District court says Osage Reservation disestablished

The district court judge for Osage County has ruled that the Osage Nation’s reservation no longer exists, but his decision is merely the first step in what is likely to be a lengthy legal battle.

Judge Stuart Tate made the ruling in a criminal felony case involving Dustin Phillips, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation who is charged with kidnapping, domestic assault and protective order violations that occurred in Skiatook in early 2019. Phillips’s lawyers argue that federal courts, not the state, have jurisdiction in the case because Phillips is Native and the crime occurred on the Osage Reservation.

Osage Nation Attorney General Clint Patterson said Aug. 31 that he and other attorneys involved in the case have a meeting set for Sept. 1 to decide their course of action. Because it entered the case only as a friend of the court, the Osage Nation has no avenue to appeal on its own behalf, but Phillips does.

https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/district-court-says-osage-reservation-disestablished