Bishop Wantland appointed chief justice of the Seminole Indian Nation

August 26, 2011
By George Conger

The Diocese of Forth Worth reports that its assisting bishop, the Rt Rev William Wantland, has been named the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Seminole Nation.

On 8 August, 2011, Bishop Wantland and two other justices took the oath of office for the American Indian tribal court which was formerly reinstated last year.

The Seminoles of Oklahoma are descendents of the Indian tribes expelled from Florida in the 1830s. The Seminole were recognized as an independent Indian Nation in 1856 by the US government after their resettlement West of the Mississippi.

In 1907 the US Congress removed all restrictions on white settlement in Indian Territory. During the reorganization Congress reduced the autonomy of the Five Civilized Tribes: the Cherokee, Chikasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole (so-called due to their successful integration into American society and adoption of Western culture). Indian tribal courts were abolished and the chief of each tribe was henceforth appointed by the Federal Government’s Bureau of Indian Affairs.

A member of the Tusekia Harjo Band of the Seminole Nation, Bishop Wantland trained as a lawyer and as an Episcopal priest, and was a member of the committee that drafted the tribe’s constitution of 1969, which restored its right to elect its own chief. “However, there was no provision for a court system,” under the new constitution the bishop said, “because the Bureau of Indian Affairs said we could not have courts.” the rest