420
Opinion of the Court
state." § 802.B. On any sensible reading of the Act, the District Court of Oklahoma County, a local court of general jurisdiction, fits that statutory description.2
In sum, the Tribe agreed, by express contract, to adhere to certain dispute resolution procedures. In fact, the Tribe itself tendered the contract calling for those procedures. The regime to which the Tribe subscribed includes entry of judgment upon an arbitration award in accordance with the Oklahoma Uniform Arbitration Act. That Act concerns arbitration in Oklahoma and correspondingly designates as enforcement forums "court[s] of competent jurisdiction of [Oklahoma]." Ibid. C & L selected for its enforcement suit just such a forum. In a case involving an arbitration clause essentially indistinguishable from the one to which the Tribe and C & L agreed, the Seventh Circuit stated:
"There is nothing ambiguous about th[e] language [of the arbitration clause]. The tribe agrees to submit disputes arising under the contract to arbitration, to be bound by the arbitration award, and to have its submission and the award enforced in a court of law.
. . . . . . . . "The [tribal immunity] waiver . . . is implicit rather than explicit only if a waiver of sovereign immunity, to be deemed explicit, must use the words 'sovereign immunity.' No case has ever held that." Sokaogon, 86 F. 3d, at 659-660.
2 The United States argues that the Oklahoma Uniform Arbitration Act is inapplicable in this case because it does not reach all arbitrations properly held in Oklahoma, but only those in which the agreement explicitly "provide[s] for arbitration in [Oklahoma]." Tr. of Oral Arg. 47-48 (refer-ring to § 802.B). No Oklahoma authority is cited for this constricted reading of an Act that expressly "appl[ies] to . . . a provision in a written contract to submit to arbitration any controversy thereafter arising between the parties." § 802.A. We decline to attribute to the Oklahoma lawmakers and interpreters a construction that so severely shrinks the Act's domain.
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