In 1999, Patrick Dwayne Murphy stabbed George Jacobs and left him to die on the side of the road.[3] Both men were members of the Muscogee Nation.[1][4] Murphy's public defender, Lisa McCalmont, argued that the murder took place on Muscogee land, which meant that the State of Oklahoma did not have jurisdiction over the case.[5] The State argued that the reservation no longer existed due to allotment.[1] At the time of the podcast's recording, the case was awaiting a decision at the Supreme Court that would determine if the reservation still existed. The land in dispute is 19 million acres and is approximately half of the state of Oklahoma.[2][6][3] In addition to the Muscogee Nation, the land in dispute impacts the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole nations.[3][7] The case was eventually decided in favor of the Muscogee Nation, and was the largest restoration of tribal land in United States history.[1]
Nagle wrote an op-ed article about Sharp v. Murphy for The Washington Post in November 2018, when oral arguments for the case were heard in the Supreme Court.[1][8] Crooked Media read the article, and reached out to ask Nagle if she was interested in collaborating on a podcast.[8] Nagle is a member of Cherokee Nation.[1][9] Several other members of the crew are also Native.[2] Nagle won the 2020 American Mosaic Journalism Prize for work on This Land.[10][11][12]
Awards and honors
2021: Season 2 of the podcast was nominated for a Peabody Award
