On Tuesday evening, July 13, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt hosted a “McGirt Victims Impact Forum” that included a panel of district attorneys and law enforcement representatives from across the state.

Last year the Supreme Court announced their 5-4 decision in the McGirt v. Oklahoma case. The majority opinion was, because Congress has never dissolved the borders of the Muskogee (Creek) reservation, the tribe retains jurisdiction in criminal cases that had previously been handed to the state. This ruling has since been extended to each of Oklahoma’s Five Civilized Tribes. While the tribes celebrate this recognition by the Supreme Court, the decision has created a major challenge for Oklahoma courts as thousands of tribal members convicted under state law seek to have their cases reviewed by federal courts.

What was scheduled to be a two-hour forum ended after just 45 minutes as protesters, mostly Native Americans claiming they had not been officially invited to be represented on the panel, disrupted the event. Paul Smith, District Attorney for District 22, which serves Seminole, Pontotoc and Hughes Counties, was one of the members on the panel.

“The discussion was supposed to be centered around answering questions from crime victims, many of them from Native victims, whose plights in the new criminal justice system, have been wrought with frustration, confusion, and a feeling that the Constitutional pledge of the Preamble ‘to establish justice’ no longer applied to them,” Smith explains. “While the setting of the evening, the energy in the crowd, and the friendly exchanges between the panel participants and the attendees showed promise, the evening quickly descended into a rowdy crowd voicing their frustrations to the Governor as he spoke and to Tulsa DA Steve Kunzweiler as they attempted to make informational remarks and set the framework for the events discussion.”

Smith estimated that approximately 60 percent of the audience were hostile to the Governor, while the other 40 percent were quiet and wanting to listen. He described the protests as “a fiasco of insults, heckling, organized back turning,” with comments levied towards the panel. They came prepared with chants, readymade “soccer” red cards and posters, placards, and banners. One protester was removed when he refused to remove himself from the front of the panel table.

According to Smith, the noise of the crowd would ebb and flow as each panel member was asked to briefly speak concerning their experience addressing the difficulties encountered by the McGirt decision. It appeared to the DA that the crowd was interested in what they had to say, yet they were met with crowd voices offering arguments or counter perspectives.

After the panel members had shared their brief comments, the Governor began reading questions he had received form crime victims and direct the panel to address each question. He was once again met with expressions of protest even as he re-emphasized his appreciation for the well-attended room and urged the crowd to calm down and hear the victim’s voices.

“At one point a lone Native woman stood and pleaded with the crowd and stated, ‘Please…we came here tonight to show our support for the McGirt ruling, not to show our ass,’ and pleaded with the crowd to listed to the discussion,” Smith recalls. “The crowd quieted somewhat as each question was read by the Governor and answered by a panelist. Much of the information shared by the panelist focused on the difficulties for crime victims, both Native and Non-Native, created by the jurisdictional quagmire presented by the McGirt decision.”

However, when the Governor read the final questions having to do with the ad velorem tax raised by the McGirt decision, the crowd’s voices completely drowned out the miked voices. Smith stated that the Governor tried to express his final appreciations and a call for unity as “we are all Oklahomans,” but the event ended rather abruptly at 7:10 p.m. well ahead of the scheduled 8 p.m. conclusion.

Smith said that he and many of the other panel members stayed at the panel table to greet members of the audience who came up to express their apologies and appreciations. He met with several tribal leaders and exchanged their mutual respects and pledged their resources and commitments to their common goals of victim’s support and public safety. One crowd member introduced himself and apologized for what he described as “a rock throwing contest.”

Smith commented that the future application of the McGirt decision remains to be seen. The State is going back to the Supreme Court attempting to appeal certain aspects, applications, and State court interpretations of the decision in a case called Bosse v. State out of McClain Co. The application for Writ of Certiorari is being filed on August 6th.

Smith also shared that Senator Lankford has been re-engaging in discussions with State leaders over proposing Federal legislation which would enable all of the three governmental sovereigns to prosecute crimes in eastern Oklahoma, giving each concurrent jurisdiction, much like what was done under the Kansas Act of 1940 and was upheld by the SCOTUS in a unanimous decision in 1993.