Oklahoma Governor Cancels Hunting and Fishing Compacts with Tribes

December 13, 2021 10:22 AM

In 2016, the state of Oklahoma entered in to a series of compacts with the two major tribes over hunting and fishing licenses. Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt has decided not to renew these compacts.

Through sovereignty and treaty rights, members of the tribes can hunt and fish on tribal land without outside regulation. However, when someone purchases a hunting or fishing license from the state, federal dollars are gained for the purposes of wildlife conservation.

These compacts mean that the tribes purchase hunting and fishing licenses on behalf of their citizens so that more federal funds are available for wildlife conservation. Gov Stitt renewed these compacts in 2019 and 2020, praising them.

As an example, here is the Choctaw compact.

posted by Quonab (17 comments total)

This is really a petty reaction to the McGirt decision. I don't see how anyone can look at tribes purchasing licenses from the state as bad for the state.
posted by Quonab at 10:24 AM on December 13, 2021 [7 favorites]

Yeah, I'm confused. If I understand correctly, the tribes were basically paying for not very much (essentially the right to fish and hunt on the half of the state that isn't considered tribal land, if I understand the impact of the McGirt decision?) mostly to provide funding for wildlife conservation efforts they were very interested in? And the state is saying no because reasons?
posted by chrominance at 10:29 AM on December 13, 2021 [6 favorites]

And the state is saying no because reasons?

It's almost the same as the virtue signaling they keep decrying. The only difference is what they're signaling isn't virtuous at all.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 10:33 AM on December 13, 2021 [17 favorites]

A white government official going back on an agreement with a tribe? how unprecedented and shocking.

snark aside, this seems like the world we live in now, where GOP politicians throw petty tantrums and actively try to ruin things that benefit themselves and everyone else as well, just out of petty mean-spiritedness.
posted by Dr. Twist at 10:35 AM on December 13, 2021 [11 favorites]

No, Gov Stitt is an enrolled Cherokee.
posted by Quonab at 10:36 AM on December 13, 2021 [9 favorites]

(though I admit, that does absolutely not make his actions unprecedented)
posted by Quonab at 10:43 AM on December 13, 2021

I still read my hometown Tulsa newspaper I grew up on (it's terrible but I guess I'm a masochist that way). Ever since Stitt got in office he's been acting like this against the tribal governments. First trying to renegotiate the gaming compacts (which the tribes had no obligation to do), taking issue with the McGirt ruling and various other things and now this. He really seems to hate that Oklahoma has to deal with tribes. But that's part of being in Oklahoma. He should know that. But I guess his base would rather they just go away.
posted by downtohisturtles at 10:45 AM on December 13, 2021 [5 favorites]

I'm not a tribal member but I grew up in Tulsa and I can only see this as a weird snit fit (is "Stitt Fit" a thing yet?). I don't understand what Stitt thinks is reasonable ground for discontinuing something that only serves to bring the state funds, but per Article III paragraph 1 of the Choctaw compact he is empowered to terminate the agreement unilaterally. Is this just fucking over the Five Tribes because he can, or is there also some anti-preservationist thing he's trying to accomplish by refusing federal funds?

Also it surprises me that a hunting permit is only $2. I feel like it was actually more than that when I was a kid, but maybe I just didn't know how money worked.
posted by fedward at 10:55 AM on December 13, 2021 [5 favorites]

I do wonder if this is (a nonsensical) part of some all-out opposition to precedent set by the McGirt decision. The state of Oklahoma web site has a map (PDF) illustrating tribal jurisdictions and I can see a performative republican governor throwing up his hands and screaming "I can't work like this!" Oklahoma City and its surroundings aren't on tribal reservations, but Tulsa and its surroundings are. If they try to act as if the state is ungovernable because of the patchwork of jurisdictions, they may get a more sympathetic court to invalidate the parts of McGirt they don't like. In other words, they're angling for another case to hit the Roberts court in the hopes he'll follow up on his dissent and their play-acting and he'll figure out how to get the court to nullify it.

But I shouldn't speculate.
posted by fedward at 11:28 AM on December 13, 2021 [8 favorites]

Also it surprises me that a hunting permit is only $2. I feel like it was actually more than that when I was a kid, but maybe I just didn't know how money worked.

