In an event lasting more than two hours at Tulsa’s municipal court Thursday, members of the Cherokee and Muscogee nations saw charges from assault to speeding shifted to the purview of their tribes.
Judge Mitchell McCune oversaw the afternoon, working with both Native and city of Tulsa attorneys.
24-year-old Andres Mondoux said he was ready to get out of the city’s court and clear up his traffic tickets with the Muscogee Nation.
“I’m Native American, I’m tired of dealing with these people,” said Mondoux. “The tribes, they help people. Rather than these people, they want your money. They don’t care about you at all. They just want you to pay the bills, pay the fines, and if you don’t, you go to jail.”
Mondoux is battling six tickets from seatbelt violations to not carrying his driver’s license.
“I believe there’s still racial profiling going on. They just look at you and turn around because you look a certain way,” said Mondoux.
Mondoux said in one instance he was pulled over in downtown Tulsa and the police officer refused to call tribal authorities while insisting he exit the car to be searched.
Some of the young man’s traffic charges will go to Cherokee Nation, as well, as the city refuses to mark a ruling in O’Brien v. Tulsa. A recent decision in that case held that tribal citizens who commit crimes outside of their enrolled reservations can be prosecuted by the state.
But O’Brien v. Tulsa, which was sent back to Tulsa’s municipal court after an appeal ruling, was dismissed at the behest of Mayor Monroe Nichols, too, according to a Thursday statement.
The historic push to work with tribes was a campaign promise from Nichols, Tulsa’s first Black mayor elected in November 2024. He’s persisting even as Oklahoma’s governor voices disapproval and seeks legal intervention.
According to the landmark 2020 McGirt ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court, Tulsa sits on three reservations.
The Osage Nation was not represented in court Thursday because it is still trying to sort out an agreement with Tulsa, officials said, as it grapples with a case around the very existence of its reservation.
