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Patrick Murphy, a Creek Indian, is on death Row at an Oklahoma State Prison for a murder that occurred on historic Creek land. His lawyer is now appealing the conviction to the Supreme Court, arguing that the trial should have never been tried in state court. Leading Creek authorities said the case should have been tried in either a Creek Court on a Federal court. This jurisdiction question now brings into play just who governs eastern Oklahoma. The land, granted by the federal government to the Creeks after they were purged from their native tribal lands of Georgia and Alabama in the early 1800’s now has nearly 2 million people living on it, most of whom who are neither Creek nor did their land deeds pass through Creeks. The Supreme Court according to NPR has long recognized reservation boundaries unless they’ve been revoked by Congress. Congress considered revocation of the Creek land in 1906 but did not follow through. In reality the land has been governed by the state for years and by all aspects of common law this essentially seems to give authority to the state. However James Floyd, principal chief of the Muscogee Creek Nation told NPR, “Well, during the period before statehood, when we had an allotment of land within the Muskogee Creek Nation boundaries and state law was being formulated essentially and the state became recognized as a state, we still existed. We still had our courts. We still had our schools. And we still had the governance of our people. The state basically came in on top of that and imposed its will on us. We continued to have governance at a much smaller scale until the mid-'70s.” The Chief went on to say that they will claim their rights even though they have not been enforced in a long time. A docket date has not yet been set by the Supreme Court.
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