TAHLEQUAH – A long-awaited, multi-million-dollar settlement with the United States over the government’s failure to meet trust obligations could pave the way for a Cherokee Nation justice center and courthouse within the reservation.
Plans have been drawn up to spend the recently reached $60 million settlement on a $50 million justice center in Tahlequah and $10 million courthouse somewhere “other than in Tahlequah.”
“In my opinion, it’s a beautiful end to this journey of taking the United States government to task for failure to account for our financial resources,” CN Attorney General Chad Harsha said.
The Cherokee Nation’s prolonged lawsuit against the United States began in 2016 when the tribe asserted various claims related to the government’s failure to meet its trust accounting obligations. Harsha said the case has been in various forms of litigation in multiple courts for years, predating both his and his predecessor’s time as attorney general.
“We have spent a lot of time positioning this case in front of the Department of Justice,” he added. “I’m proud to say it’s the largest, as I understand it, single settlement we’ve ever had in the history of the Cherokee Nation.”
Harsha noted the settlement funds will be used to “prop up and expand” a criminal justice system that “radically changed” after the U.S. Supreme Court’s July 9, 2020, McGirt v. Oklahoma ruling, which led to an exponential increase in the tribe’s criminal justice-related obligations within the 7,000-square-mile reservation.
In a unanimous vote Jan. 30, the Tribal Council’s Rules Committee pushed forward the legislation, called Cherokee Nation Justice Center Act of 2025. It authorizes use of the settlement funds to build a justice center in Tahlequah “suitable for housing various operations” like the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court and District Court.
A separate courthouse would be either constructed or located in a remodeled building “within the Cherokee Nation Reservation, other than in Tahlequah.”
The tribe’s justice system was expanded after the McGirt ruling that Congress never disestablished the Muscogee Nation reservation for purposes of criminal jurisdiction. A singular, state-level case in 2021 gave the Cherokee Nation its own official recognition as a reservation.
The landmark court rulings expanded the geographic reach of the Cherokee Nation’s criminal jurisdiction to the entire reservation; the tribe and federal government have jurisdiction over crimes involving Indians, while Oklahoma has jurisdiction over crimes only involving non-Indians.
Just a month after the McGirt ruling, anticipating an influx of new and state-dismissed cases, the Cherokee Nation passed the CN Reservation, Judicial Expansion and Sovereignty Protection Act to expand its tribe’s judiciary, prosecution staff and Marshal Service. In short order, the tribe had filed hundreds of new cases, more than were filed over the past decade.
Harsha says criminal cases post-McGirt continue to grow year over year. Last year alone, the Cherokee Nation filed approximately 3,900 cases.
“This is only criminal cases related to felonies and misdemeanors,” he said. “Now, when you look at the whole footprint of crimes or cases that are filed in the district court, that number gets closer to 8,500. That includes traffic citations, civil matters brought by the AG’s office and domestic matters.”
Also supported in committee was a piece of legislation that would establish the Cherokee Nation Community and Citizens Emergency Response Fund for response to an existing or anticipated state of emergency under the current Emergency Management Act. The move is based on recommendations from the Cherokee Nation Task Force on Disaster Response.
“Being on that committee for the last several months getting it started, I’d like to thank the administration, the chief, because this is a big thing,” Tribal Councilor Danny Callison said. “It gives us an opportunity when we have another one of these natural disasters – and it’s not if we have one; it’s when we have one in our districts – that we’re able to step this up and to do this the way that is the Cherokee way. It’s a good thing for everybody.”
During the Jan. 30 Rules Committee meeting, councilors heard the first report from Daniel Mead, the Cherokee Nation’s new acting marshal.
“This first month has been kind of challenging, and there’s been so many people that helped me along the way,” he said. “I just want you to know I’ve got a good group of people behind me. We are truly protected by the best in Indian Country.”
Mead was named acting marshal by Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. following Marshal Shannon Buhl’s announcement he was retiring to consult the tribe on security matters for Cherokee Nation Businesses.
