.”—Blue Clark, author of Indian Tribes of Oklahoma, A Guide
“A Promise Kept is a must-have for those seeking to understand the full history and legal complexities of Oklahoma and the thirty-nine Indigenous Nations therein, as told from the experiences of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.”—Stacy Leeds (Cherokee Nation), co-author of Mastering American Indian Law, 2nd edition
“McGirt v. Oklahoma will shape U.S.-tribal relations for decades to come, but this pivotal court case is often misunderstood and misrepresented. Here, two leading scholars in Native American history and law join forces to explore the origins and potential consequences of the decision. Authoritative and lucid, A Promise Kept is essential reading for anyone interested in the future of Indigenous politics in the United States.”—Claudio Saunt, author of Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory
“In the landmark McGirt v. Oklahoma (2020) case, the Supreme Court ruled that the Creek Reservation still exists within Oklahoma—a shocking decision. Subsequent decisions added other reservations, leaving 43 percent of Indian Country encompassed within Oklahoma. The convoluted morass leading to the opinion is well documented here, as the authors include the history of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, cover the pattern of promise breaking by federal and state governments, review the eight diminishment rulings, and closely analyze the decision itself. Oklahoma has petitioned 49 times to have the decision vacated because officials predict disastrous consequences for collecting state revenue, freeing criminals, and placing non-Indian populations in a legal vacuum. Miller and Ethridge review Oklahoma's fears, offering analyses of real consequences, as of 2023, and predictions for the future. When the Muscogee were forced to move, treaties and laws promised they would keep their sovereignty and reservation. McGirt partially redresses failed promises. The authors call for good-faith negotiations to resolve real issues. This is a lucid and highly apt study.”—Choice Magazine
2024 -
Oklahoma Book Awards, Oklahoma Center for the Book -
Short-listed
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