Underscoring the progression of policy discussions following the Muscogee Nation Reservation’s affirmation in 2020, this year’s Akfvske District “B” seat race between incumbent Rep. Sandra Golden and challenger Russell Wind has featured significant tax talk as the tribe tries to find ways to sustain and increase services amid federal budget uncertainty and a looming increase in enrollment.
Wind and Golden both ran for the seat four years ago against then-incumbent Rep. Travis Scott. Golden finished 60 votes ahead of Wind and ultimately defeated Scott in the general election, returning to the National Council 20 years after she had first served on it.
“I know Russell. As a matter of fact, I guess when I got in a runoff and he didn’t, I called him and encouraged him to do it again,” Golden told NonDoc earlier this month. “He had some good ideas about environmental (issues) and so forth. Economic development. So I told him, ‘Don’t lose those thoughts. I thought you did very well.'”
Wind said he chose to run for the seat against Golden this year because he feels “like we’re kind of stagnant.”
“We’ve got the McGirt decision going, and the chief put together a Muscogee Nation Reservation Commission, and there was a document produced from there addressing the laws, policy and procedures to implement from there regarding the decisions, and they haven’t adopted it yet,” Wind told NonDoc. “So when I get in there, I would like to review that and maybe make some adjustments and try to have the tribe adopt it. That needs to be addressed before we can go forward with anything.”
Golden expressed similar sentiment but touted her experience as a reason to reelect her.
“You have to know the inner-workings of how the tribe and the state are working together or not,” she said. “Some of the things I’ve tried to do, (the administration says), ‘No.’ I’m one of the new kids on the block still, so whatever I propose, I have to take it to the administration, and if they don’t think it’s a great idea or it’s not in their priorities, we don’t do it. It gets put on the back burner. And what I keep saying is, we have to have a strategic plan for the nation.”
The Akfvske District covers a western section of the Muscogee Nation Reservation and overlaps Okfuskee County in eastern Oklahoma. The Muscogee Nation holds elections every two years for its National Council, which has eight districts, each with an “A” seat and a “B” seat. While council candidates are required to live in their district, every Muscogee citizen may vote in every council election — for now. This year’s Sept. 20 ballot contains a question that would reinstitute district-based voting if passed.
Early voting runs Sept. 17 and 18 ahead of Election Day on Saturday, Sept. 20.
‘There are several things that we need to look at’
Golden a background in social services, working in health care administration, substance abuse prevention and early childhood development. Having done “a little bit of everything,” changes in her personal life led Golden to return to the National Council in 2021, more than a decade after she first served when the National Council had 10 additional seats.
“Things are much different,” Golden said. “Now we have 16 rather than 26, and it seems like there’s more politics involved than there used to be.”
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma stands among the biggest differences between Golden’s past legislative terms and her current one. The court held that the Muscogee Nation Reservation had never been disestablished by Congress, a decision that meant only the tribe and the federal government had criminal jurisdiction over crimes committed by and against tribal citizens. In a subsequent case, a slightly different SCOTUS upended a century of precedent to find that the state of Oklahoma shares concurrent jurisdiction over crimes committed against tribal citizens, and a slew of other court cases and decisions have followed.
Most recently, the National Council voted to appeal the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s decision in Stroble v. Oklahoma Tax Commission to the U.S. Supreme Court, a situation that asks the high court to clarify a question that has loomed for five years: Does the Muscogee Nation Reservation exist for purposes of civil jurisdiction as well? Muscogee citizen Alicia Stroble, who earned her income from the tribe and lived within the reservation for the tax years in question, has repeatedly been denied a long-established exemption to state income tax authority.
Wind, who previously worked as chief of staff for the executive branch in the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, holds a business administration degree from Haskell Indian Nations University. He said he welcomes the Stroble case being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“I know that we would like to tackle the tax codes and partnerships with municipalities and start working our way down with transportation and housing, health care and public safety — all those turnpike things and the compacts and whatnot, but you really can’t do any of that until they straighten out this jurisdictional boundaries issue from the McGirt (case),” Wind said. “They need to take care of that. I feel like with my experience as chief of staff and knowing all of these different federal agencies and working with municipalities, it would be kind of the same thing working at the same level.”
