07/01/2022
I was forwarded a recording of a talk OK Gov Stitt gave to the Cushing Rotary in December 30, 2021. I transcribed the part of it in which he talks about McGirt so I can use it for my classes and broadcasting work. A lot of my freshmen know more than this about Indian Country, law, and history. He is going around the state and doing this talk for various small community civic groups. I'll do my commentary elsewhere but thought I would share it with the group so everyone could see how he is approaching this subject.
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt addresses a Rotary Meeting in Cushing, OK (transcribed from recording)
December 30, 2022
One thing I wanted to let you know about is what I believe is the biggest issue hitting the state of Oklahoma, the McGirt issue. With a show of hands, how many of you have heard of the McGirt decision. Is it almost everybody? A few of haven’t, ok. So, last year… first off, let me say this. I don’t think there’s a bigger issue that has hit any state since maybe the Civil War. That’s how big of an issue this is for the state of Oklahoma. Oklahoma is literally being torn apart. So, the McGirt decision was last year. It said. The Supreme Court said reservations still exist in eastern Oklahoma. I don’t want to go into the whole history but in 1907 how we disbanded the reservations. We all grew up in Oklahoma history and we didn’t have reservations any more. We are so proud of our cultural heritage, our Indian heritage, the good things that has meant to Oklahoma over the last 114 years. This has nothing to do with that. This has everything to do with Oklahoma sovereignty, and have we lost jurisdiction to operate as a state now in eastern Oklahoma. There’s six reservations that have been re-established or considered never disestablished by the Supreme Court now. So, we have six different jurisdictions, a checkerboard of jurisdictions in eastern Oklahoma, and I’ll tell you what the consequences are of that.
Attorney General John O’Connor is doing a fantastic job. He’s got forty to fifty cases back before the Supreme Court asking them to re-consider and overturn the McGirt decision. Overturning the McGirt decision is simply going back to the way we’ve operated as the state of Oklahoma since 1907. That’s all that is, saying, “Hey, we need to go back to the way we’ve operated since 1907.”
One of the basic functions of a state in the United States of America is the ability to enforce the rule of law. Right now we can’t. So, there’s three issues. There’s taxation. There’s the civil aspect. And there’s criminal prosecution.
Since McGirt, the Tulsa Police Department has enforced a turnover of 1,156 cases to the tribal nations. They (the Tribal Nations) haven’t subpoenaed a single police officer to testify in a case. There is no transparency and there is no accountability for what’s happening in those tribal courts right now.
Daniel Vivier is a case that I like to highlight ‘cuz it kind of makes the example for us. In Ada there’s three bad guys. They beat up an 85-year-old man, almost killed him, stole his truck, stole stuff from him. They were sentence to 20 years in prison. Because of McGirt, Daniel Vivier is out of prison. The other two guys are still in prison. So, now you have a case that one person because of race has a different punishment than the other two races. Same crime that happened on the same day. That’s happening all over our state right now. That is not equal protection under the law. I don’t believe that’s American. We have to have one set of rules regardless of your race.
The Biden administration along with Tribal executives are trying to expand McGirt now from just criminal, and now the DAs [Disctrict Attorneys] in eastern Oklahoma are pulling their hair out on the criminal side, but they [the Biden administration and Tribal leaders] are now trying to expand it to civil and to taxation.
Chuck Hoskins, who is the Cherokee chief, said that Natives in eastern Oklahoma shouldn’t have to pay state income tax. There’s now 5,000 protests at the state tax commission (OTC) where people in eastern Oklahoma say they don’t have to pay state income tax. We’re fighting that battle right now. We all drive on the same roads. We all send our kids to the same schools. How does that affect Cushing? If there’s less tax dollars coming in, we have an equalization formula. The same thing that happens in western Oklahoma and Cushing. Those dollars get divided up equally with every single school. If there is a dollar less collected in eastern Oklahoma, that’s a dollar less that comes into all of our different schools. We have to have one set of rules.
Again, there’s no blood quantum. I am a member of the Cherokee, uh, Nation through my grandmother’s side. Can you imagine someone who is a Southern Hills member that’s the CEO of their company that doesn’t have to pay state income tax, but a single mom who is working three jobs as a waitress has to pay state income tax? It’s just preposterous. It’s preposterous to think about. I can’t even believe I have to keep saying that we need one set of rules regardless of your race. Income taxes make up 40% of state revenue. That affects education. That affects roads and bridges. That affects health care. That affects every single thing. So, we will have an erosion if we lose the tax argument.
Chuck Hoskins also told tribal members, really all of Oklahoma, that they don’t have to buy a state hunting and fishing license as long as they have their Indian card, which I have. They can hunt on the reservation without buying a hunting and fishing license through the wildlife department.
Again, this is an issue about fairness, about justice, about equal protection under the law. As long as I’m governor I’m not going to give an inch in protecting the rights of the sovereignty of the state of Oklahoma and our jurisdiction. Because if we don’t win that, literally eastern Oklahoma is a reservation and that means that all things apply. I think it’s going to erode the certainty to businesses, and we haven’t even talked about zoning and the problems with that.
