How a historic endorsement from Oklahoma’s 5 largest tribes could affect the governor’s race

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Five Tribes of Oklahoma took an unprecedented step last month by endorsing a candidate in the state governor’s race: Democrat Joy Hofmeister, who is challenging Republican incumbent Gov. Kevin Stitt.

Leaders from the Five Tribes — the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Muscogee (Creek), Choctaw, and Seminole Nations — praised Hofmeister’s commitment to tribal sovereignty and desire to work with the 39 federally recognized tribes in the state “for the betterment of all Oklahomans.”

The move to oppose Gov. Stitt, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, is the latest sign of division between the state’s tribal nations and the governor. The tribes have clashed with the governor over tribal gaming compacts, jurisdiction and tribal sovereignty.

The leaders of the five largest tribes in Oklahoma endorsed Democrat Joy Hofmeister (middle) for governor. Photo provided by Cherokee Nation

The Five Tribes’ endorsement of Hofmeister is the first time those nations have ever collectively endorsed a candidate, tribal leadership says. And as the midterms draw near, the moment has many Indigenous voters wondering if they can be the difference in what has become a surprisingly competitive governor’s race.

“If we did not endorse in this race, if we didn’t do everything we can to beat Kevin Stitt, I think that’s malpractice on our part,” said Chuck Hoskin Jr., principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. “I think it’s a dereliction of our duty. I think we’re duty-bound to see this governor as [being as] close to an existential threat as you can and to do something about it.”

Why do tribal leaders in Oklahoma want to vote Stitt out?

Outside the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City in early August, a line of potential voters approached a table where they could register to vote.

Devon Rain started working for Rock The Native Vote, a nonprofit voter advocacy group, earlier this year. A member of the Chickasaw Nation, the 19-year-old said she hoped to register more Native Americans in hopes of boosting voter turnout among the tribes and to elevate issues like child welfare, education and health care.

Devon Rain (right) sits outside the First American Museum in Oklahoma City registering voters for the upcoming midterm election. Photo courtesy of Devon Rain

But in the weeks leading up to Election Day, Rain said the No. 1 reason she heard over and over from would-be first-time Native American voters was simple — they wanted to make a difference in the governor’s race.

“I heard people say they wanted someone who would respect our treaties and protect tribal sovereignty,” she said. “Gov. Stitt has sparked a lot of interest and anger from Native voters that we haven’t seen before.”

Hofmeister, who has served as Oklahoma’s superintendent of public instruction since 2015 and who switched parties to run against Stitt, has narrowed his lead to nearly nothing, some polls show. In the lead-up to Nov. 8, national GOP leaders purchased a “seven figure” ad buy to support Stitt.

Hofmeister told the PBS NewsHour that she has built a relationship with Oklahoma tribes during her nearly eight years as superintendent, and has worked with tribal leaders to help support Native students. She helped ensure that tribal sovereignty and the history of Native Americans in Oklahoma was taught in schools, she added.

“This is not a relationship cultivated for the campaign,” she told the PBS NewsHour. “It was a tremendous honor to receive their endorsement, but it speaks to the deep divisions and [the] bridges that Kevin Stitt has burned.”

Chuck Hoskin Jr., principal chief of the Cherokee Nation said the Oklahoma governor’s race is the most important one in the state’s history.

Hoskin said all the Five Tribes believe Hofmeister is the best candidate, but the relationship between Stitt and the dozens of additional tribal nations in Oklahoma has reached a point of no return.

“Kevin Stitt is the most anti-Indian governor in the history of the state,” he said. “He has gone so far out of his way to pick every fight he could pick with tribes, and he’s really demonstrated that he just fundamentally does not see in the 21st century a place for tribes within the state of Oklahoma.”

When Stitt was first elected in 2018, winning 54 percent of the vote against Democrat and former state Attorney General Drew Edmondson, he noted his Cherokee ancestry. He is the second governor in U.S. history with Native American ancestry.

“As a registered Cherokee, I know first-hand what a tremendous benefit the tribes have been to our state, creating tens of thousands of jobs, expanding health care options in rural Oklahoma, and more,” Stitt said in response to a survey before the 2018 election.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Texas, in August. Photo by Brian Snyder/Reuters

During his first six months in office, Stitt traveled throughout the state to speak with tribal leaders about renegotiating the terms of the gaming compacts that he claimed were expected to expire on Jan. 1, 2020.

But the relationship between Stitt and tribal leaders began to sour as the governor attempted to renegotiate the 15-year-old agreements, which granted the tribes the right to operate casinos in Oklahoma in exchange for set payments to the state. The leaders of the Five Tribes rejected Stitt’s call to renegotiate and instead reminded the newly minted governor about the tribes’ economic contributions to the state.

Oklahoma has the second-most number of casinos in the U.S., after Nevada. Gaming in the state is estimated to have a $9.8 billion impact, according to the American Gaming Association. The Chickasaw, Choctaw and Cherokee Nations were among the 25 largest employers in Oklahoma in 2021, according to the state Department of Commerce.

