The governor’s task force aimed at resolving jurisdictional disputes over tribal reservations expects to publish a report next week with a “blueprint” for modernizing public safety agreements between state and tribal governments.
It’s unclear exactly what issues the One Oklahoma Task Force will cover in its report — or how its suggestions will differ from the reams of tribal compacts already in place. It also remains to be seen whether tribal authorities will adopt ideas presented by a working group made up of state officials, legislators and law enforcement officials. No one representing a tribal nation is part of the group.
Tricia Everest, Oklahoma’s secretary of public safety who chairs the task force, acknowledged that some issues discussed by the group are too complex to fully address. Gov. Kevin Stitt gave the task force five months, ending June 1, to complete its work.
“This won’t solve all the problems, but it will bring a lot of the right people to the table to solve” the problems in the future, Everest said after the task force met Monday for the penultimate time. He will meet again on May 20 to finalize his report, which will be delivered to Stitt, legislative leaders, tribal elected officials and the state’s congressional delegation.
More: An Oklahoma police officer ticketed a driver because of his tribal license plate. What happened next?
State lawmakers will likely hold hearings in the fall to study the more complicated issues that arose during the task force’s discussions, such as figuring out how to bridge technology gaps between state and tribal law enforcement agencies, Everest said. She said Sen. Jessica Garvin, R-Duncan, suggested the interim study. Garvin is part of the task force, but did not attend Monday’s meeting, and her office did not return a message to discuss what she had planned.
Rep. Ken Luttrell, R-Ponca City, who represents the House on the task force, said he believes an interim study would allow officials to delve deeper into the issues facing state and tribal police officers.
Luttrell, a Cherokee Nation citizen, said he also believes tribal officials may be open to participating in the hearings.
“I’m cautiously optimistic that we would have more engagement in a forum like this than perhaps this working group would have,” he said.
Why Many Tribal Leaders Refused to Participate in Governor Kevin Stitt’s Task Force
Stitt created the task force in December after a conflict between Okmulgee County jailers and Muscogee Nation Lighthorse police officers. He said the incident highlighted the “broken system” created by McGirt v. Oklahoma, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that led to the recognition of nine tribal reservations in eastern Oklahoma. State courts do not have the power to prosecute Native Americans on reservations. These cases go to tribal or federal courts.
Stitt has reserved two seats on the new task force for tribal officials. But the leaders of the five largest tribes affected by the McGirt decision — the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee and Seminole nations — formally refused to participate. They cited Stitt’s definition of the task force’s mission and the lack of seats the governor allocated to tribal nations. Oklahoma is home to 38 federally recognized tribal nations.
At the start of Monday’s meeting, Everest noted that the two seats allocated to tribal nations remained empty. She later said that although tribal officials were not present at the meetings, she and other task force members had spoken individually with tribal leaders in recent weeks.
Stitt charged the task force with recommending legal and policy changes to address the “negative effects” of McGirt. He also ordered the task force to draft uniform labor agreements covering state and tribal police and prisons. The task force discussed the possibility of creating a new comprehensive agreement that state and tribal law enforcement agencies could use. But the task force scaled back that idea on the advice of Deputy Attorney General Justin Wolf, according to minutes from the group’s April meeting. The working group is now working on a “model” of items to be attached to existing agreements.
Everest said the ultimate goal is to make everyone safer by streamlining how agencies work together on tribal reservations.
“The amount of time someone is on the side of the road is dangerous to all law enforcement officers and all members of the public, and this is not the time to have jurisdictional issues,” she said. “Likewise, when you take someone to the county jail, or to a new jail, that’s not the time.”
At one point in the meeting, Everest asked how the dispute at the Okmulgee County jail could have “ideally” been different. The December altercation between county jailers and Lighthorse police began after the latter officers attempted to leave a non-Native man they had arrested on drug charges. Prison officials initially refused to book the man.
Cherokee County Sheriff Jason Chennault offered a short response to Everest’s question about how the situation could have been different. “Well, if everyone gets along,” he said.
More: Oklahoma AG challenges Muscogee Nation’s case against county jailer over dispute caught on video
Everest asked task force members to weigh in for a final time on the issues they would like to see addressed in the report.
Oklahoma Department of Public Safety Commissioner Tim Tipton was perhaps the most direct when it was his turn to respond. He said he wanted to address the loss of fees and fines once collected by state law enforcement agencies, which now go to tribal law enforcement agencies.
Many cities have entered into agreements with tribes to eventually be reimbursed for the traffic tickets their officials write to Native American drivers, but no such agreement exists at the state level.
Tipton said he would also like to see guidance on how state officials can uniformly enforce the law when tribal laws can vary.
“So my hope is the clarity of the law,” he said, “which goes hand in hand with officer safety.”
This article originally appeared in the Oklahoman: Oklahoma Lawmakers May Study Public Safety on Tribal Reservations
