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As Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt claims Tribal sovereignty is a threat to the state, the Chief of the Cherokee Nation continues to focus on uplifting communities, revealing a stark contrast in leadership styles among two of the most powerful men in Indian Country.
Years after the United States Supreme Court reaffirmed the sovereign authority of Tribal reservations in Oklahoma, Gov. Stitt’s warning that it will lead to a breakdown in public safety hasn’t become reality.
In an interview with the Black Wall Street Times, Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. responded to questions about the recent appointment of the first Indigenous woman to an Oklahoma federal judge seat, his efforts to expand opportunity to marginalized people, his efforts to seat a Cherokee delegate in U.S. Congress, and his thoughts on Stitt’s animosity toward Tribal sovereignty.
“I don’t know what motivates him, but I do know what he thinks. And he really thinks Tribes don’t have the right to exist,” Chief Hoskin Jr. told the Black Wall Street Times.
“Notwithstanding the Cherokee Nation was here before Europeans got lost on the way to wherever they were going. He measures the world in 1907 forward, and that surely we’re subordinate to everything that was created by the state of Oklahoma, glossing over that it was a state imposed on Tribal land,” he said.
Two different leaders, two different judgement calls
Stitt had no problem boasting his controversial status as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation when he ran for Governor in 2018. Since taking office, however, he’s legally and politically battled with the largest Tribes (Cherokee, Muscogee Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole) at almost every turn.
He began his leadership by claiming the Oklahoma Legislature doesn’t have authority to negotiate Tribal gaming compacts. The Republican-controlled legislature ultimately overrode multiple vetoes from Stitt, in a rare rebuke of his authority.
Nevertheless, he’s continued spending taxpayer dollars filing lawsuits against the compacts as recently as the summer of 2023, the Tulsa World reported.
In an effort to stop the “costly legal battles,” Oklahoma’s moderate Republican AG eventually stepped in.
Cherokee Nation Chief seeks to expand diverse representation
Meanwhile, Chief Hoskin Jr. celebrated a historic win for Indigenous representation. In October 2023, President Biden nominated Sara Hill as a federal judge to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma. Formerly, Chief Hoskin Jr. appointed Hill as the Cherokee Nation Attorney General.
In December, the U.S. Senate agreed with Chief Hoskin Jr.’s judgement call by confirming as a federal judge in a bipartisan vote.
What we need in Indian Country are people in positions of power that understand tribal sovereignty,” Chief Hoskin Jr. said. He expressed excitement and hope that Hill’s appointment would expand Indigenous representation in the judicial system.
Chief Hoskin also celebrated the appointment of Marilyn Vann, a descendant of people formerly enslaved by the Cherokee Nation, to a position on the Tribe’s Environmental Protection Commission in 2021.
Governor Stitt bans diversity, equity and inclusion
Meanwhile, Stitt faced sharp criticism for removing the Oklahoma State Board of Education’s only Black member, Carlisha Williams Bradley, in January 2023.
“There are very well organized efforts that allow for us to hear certain voices more loudly than others, and I just hope that parents and families and educators don’t remain silent. Come, speak, act, organize, and remain a voice to be reckoned with,” Bradley told the Black Wall Street Times in an exclusive interview last year.
Since Bradley’s forced resignation, Gov. Stitt has banned DEI initiatives in public education, and the state board has moved forward with draconian rules targeting Oklahomans from marginalized backgrounds.
Two different priorities
As Chief of the Cherokee Nation, Chuck Hoskin Jr. has raised the minimum wage for his citizens, welcomed collaborative economic investment, expanded housing and workforce development and recently accepted federal funding for extra benefits to low-income children during the summer months.
Meanwhile, Gov. Stitt continues to push for lowering taxes, which the Oklahoma Policy Institute warns would negatively impact core services, and he’s refused to support efforts to raise the minimum wage.
In addition, Stitt faced widespread criticism across the state when he disbanded the statewide homelessness council.
“Every state has this council. Oklahoma will be the only state without a council. It doesn’t make any sense,” George Shin, a former chair of the council, told the Black Wall Street Times in April.
Unlike Oklahoma’s largest Tribes, Gov. Stitt refused to accept federal funds to expand summer food to low-income children, citing concerns about a “social agenda.”
He also passed a law that bans state agencies and local governments from doing business with companies that promote environmental, social and governance concerns for stakeholders.
The law has backfired, as the Frontier reports state pension funds weren’t given guidance on which companies to boycott. Now, retirees risk losing millions of dollars.
Stitt “does not believe we have the right to exist”
Ultimately, the Gov. Stitt has recently interfered in cross-deputization efforts while simultaneously blaming Tribal sovereignty for a breakdown in public safety.
“I’ve been very clear–I will not let eastern Oklahoma become a reservation. No one in Oklahoma should want that,” Gov. Stitt said in a September op-ed for the Oklahoman.
“In states with true reservations like Arizona or South Dakota, the state doesn’t build infrastructure. State law enforcement doesn’t patrol their roads. That’s not the case in Tulsa and eastern Oklahoma.”
Oklahoma also has “true reservations,” and Cherokee Nation Chief Hoskin Jr. remains undeterred.
“I don’t know exactly where his animosity comes from. I think the most important thing is we should start taking him at his word. He says what he thinks about Indian Country when he uses phrases like ‘I’m not gonna let my state turn into reservations,” Chief Hoskin Jr. said.
“He’s telling us exactly what he thinks, I think in very clear and honest terms, about Tribal nations, which is that he does not believe that we have the right to exist really. That’s what it comes down to. [He believes] we certainly don’t have the right to exercise governmental authority, that any authority we might exercise surely must be subordinate.”
Cherokee Nation Chief pushes for delegate in Congress
Despite the constant political battles Stitt is criticized for manufacturing out of thin air, Chief Hoskin Jr. remains focused on a nearly 200-year-old promise by the U.S. government to seat a Cherokee Nation delegate in Congress.
Since becoming Chief in 2019, Hoskin jr. has lobbied lawmakers on Capitol Hill to honor the 1835 Treaty of New Echota. The treaty was part of an effort that forced the Cherokee Nation to march over a thousand miles in the cold of winter to what has become known as present-day Oklahoma.
The treaty “did so much injury to us, and it was imposed on us really, but it had a provision in there…”
“The Cherokee Nation…shall be entitled to a delegate in the House of Representatives of the United States whenever Congress shall make provision for the same.”
Treaty of New Echota, Article 7
What’s next?
Chief Hoskin Jr. admits the lack of action by Congress has been frustrating, but he also acknowledges that honoring U.S. treaties have historically taken a long time.
“The Congress was content to look at it in 1838, when they marched our people across that brutal winter of 1838-1839. They were happy to look at it then, and then they slammed it shut once they got their real objective. We’re making them look at it, specifically this powerful idea of representation,” Chief Hoskin jr. told the Black Wall Street Times.
In the coming months, he’ll be heading back to Congress to continue educating lawmakers on the importance of honoring the treaty.
“I also ask for our fellow Americans to say, irrespective of whether we’re tribal or not, the country ought to keep its promise.”
Grateful for Chief Hoskin’s leadership–as with him, I can’t imagine where Stitt’s animosity comes from.