Oklahoma’s Indian gaming industry also paid $167 million in exclusivity fees to the state in 2021, a record amount.

The tribes said the compacts automatically renewed and filed a lawsuit in Oklahoma City federal court, naming Stitt as the defendant.

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma ruled in favor of the tribes, saying the tribal gaming compact automatically renewed on Jan. 1, 2020, for an additional 15-year term. But last month, KOSU reported that Stitt has retained outside legal counsel in an effort to advance contested gaming compacts with four Oklahoma tribes.

“This is another example of the governor spending taxpayer dollars unnecessarily,” said Sara Hill, Cherokee Nation attorney general, in a statement. “The Oklahoma Supreme Court made it clear that the compacts he’s defending were void a long time ago. I cannot understand why more taxpayer dollars should be used to prop up the actions of the governor when he won’t even accept the judgment of the state’s own courts.”

Why Stitt has continued to fight historic ruling on Native rights

The fallout continues two years after a historic Supreme Court ruling over Native American rights in the McGirt v. Oklahoma case, which ruled that much of eastern Oklahoma remains Native American territory under the terms of an 1833 treaty between the U.S. government and the Muscogee Creek Nation.

The result was that Oklahoma state authorities could no longer prosecute crimes committed by or against Native Americans and that jurisdiction for those crimes instead fell to federal and tribal officials.

The candidates in the Oklahoma governor’s race participated in an Oct. 19 debate hosted by NonDoc.com and News 9. Video by NonDoc Media

Stitt has decried the McGirt ruling, saying it’s created a “lawless state” and that prisoners are applying for “Indian cards” to try to have their sentences overturned. The tribes have called his claims untrue and rooted in anti-Indigenous rhetoric.

State officials, led by Stitt, have filed more than 30 appeals to the ruling, claiming it has led to tribal courts failing to prosecute crimes and prisons releasing violent criminals.

In June, the Supreme Court ruled on one of those appeals, Oklahoma v. Castro Huerta, saying the federal government and the state have concurrent jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed by non-Indians against Indians in Indian country.

Stitt called the ruling a victory for “all four million Oklahomans,” while tribal nations said it was a setback for tribal sovereignty. Stitt said he looked forward to working with leaders across the state to combat the “criminal-justice crisis” in Oklahoma.

But in a debate against Hofmeister last month, the moderator posed Stitt a question from the leaders of the Five Tribes: When would Stitt sit down with them to begin the process of working together?

“Tomorrow,” Stitt said. “They are all on TV watching right now. Let’s do it tomorrow.”

No meeting happened following the debate, Hoskin said in a tweet.

Stitt’s office did not respond to multiple interview requests from the NewsHour.

Though the McGirt decision only applied to the Major Crimes Act, which grants criminal jurisdiction to federal and tribal courts in cases involving Native Americans in Indian country, Stitt expressed concerns about the ruling applying to civil matters, specifically indicating that issues of taxation and environmental regulations should not be applied differently to Native Americans and non-Natives.

“We have to have one set of rules; it’s common sense,” Stitt said during the Oct. 19 debate with Hofmeister. “I don’t understand why people don’t get that.”

Muscogee Nation Principal Chief David Hill said in his endorsement statement he believes a governor should value the ability of tribal nations to govern themselves.

“Any governor that postures and attempts dominion of tribes is detrimental to the tribes and the state,” Hill said. “We look forward to a bright future where collaboration, not division, is the standard. To achieve this, we must let our voices be heard with a strong presence at the polls.”

The potential power of the Native American vote

Nationwide, one in three Native American adults was not registered to vote in 2012, according to the National Congress of American Indians. That amounts to 1.2 million potential voters.

Through voter registration efforts across the state, Rock the Native Vote registered more than 1,000 new voters before the late registration deadline in October, said the Rev. David Wilson. The Chickasaw Nation helped register more than 1,500 new voters this election cycle, spokesperson Tony Choate said.

Native Americans make up a larger share of Oklahoma’s population than any other state but Alaska. Sixteen percent of Oklahoma’s 3.9 million residents identified as Native American in the 2020 census.

It’s that potential power that prompted Hoskin and his fellow tribal leaders to speak out against Stitt and endorse Hofmeister.

“If we all sort of flex our political power in terms of our numbers, if we do our part as leaders to sort of help our citizens understand the issues and get them registered, I think we can move a great deal in the state in terms of the outcome of races,” Hoskin said. “They know now, irrespective of the outcome, that we are going to assert as much strength as we have to raise our voices.”

In 2020, CNN angered viewers with an election-night graphic that categorized voters as Black, Latino, white, Asian or “something else.”

Rain said she remembered seeing that graphic shared on social media with “something else” crossed out and “Native American” written in.

“If we can show that Native voters do have a voice and we can use it for the better and come together … then we can make real change happen,” Rain said.