Governor’s office agrees to face-to-face meeting with tribal leaders on compacts

CATOOSA, Okla. – Gov. Mary Fallin still has not responded to a letter from more than 20 tribal officials, but a potential face-to-face meeting is on the horizon.

Muscogee (Creek) Nation Principal Chief George Tiger announced last week at a meeting of the United Indian Tribes of Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas that his office is facilitating a private face-to-face meeting between the leaders of Oklahoma’s 39 tribes and Gov. Fallin. The date and location are still being finalized, but the state has requested the meeting be held after the Oklahoma legislature adjourns. As per the state constitution, the legislative session must end by the Friday before Memorial Day.

“It’s time we look at each other as sovereign to sovereign,” Tiger said. “For too long, the state has flexed its sovereignty muscle. It’s our turn.”

As per a request from the governor’s office, the meeting, hosted by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, will be restricted to tribes’ chiefs, governors, presidents and chairmen. A separate public function is also in the works that would be open to tribal legislators, attorneys general and other government officials.

“This is a positive step in the right direction,” Sac and Fox Principal Chief George Thurman said. “I hope she means it.”

Last month, UINOKT members requested an explanation from the state as to why she has not been participating in the tobacco compact negotiating process and why extending existing compacts is not an option for tribes whose agreements with the state expire June 30. Gov. Fallin’s general counsel, Steve Mullins, has been the state’s lead negotiator in compact talks.

Tobacco compacts for 28 of Oklahoma’s 39 federally recognized tribes expire June 30.  Despite a request from more than 20 tribes to extend existing compacts through August 2017, Gov. Fallin’s office has maintained that it will only extend short-term extensions to tribes still engaged in “good faith” negotiations on June 30.

So far, only two tribes, the Kaw Nation and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, have signed new compacts this year, which take effect July 1. Neither new compact includes most favored nation clauses or border tax rates, which the governor’s office has publicly come out against. Under the current compacts, lower tax rates are available for tribal smoke shops within 20 miles of Oklahoma’s borders with Arkansas, Kansas or Missouri, which have lower tobacco tax rates than non-tribal Oklahoma smoke shops. Tribal smoke shops without a compact and non-tribal tobacco retailers must sell cigarettes to the public with a $1.03 stamp. 

“If we’re going to have to settle for $1.03 (per pack), I want something in return,” Seminole Nation Principal Chief Leonard Harjo said. “If have to settle for a five year compact, I want something in return. Those are their terms.”

Headquartered in Wewoka, Okla., the Seminole Nation has three smoke shops that charge an $.85 tax rate on each pack of cigarettes.