$2 is how much the Choctaw Nation paid for a special license that incorporated multiple Oklahoma licenses— this is much less than an Oklahoma resident would pay for a comparable set of licenses if purchased normally. Each of these licenses was equivalent to a Combination Annual Hunting/Fishing ($25), Annual Trapping ($25), Fur License ($10), Oklahoma Waterfowl ($10), four Turkey ($10 x 4), six Deer ($20 x 6), and a Land Access Permit ($40). So a total value of $230. They agreed to purchase 50,000 of these special licenses, which if purchased normally would have cost the Choctaw Nation on the order of a million dollars.

At first glance this might seem like a loss to the state, but the reason it was a win-win for Oklahoma and the Choctaw Nation was that the sale of licenses to the Choctaw triggered a federal grant from the Federal State and Tribal Wildlife Grant program in excess of the million dollars Oklahoma would have received from members of the Choctaw Nation if they had instead purchased licenses at the normal prices. I also suspect, in the absence of this agreement, Oklahoma would not been able to actually sell this many licenses at the normal prices.
posted by RichardP at 11:35 AM on December 13, 2021 [26 favorites]

Thank you for that detailed accounting. As you point out, the governor's decision makes even less economic sense once you account for all the funds.
posted by fedward at 11:54 AM on December 13, 2021 [1 favorite]

He might be an enrolled Cherokee, but a lot of people here will say that he's acting like an "apple"–like an oreo, but for Native Americans. At the end of the day, though, Stitt is a criminal thug, and regularly reverts to type.
posted by ivanthenotsoterrible at 1:19 PM on December 13, 2021 [1 favorite]

Christ, what a grifting asshole...
posted by Windopaene at 2:20 PM on December 13, 2021

Almost sounds like Stitt is more interested in not having the federal grants than anything else. This is anti-Biden posturing more than anti-Tribes?
posted by suelac at 2:55 PM on December 13, 2021

Why not both...?
posted by Windopaene at 3:42 PM on December 13, 2021

$2 is how much the Choctaw Nation paid for a special license that incorporated multiple Oklahoma licenses

It's more like $7.50/license.
posted by ryanrs at 3:59 PM on December 13, 2021

Almost sounds like Stitt is more interested in not having the federal grants than anything else. This is anti-Biden posturing more than anti-Tribes?

First, a bit of background detail. The Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Commission (ODWC) is a user-pay/user-benefit agency that does not receive any appropriated funds from Oklahoma — it is funded directly or indirectly by hunting and fishing license sales. It spends about one quarter of its revenue on fishery conservation, one quarter on wildlife conservation, one quarter on law enforcement, one eighth on administrative costs, and one eighth on other expenditures. Normally the legislature sets the costs of the licenses and the ODWC does not sell licenses at bulk prices, but the Constitution of Oklahoma grants the governor the power to do business with sovereign states (including the Choctaw Nation), so the governor can negotiate bulk pricing of licenses with the Choctaw Nation, if he or she is so inclined.

Before the adoption of the Tribal Compact Licenses I estimate the members of the Choctaw Nation were paying very approximately $500,000 in Oklahoma license fees. Under the terms of the Compact, the Choctaw Nation were paying $375,000 ($200,000 earmarked for ODWC directed conservation, $75,000 for ODWC administrative costs, and $100,000 for licenses fees ($2 × 50,000)) and the federal government was paying about a million to the ODWC for conservation.

Before Compact:

Choctaw nation pays: $500,000
ODWC receives $250,000 for conservation, $62,500 for administration, and $187,500 for all other expenses.

During Compact:

Choctaw Nation pays: $375,000
Federal government pays: $1,000,000
ODWC receives $1,250,000 for conservation, $75,000 for administration, $125,000 for all other expenses.

In my previous comment, I estimated that the the value of the much nicer licenses at bulk pricing was about a million dollars ($0.10 on the dollar for bulk) so the $375,000 being paid by the Choctaw Nation was a great deal for them, and the Compact was obviously a great deal for the ODWC due to the federal grant. Assuming the Choctaw Nation purchase of ODWC licenses goes back to pre-Compact levels the net result of ending the Compact with the Choctaw Nation for Oklahoma is a significant reduction in conservation spending by the ODWC and a bit more spending for less-nice licenses by the Choctaw Nation. State of Oklahoma revenues are not affected.

All of that to say, I think this is a bit of both, since it hurts the Choctaw Nation, doesn't cost the Oklahoma general fund any money, and presumably is an "Own the Libs" statement with regards to conservation spending.
posted by RichardP at 4:55 PM on December 13, 2021 [6 favorites]