TULSA, Okla. – Leaders of five of Oklahoma’s largest tribes did not pull any punches during Friday morning’s general session of the Inter-Tribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes at the Renaissance Hotel.

“We are faced with a new legislature,” Seminole Nation Principal Chief Leonard Harjo said. “We will have to re-educate them on what it means to be Indian and what it means for us to be sovereign.

“There are direct threats. We’re being offered the hand of friendship on one side, while they’re coming back with sticks on the other, saying we owe money or something else.”

Harjo’s comments, which were at least partially echoed by Chickasaw Nation Gov. Bill Anoatubby and Choctaw Principal Chief Gary Batton, come after several tribes had to resort to extended talks or arbitration while negotiating new tobacco compacts in 2014 and some are already bracing for early talks on new gaming compacts. Current gaming compacts expire on Jan. 1, 2020, but can be terminated early by mutual consent of both the state and the tribe involved.

“We know we have to diversify our businesses,” Batton said while announcing his tribe’s two new Chili’s Bar and Grill franchises in Poteau and in Atoka, Oklahoma. “We know we are going to have to negotiate hard when our gaming compact comes up.”

Gov. Mary Fallin’s tribal liaison, Kaw Nation citizen Jacque Secondine Hensley, attended the first half of Friday’s general session, but refused to directly comment on the concerns referenced by tribal officials.

“I know there are issues that are the elephants in this room, but they shouldn’t be addressed publicly,” she said. “They need to be discussed on a leader-to-leader basis.”

Aside from airing concerns about the state’s respect for tribal sovereignty, the leader of each tribe was given a turn at the podium during the general session to tout his nation’s recent accomplishments, such as the work that is underway for the Chickasaw Nation’s new 11,000 square foot senior center and community building on the northwest side of Oklahoma City. The project is completely funded by tribal dollars.

“It was once taboo for us to go outside of our geographic boundaries that the federal government set,” Anoatubby said. “But that almost disenfranchises those of us who, for whatever reason, live outside our boundaries.

“A Chickasaw is a Chickasaw, no matter where they live.”

Thursday and Friday’s session was hosted by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. The spring meeting, scheduled for April 9-10, will be hosted by the Chickasaw Nation at its WinStar Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma.