Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond took over and dismissed a misdemeanor citation this week that had been filed against a Choctaw Nation citizen for hunting on state land without a state license. As key questions about civil jurisdiction linger, litigation over whether Indians in eastern Oklahoma have an inherent right to hunt and fish across the Five Tribes’ Indian Country reservations could be on the horizon.
In a press release announcing his decision Thursday, Drummond’s office wrote that the 2026 gubernatorial candidate “will not allow Native American hunters to be prosecuted by the state for hunting in Indian Country without a state permit when they are otherwise acting in accord with duly enacted tribal law.”
Drummond criticized Gov. Kevin Stitt for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation’s recent claim that a state Supreme Court decision means the 2020 McGirt v. Oklahoma ruling only affirmed Indian Country reservations for purposes of the federal Major Crimes Act — not civil law questions like taxation or licensure.
“I will not permit a petulant lame duck governor to further injure the state’s relationship with our valuable tribal partners simply because he is unwilling to compact,” Drummond said the press release. “This is another senseless attempt to ignore the sovereignty of the tribal nations in Oklahoma, and it cannot be tolerated.”
Drummond dismissed the case filed by Pushmataha County District Attorney Mark Matloff against Choctaw Nation citizen Shawn Robertson for “hunting without a license.”
Exercising a state statute he has used before to take over and dismiss criminal charges against a state legislator and an Oklahoma City police officer, Drummond’s’s office entered an appearance in the case Wednesday and immediately requested dismissal of the charge against Robertson. Pushmataha County Associate District Judge Nicholas Tucker granted the request the same day.
Court filings show Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation game warden James Gillham issued the citation Oct. 14 after seeing Robertson pulling a boat from the Kiamichi River near Rattan Landing, a recreational area located east of Antlers in southeast Oklahoma. According to the game warden, the property is located within the Hugo Wildlife Management Area, which is managed by ODWC.
Gillham reported that Robertson, dressed in hunting gear with a compound bow and arrows in his boat, admitted he did not have a state hunting license, but he told the game warden he was a tribal member. