Wildlife Agreement Expands Opportunities for Tribal Citizens

(OKLAHOMA) Oklahoma’s Five Treaty Tribes have joined forces to expand tribal benefits through a new hunting, finishing, and wildlife agreement.

The Wildlife Management Reciprocity Agreement, signed by the Muscogee Nation, Choctaw Nation, Chickasaw Nation, Cherokee Nation, and Seminole Nation at the Inter-Tribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes (ITC) in July, marks a significant step in collaboration among the tribes.

This new agreement allows citizens of the participating tribes to hunt and fish within each other's reservations.

“Hunting and fishing are inherent treaty rights among our five Tribal Nations and have been vital to food security for generations of Cherokees,” Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said. 

Hoskin also said Cherokee Nation Deputy Chief Bryan Warner played a big part in bringing the agreement to fruition. 

“Under his guidance, as well as the offices of the Attorney General and the Secretary of Natural Resources, Cherokee Nation has long excelled in conservation efforts,” Hoskin said.

As part of its commitment to conservation efforts, the Cherokee Nation created the Cherokee Nation Park, Wildlands, Fishing and Hunting Preserve Act in 2021. 

Under that act, 4,000 acres acquired in Sequoyah County by the Cherokee Nation became recognized as preserves. 

Hunting and fishing licenses for Tribal members became available in 2022 after Governor Kevin Stitt ended the hunting and fishing compacts with the Tribes in 2021. Stitt’s decision not to renew the compacts came despite their financial benefits to the state, generating millions of dollars from the federal government for wildlife management.

The ITC leaders said the new agreement will facilitate cooperative wildlife management on their reservations.

“I’m proud of this new agreement with the Five Tribes, as it not only shows a strengthening of our sovereign rights to hunt and fish on these lands, but gives us greater autonomy over the care and preservation of them for generations that follow,” Muscogee Nation Principal Chief David Hill said. “It’s a special gift to our citizens, many of them outdoorsmen, who have dreamed of a day that they could register their harvests under the flag and authority of their own Nation. That day is now, and we couldn’t be happier.”

Oklahoma residents with state-issued hunting and fishing licenses will also be able to hunt and fish on tribal lands. State game wardens cross-deputized with these tribes will have the authority to issue tickets and enforce laws as necessary.

Tribal citizens reporting harvests will submit their data to their respective tribes. 

Additionally, each tribe will need to share their harvest data by February 28th each year to aid in wildlife regulation and management.

For more information about the agreement, please visit The Muscogee Nation’s website here.