This is my people, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. Long, long overdue. I am stunned, but pleased.
[nytimes.com]nation-oklahoma.html
This is wonderful! Forgive me for repeating myself here but....my g/g/grandfather, Franklin P. Cease, was a Police Judge in OK, at the time of the ''land rush." He was very supportive of Native rights and presided over a courtroom which heard cases right out of a movie...rustlers, prostitutes, gun-slinging murderers, etc. He befriended Geronimo, when the man was held in Ft. Sill.
I've often wondered how he justified the presence of white settlers....other than trying to protect everyone through law. What would you have done?
He'd be HAPPY to hear this....I know it.
Let me premise this by saying my Native American knowledge is pretty slim, so please be kind, but I'm curious if the reservation has a justice system that will deal with the child rapist whose state conviction was quashed by this ruling? Absolutely right decision with the land, but I'm struggling to support a guy who doesn't deny raping a four year old child and initiated this whole thing to get it quashed. Will his case rise to the level needed for federal prosecution or will his people deal with him?
Yes, they have an in place and functioning justice and law enforcement system.