The Muscogee Nation and the City of Tulsa are trying to come to an agreement in a federal case dealing with criminal jurisdiction over tribal members.
According to court documents, the case originally filed in 2023 by the Nation is paused until Jan. 17 while parties negotiate.
At issue is who has the right to prosecute when a Muscogee Nation member commits a crime on the Nation’s reservation.
Much of the city of Tulsa is within the Muscogee Nation reservation or the Cherokee Nation reservation, according to a landmark 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling known as the McGirt decision.
Mayor Monroe Nichols, elected in November, ran on a platform of cooperating with tribes. Previously, Tulsa’s mayor proposed moving beyond litigation but didn’t take public steps to settle with the Muscogee Nation.
The discussions come even as the city was successful in other tribal jurisdiction cases. Earlier this month, the state court of criminal appeals ruled 4-1 that state and local governments can get involved on tribal land in some instances.
That case involved Osage citizen Nicholas O’Brien who challenged a 2021 Tulsa traffic citation based on the McGirt decision.
