Cherokee Nation attorney general: largest settlement reached, new litigation filed against Oklahoma prosecutors

Attorney General Chad Harsha told the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council on Feb. 13 that the Nation has moved to disbursement on a court-approved settlement in a long-running trust case and has opened new federal litigation against two Oklahoma district attorneys.

Harsha said the settlement, which he described as "the largest, as I understand it, single settlement that we've ever had in the history of the Cherokee Nation," resolves litigation that has been pending since 2016. He said the settlement has been approved by the court in Washington, D.C., and that the process of collecting funds from the judgment fund is underway but separate from any discussions about freezing grants or payments.

The update matters because the settlement—Harsha said—addresses long-running claims about the United States government's accounting of Cherokee Nation financial resources and because the funds are now entering a disbursement process that could affect future budget and program decisions.

Harsha also described new litigation his office has initiated against elected prosecutors in Oklahoma, naming Matt Ballard, the district attorney for Rogers, Mayes and Craig counties, as the most aggressive actor his office has confronted. "I have exhausted every effort to reach out to Mr. Ballard to try to resolve this issue," Harsha said, adding that the United States also filed an action and that the Cherokee Nation has moved to intervene along with the Chickasaw Nation and the Choctaw Nation in related federal cases.

Harsha framed the litigation as a defense of tribal treaty rights and criminal jurisdiction following decisions such as the O'Brien case. "This is particularly important," he said, because the Oklahoma Supreme Court decision he cited "determined that concurrent jurisdiction exists for Native Americans in Indian country, and it's just not supported by the law," he said.

Harsha also criticized a recent opinion from the U.S. Department of the Interior Solicitor's Office. "I was incredibly surprised at that opinion, which I also think is fundamentally flawed at all levels," he said, adding that the timing of the opinion—issued "an hour and a half before the last business day of the solicitor's time in office"—was suspect. He said the Nation will respond either through litigation or engagement with DOI.

On caseloads, Harsha said his office filed "just a little over 3,900 cases" in the prior year for felonies and misdemeanors, and that the total number of cases filed in district court—counting traffic and civil matters—approaches 8,500. He described ongoing internal work to modernize the Criminal Code and to align trafficking descriptions with federal definitions.

Harsha also addressed a widely circulated communication that many citizens received. He said, based on internal conversations, that the message "did not originate from a data breach at the Cherokee Nation" and that it appeared to be "manufactured propaganda" from the United Catuah Band. He said his office is investigating the scope and origin of the circulated material.

Council members thanked Harsha and asked follow-up questions; some members emphasized reliance on the AG's office to defend sovereignty. Harsha said he will keep the council updated as litigation and DOI responses proceed.

Looking ahead, Harsha said he expects to continue presenting criminal code modernizations this year and to pursue litigation as necessary to protect the Nation's treaty rights.