If the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately finds that the state income tax exemption applies to tribal citizens working for their tribe within the affirmed reservations spanning eastern Oklahoma, the development would have broad implications for the state. But it could also provide additional legal clarity for the Muscogee Nation as it weighs options to diversify revenue streams outside of casino gaming.
“The biggest need is going to have to be the tax code,” Wind said. “That’s where it’s either going to be a fight or a share between the state and the nation, because both governments can levy taxes, and that’s a revenue source.”
Golden agreed that conversations about taxation need to move forward, expressing frustration with Principal Chief David Hill’s administration for a lack of progress on the topic despite the hiring of attorney Wilson Pipestem and the National Council’s requests to have meetings with leaders of the Muscogee Nation Tax Commission.
“To me, there are several things that we need to look at,” Golden said, referencing the expiration of the tribe’s tobacco taxation compact with the state. “It was supposed to go faster so that we could look at other areas. (…) It seems like it’s a priority, and then it’s not. But it really goes back to what the administration wants to do or not.”
What Wind wants to do is establish new revenue streams quickly, with a severance tax — or gross production tax — on oil and gas wells atop his list.
“There are different types of taxes that are out there, and the first ones we probably need to look at and that we are probably owed are severance taxes with the oil and gas companies,” Wind said.
A U.S. Supreme Court ruling from 1982 — Merrion Oil & Gas Company v. Jicarilla Apache Tribe — held that sovereign tribal nations have “the inherent power to impose the severance tax [on] mining activities as part of [their] power to govern and to pay for the costs of self-government.” If the Muscogee Nation Reservation exists for civil jurisdictional purposes in addition to criminal, the case offers direct legal authority to tax petroleum production within reservation boundaries, a position the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma has voiced at various times — to little effect — over the years.
“They’ve been drilling and taking off our land for the longest time, and we’ve never levied any tax on there,” Wind said. “Another [potential revenue source] would be maybe a small sales tax and share it with the counties and cities. That’s not very much.”
Wind also called the opportunity to establish property taxes “a huge one” in terms of generating revenue to expand tribal services and avoid looming cuts to federal grant programs.
“It being our jurisdiction, the property taxes I believe need to go back to the Creek Nation, not the state. And then the Creek Nation would need to come up with how they would want to tier those property taxes or keep them the same or lower them,” Wind said. “Those are a lot of big decisions and planning. So that’s kind of why I want to get in there. They need to have planning on all of that. It’s not just real easy to get there like people think. It’s a long process.”
Asked whether non-tribal citizens living within the Muscogee Reservation would also pay a tribal property tax even though they would not be eligible to vote or receive direct services from the tribe, Wind said he believes “it would apply to both of us.”
“See, that has to be set up. And it is a treaty right and a constitutional right for the Creek Nation,” he said. “We haven’t tried to flex any tribal sovereignty on that. And with our jurisdiction and our tribal reservation never being disestablished, it’s still there. We’ve just never tried to go after that.”
Wind said he recognized that such a dynamic might cause concerns about “no taxation without representation” among non-tribal citizens, but he said he does not envision “the tribe tax gouging those that live around here” who already benefit from the Muscogee Nation supporting road projects and other infrastructure efforts.
Golden also said she believed a Muscogee Nation property tax should be considered for tribal citizens and non-tribal citizens alike, although she referenced a protracted legal dispute that climaxed in 2022 with a grocery store moving locations to exit a fight over whether sales tax collections should be remitted to the tribe, the state or both.
“That’s the kind of situation I’m talking about in Okmulgee County. The non-citizen did not want to pay the tax because they also have to pay the state. So it’s either one of the other, it can’t be both,” Golden said. “I don’t really think that’s fair either. So we’d have to come together to work together to come up with some amenable agreement to where we get half and they get half, or some part of it. It’s an easy thing to say, ‘Yeah, let’s do that,’ but we have to understand the pieces of the state as well as the nation.”
