Only two oil and gas companies — Tulsa-based Eagle Road Oil LLC and Cummings Oil Co. out of Oklahoma City — are specifically named in the suit. Both operate at least one wastewater injection well within the Pawnee Nation’s jurisdictional area near the epicenter of the Sept. 3 earthquake.

Both are also named defendants in a pending class-action lawsuit filed in November by several Pawnee-area residents seeking compensation for the physical and emotional harm caused by the quake.

The other 25 defendants in the Pawnee Nation’s suit are listed as John Does.

According to the tribe’s attorneys, the litigation is thought to be the first earthquake case brought forward in a tribal court.

With fewer cases going through the Pawnee Nation’s judicial system, the tribe’s attorneys said they think their claim may be heard sooner than some of the other lawsuits in state and federal courts stemming from the earthquake.

“Their docket is not as congested, so we think we can move this case forward more quickly than we can the other (pending earthquake) cases,” co-counsel Scott Poynter said. “It’s the proper place to bring a claim on behalf of the Pawnee Nation. It’s its own sovereign and is entitled to use its courts.”

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