Governor’s office receives backlash for misinforming “meme”

(OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.) “It's happening again in Tulsa,” Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt posted on Facebook Friday morning. “The Muscogee Creek Nation is undermining the State and city's authority to enforce our laws. We cannot have two separate justice systems based on race. It won't work.” 

It’s a concern Stitt has voiced many times following the McGirt decision in 2020, which affirmed most of Eastern Oklahoma was reservation land, effectively disallowing state prosecution of Native American citizens. 

But this time the governor’s concern was accompanied by a digitally altered photo depicting different speed limits for tribal land.

Muscogee Nation Press Secretary Jason Salsman said the fake meme was gross ignorance and dangerous and sensational rhetoric. 

“This is just another piece of false propaganda in the governor’s fantasy world where ignoring laws he doesn’t like is ok and opposing more police, prosecutors, and courts is somehow good for public safety,” Salsman said.

Stitt’s Press Secretary Meyer Siegfried confirmed he created the meme, saying it is “a reminder and a warning of the dystopian and unAmerican justice system to come if tribal governments get their way here.” 

Stitt’s administration has gone so far to push back against the tribes and the federal government having jurisdiction over Native Americans, they created their own website “One Oklahoma” last year to advocate for the right to prosecute them. 

The website includes questions such as “In America, we expect that everyone follows the same rules. In Oklahoma, why should it be any different?” 

It is a question that has been answered by tribal leaders and legal experts such as those at the University of Tulsa College of Law. 

“Once again, Governor Stitt has chosen political posturing over informed leadership,” TU’s Native American Law Student Association posted in response to his office’s meme. “Again, it is important to clarify that laws specific to Native Americans are sanctioned by the U.S. Constitution because they are based on political status- citizenship in a quasi-sovereign Indian tribe- not race.” 

Hooper v. The City of Tulsa, the case referenced in the governor’s office’s meme, involves Choctaw citizen Justin Hooper’s application for post-conviction relief following the McGirt ruling, which argued the city lacks jurisdiction over tribal citizens on reservation land. 

In 2023, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the City of Tulsa lacked municipal jurisdiction to prosecute Justin Hooper. Later that year, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to pause or suspend the ruling.

Muscogee Nation countersued that same year. That case is still ongoing. 

In January, newly elected Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols told VNN he plans to work with the tribes, not against them, regarding tribal jurisdiction. 

“With me, I really want to make sure we are on the side of tribal sovereignty in every way possible, and then also thinking about, how do we make sure this is a safe, safe city?” Nichols said. “And so what we have done is we've created a structure in which we're going to refer those cases to whatever tribal nation that offense was. If it's a municipal offense, where that offense happened, and refer those to those tribal courts as a process going forward.”