Felix Clary
ICT + Tulsa World
TULSA, Okla. – The Cherokee Nation Marshal Service found and arrested two men in connection with the killing and decapitation of bison at an Owasso ranch last year.
Last year, Bill Rethke, called the Owasso Police Department after finding two of his bison, which he considers pets, dead on his property.
One bison was shot to death, and the other brutally slaughtered, including beheading.
At least two of the culprits have been identified as Gunner Lee Richards and Tryston Hunter Needham.
Richards is a 25-year-old Chickasaw Nation citizen from Broken Bow. He was arrested Wednesday, March 13, near an RV park in Owasso.
Needham is a 29-year-old Choctaw citizen from Pittsburg County. He was arrested in Tahlequah on Thursday, March 14.
Because the crime was committed within the Cherokee Nation reservation by two tribal citizens, Owasso police passed the case to the Cherokee Nation, as its marshal service had jurisdiction over the crime because of the Supreme Court’s 2020 McGirt decision. That decision granted tribes, rather than the state of Oklahoma, jurisdiction over non-federal criminal cases involving tribal citizens on tribal lands.
Since last November, the Cherokee Nation Marshal Service has searched for the perpetrators, partnering with the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture and the Choctaw Nation.
“The Cherokee Nation continues to uphold its public safety obligations under the historic McGirt decision and will continue to work with our state and local partners to ensure those who commit crimes are prosecuted,” said Cherokee Nation Attorney General Chad Harsha in a press release.
Needham and Richards have been charged in the Cherokee Nation District Court with each receiving two felony counts of animal cruelty with one felony count of grand larceny.
They both have been released from jail after posting $50,000 bonds.
Rethke told 2News in an interview, “Since I found out that they got them arrested, I hope they get punished.
“They lawyered up, so they’re already spending money and everything else, but it doesn’t bring back the animals,” he said, while feeding bison from his palm.
The Quapaw Nation has gifted Rethke three bison calves since the incident.
This story is co-published by the Tulsa World and ICT, a news partnership that covers Indigenous communities in the Oklahoma area.
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