Underscoring those complexities, Wind noted that even if Stroble’s appeal is successful and tribal citizens who work for their tribe and live within its reservation boundaries are exempt from state income tax, a subsequent concern would need to be addressed.
“If we take away that tax you’re paying to the state — the [Oklahoma Unemployment Tax Insurance] — then who pays for the unemployment for them?” Wind asked. “That goes back to the tribe, but that has to be set up. I don’t know that people are even thinking of that. That’s something people have to put together before we win that case. Otherwise, people are going to say, ‘Now what do we do?’ It’s like McGirt. We need to be proactive and not reactive.”
Difference of opinion on in-district voting ballot question
Beyond questions of revenue and taxation, the Akfvske District “B” seat candidates have fielded numerous questions about two other top issues defining the 2025 election cycle: a ballot question about who votes for which Muscogee National Council candidates, and the recent ruling requiring the admission of Freedmen descendants as tribal citizens.
Golden said she intends to vote against the Sept. 20 ballot question, which asks whether the tribe should return to in-district voting only for National Council seats. Currently, all 18,095 registered Muscogee voters are eligible to vote in all National Council elections.
“I personally like it the way that it is. I believe that my job is to serve all citizens, not just the ones in my district,” Golden said. “Although because it’s my district and that’s where I’m from, I focus on the communities. And then when I have extra time, I go to other districts and their communities. I attend their meetings. That way I’m more aware of what’s going on, because I don’t just represent people in my district. I represent all citizens, including the ones off the reservation.”
Noting concerns about how all-district voting was established through a 2008 constitutional convention instead of a direct vote by all citizens, Wind said he supports the Sept. 20 ballot question.
“I’m in favor of it. It’s what the people want from the communities,” he said. “So I’ll vote ‘Yes’ for it because that’s what a lot of people have been wanting to go back to. A lot of the councilmen got lax about representing their district. They thought it would be better the other way, but this way you’d get held more accountable to your constituents and members.”
On the topic of enrolling Freedmen descendants as Muscogee Nation citizens, Wind and Golden are more aligned, although neither was supportive of the Muscogee Nation Supreme Court’s July ruling that found a right to Freedmen citizenship within the Treaty of 1866.
“I think the courts made a decision based on what was presented. I’m not an attorney and I’m not a legal expert, but I do feel like, from the very beginning, we needed to present everything, and I don’t think we did. In my mind, going back to our constitution, how did we get from the 1866 treaty to coming up to our own constitution. To me, that wasn’t presented well. (…) There were some other things about self-governance and self-determination.”
Wind said it “still kind of bothers me” that the Muscogee Nation Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Freedmen without some sort of vote of the people. He said he supports the growing effort to recall and replace the tribe’s Supreme Court justices.
“They should have looked at it again to maybe come out with a different opinion on where it is with the constitution,” Wind said.
Golden said the implementation of Hill’s recent executive order will be key, as the Citizenship Board must come up with a process that requires Freedmen applicants to submit evidence equal to the ancestry documentation required of “by blood” citizens currently.
“One of the things I sort of preach is understanding,” she said. “If you’re a Freedman, you have to understand that you can’t just come in and demand that they give you a card, because there is a process. As a citizen, you can’t just come in and demand the same thing: ‘I want attention. I don’t want them people to go first. I want to go first.’ I’m all about inclusion, not exclusion, but there is a process. We have to put our big-girl panties on — I’m sorry — for lack of (better) words. We have to be bigger people, and we have to realize that we’re all human beings. There are some strong feelings.”
Wind agreed.
“It is what it is, so they’ve got to go forward. We can’t be hung up on that,” Wind said. “It feels like we’re fighting with everyone. We’re fighting with the state, we’re fighting with the Freedmen, we’re fighting on the in-district voting. We’re fighting with everyone on every level, so we’ve got to sort these things out and come up with the best decisions and move forward. We’ve still got services to provide and a nation to grow. A lot of people, that’s why they want to be with the tribes because we’re moving in a positive direction, unlike the state. With the state, you can’t get no help at all, so that’s why people are with the tribes. The more we help out, the more I believe in taxation.”
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