Yesterday, the amount of land the federal government officially recognized as Indian

country as under the jurisdiction of tribes was just 55 million acres, only 2% of all land

in the US.

Today, that number is 74 million.

This is Rebecca Nagel, and I'm bringing you an update from this land and Kirk of media.

Today, the Supreme Court finally made its ruling on the reservation status of eastern Oklahoma.

We won.

For the majority, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote, on the far end of the trail of tears was a promise.

Of course to leave their ancestral lands in Georgia and Alabama, the Creek Nation received

assurances that their new lands in the West would be secure forever.

Today we are asked whether the land these treaties promised remains an Indian reservation for

the purposes of federal criminal law.

Because Congress has not said otherwise, we hold the government to its word.

It's been a year since I've spoken to you, and a lot has happened.

Not just today's decision, but a completely different Supreme Court case, new tribal leadership,

a second set of oral arguments, and our own in-depth investigation on the impact of this

decision on past criminal convictions.

There is so much to talk about.

One week from today, we are going to bring you our coverage of the Supreme Court's ruling

and what it means.

You don't want to miss it.

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