When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the eastern half of Oklahoma could be considered Native American territory, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz voiced alarm.

Neil Gorsuch & the four liberal Justices just gave away half of Oklahoma, literally, he tweeted. Manhattan is next.

Thats absurd.

What the court did was to force state and federal officials to finally deal with a promise they made to Native Americans almost 200 years ago.

The case before the court involved Jimcy McGirt, an enrolled member of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma who was convicted in 1997 of sex crimes against a child on Native American land. McGirt argued the state lacked jurisdiction in the case and he should be retried in federal court.

The Supreme Court agreed.

Today we are asked whether the land these treaties promised remains an Indian reservation for purposes of federal criminal law, Justice Neal Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion. Because Congress has not said otherwise, we hold the government to its word.

Thats a statement Native Americans all over the country had been waiting to hear for a long time.

Jason Salsman, press secretary for the Muscogee nation, described his reaction in an interview with the New York Times.

It made me cry, he said. It was a powerful moment, one I wasnt ready for. It brought out emotions you didnt know would be there. It was just a promise kept. We know the history of promises that have been broken. I still get chills thinking about it.

For those unfamiliar with the history, members of the Muscogee, Cherokee, Seminole, Chickasaw and Choctaw nations were forced from their traditional lands in the Southeastern United States under the Indian Removal Act of 1830. When all was said and done, some 60,000 Native Americans had marched westward along what became known as the Trail of Tears. Thousands died.

Surviving members of the Muscogee nation settled on land they had been promised in Oklahoma, and that is what the Supreme Court recognized in its ruling.

We do not pretend to foretell the future, Gorsuch wrote, and we proceed well aware of the potential for cost and conflict around jurisdictional boundaries, especially ones that have gone unappreciated for so long. But it is unclear why pessimism should rule the day. With the passage of time, Oklahoma and its Tribes have proven they can work successfully together as partners.

The federal government had promised a reservation in perpetuity, Gorsuch wrote, and even though Congress might have diminished that sanctuary over time, it had never actually withdrawn the promise.

Salsman said the Muscogee nation wasnt surprised by reactions like the one shared by Cruz.

There were a lot of scare tactics: Were going to turn the prisoners loose, give us your tax dollars, your land is our land, he said. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Within hours of the ruling, the state and all five Native American nations issued a joint statement.

The nations and the state are committed to implementing a framework of shared jurisdiction that will preserve sovereign interests and rights to self-government while affirming jurisdictional understandings, procedures, laws and regulations that support public safety, our economy and private property rights, the statement read. We will continue our work, confident that we can accomplish more together than any of us could alone.

The ruling will have an impact not just in Oklahoma but in other parts of the country. At least 10 states have similar jurisdictional disputes.

The decision in this case wont resolve those fights, but its a good first step, a step that was long overdue.

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Kelly Hawes column: Supreme Court holds government to its word - The Herald Bulletin