In the "it's about time" category.....from the Tulsa World....

Changes could be coming to the way federal courts in Oklahoma handle certain crimes committed in Indian Country, including some cases that fall through the cracks. The Tulsa-based federal court for the Northern District of Oklahoma is creating a misdemeanor docket to handle crimes that occur in Indian Country, while the Muskogee-based federal court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma will review its practices to determine what sort of changes to implement. Indian Country, which in Oklahoma includes trust land and allotment land, is a jurisdictional patchwork, depending on who commits the crime, who the victim is and what type of crime is committed. Non-Indians who commit misdemeanors or crimes not listed in the Major Crimes Act — which covers most felonies — on Indian land often are not prosecuted. Many federal courts don't have dockets to handle petty crimes, while tribal courts, which can sentence criminal defendants only to a maximum of one year in jail and a $5,000 fine, do not have jurisdiction to prosecute non-Indians. Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleid=20100122_11_A15_Change673198

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