Most tribes provide vehicle and license plate data to Oklahoma despite Gov. Stitt's claim

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt and Public Safety Commissioner Tim Tipton have said for months the state doesn’t have access to tribal vehicle registration information. Both officials have repeatedly said the lack of data puts Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers at risk.

But records obtained by The Oklahoman from Service Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety, the state agencies in charge of license plates and policing, show at least 26 of the 33 tribes that issue vehicle tags in Oklahoma — about three in four — provide vehicle registration data to the state.

One of those tribes is the Sac and Fox Nation in Stroud, which uploads information every night to the state vehicle license database, said its principal chief, Randle Carter.

"I can't believe what the governor says," Carter said.

More: 'Out of the blue' ticket for tribal tag raises questions for state lawmakers, tribal leaders

During a July 21 meeting between Public Safety officials and members of the Legislature, Tipton told state lawmakers unregistered tribal tags were “at a critical level.” He said only two of the 33 tribes that issue car tags provide information to the state’s vehicle license database.

“I don’t know if that car’s been chased and run,” said Tipton, who was appointed to his position in 2021 by Stitt. “I can’t get any data, any intel.”

Stitt has made similar claims, saying the lack of tribal data was “a significant public safety issue.”

In a message posted Monday on X, formerly called Twitter, Stitt wrote: “Our law enforcement doesn’t have vehicle registration data from tribes without valid compacts — it’s a public safety issue that puts officers at risk and it can’t be ignored. OHP is enforcing the law and keeping Oklahomans safe.”

And earlier, the governor's office implied tribal governments wouldn't share their registration data. “If tribal governments won’t share vehicle registration information with Department of Public Safety, we can’t keep our officers and our streets safe,” the governor said. “Oklahoma Highway Patrol is simply enforcing the law and following U.S. Supreme Court precedent.”

A total of 24 tribal nations have access to provide the state with vehicle registration information

The governor's claim, though, differs from information provided by the state.

The Department of Public Safety provided The Oklahoman a list of 24 tribal nations “who have access to provide the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Telecommunications System with their vehicle registration information.”

Sarah Stewart, the department spokesperson who emailed the list, said every tribe was responsible for producing a file containing its vehicle registration records and uploading that file to be processed by the state system, which is often referred to by its acronym, OLETS. “The state of Oklahoma cannot confirm the accuracy or timeliness of the vehicle registration information reported by these tribes to OLETS,” she wrote in an email to The Oklahoman.

The tribes Stewart said had access to OLETS system include: the Absentee Shawnee, Caddo, Cherokee, Citizen Potawatomi, Delaware Nation, Eastern Shawnee, Iowa, Kaw, Kickapoo, Miami, Muscogee, Osage, Ottawa, Pawnee, Peoria, Ponca, Quapaw, Sac and Fox, Seminole, Seneca-Cayuga, Shawnee, Tonkawa, United Keetoowah Band and Wyandotte nations.

Emily Hill, a spokesman for Service Oklahoma, said her agency reports tribal registration data for both the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations. Both of those tribes have tag compacts with the state where their tags are issued by tag agents in the same way as state tags.

'It just seems like something that has been fabricated'

The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes based in Concho is one of the tribal governments that does not upload information to the state vehicle license database. Hershel Gorham, the tribes' general counsel, said state officials did not ask the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes to join the database before publicly raising concerns about missing data. He also noted police still would be able to obtain information about tribal citizens by asking them for their driver's license.

"It just seems like something that has been fabricated to benefit their position, but there is no data behind it to back it up," Gorham said.

Leaders of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, which does upload information to OLETS, were all caught off guard by claims that tribal tags were a safety concern.

"This is all new to us," said Joe Bunch, chief of the Tahlequah-based tribe. "We are expressing our tribal sovereignty in terms of issuing tribal tags."

More: Why was a driver issued a ticket for a tribal tag? What we know about the ticket, Oklahoma law, and what's changed

The Iowa Tribe also shares vehicle data with OLETS, its chairman, Jacob Keyes, said. As a former police officer, he said he recognized how important that information is for officers on the ground. He has been confused by claims that tribes are withholding that data when his nation and others are not.

"I don’t know if that’s just rhetoric to try to rally up support on their side or what," Keyes said.

Carter, the Sac and Fox chief, said his nation's police force works closely with their local and state peers to respond to reports of crimes and accidents and keep people safe.

"We have a good working relationship with law enforcement," Carter said. "It’s just that we don’t have a good relationship with the governor."

Why police issued a ticket over a tribal tag in Oklahoma

The issue came to light earlier this month after an Oklahoma Highway Patrol officer wrote an Otoe-Missouria tribal member a $249 ticket because her vehicle had a tribal tag and wasn’t garaged within the boundaries of the tribe’s jurisdictional area.

Stewart, the Public Safety spokesman, said a 1993 Supreme Court ruling allows tribal nations to issue tags only to citizens who reside and “principally garage” their vehicles on the reservation of the tribe that issued the tag.

Other officials pointed to a 2011 law that directed the state Department of Public Safety to establish an interlocal agreement with tribal nations to capture vehicle registration information, an agreement that never appears to have been reached. Stephen Greetham, an attorney with the Chickasaw Nation said he was “unaware of anything they’ve ever done with that statute.”

One state lawmaker predicted the Legislature would "take a deep look at the issue" when the legislative session begins in February.

Rep. Mark McBride, a Republican from Moore, said the state should have consulted with tribal nations before ramping up its enforcement on tribal tags. "I think we could all work better together," McBride said.

Fellow Republican Rep. Justin Humphrey said disputes between the state and tribal governments shouldn't fall to residents who think they are following the law and instead are faced with a $249 fine for their tribal tags.

"A lot of people that’s the difference between groceries that month, Thanksgiving," said Humphrey, who lives in Lane and has led the push to reform Oklahoma's criminal justice system.

Like McBride, Humphrey said he wished state leaders had approached the issue by bringing tribal leaders to the table to work out an agreement.

"I like our governor, I appreciate our governor, and I appreciate the guts he has to stand up for what he believes," Humphrey said. "But there are some things I disagree with. I strongly disagree with him on his tactics on how he approaches the Native American population in Oklahoma."

McBride, a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, said his truck carries a Citizen Potawatomi tag. McBride's truck is garaged at his home in Moore, which is outside of the boundaries of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. "My whole family has tribal tags," he said.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma says it doesn't have tribal plate data. Records say otherwise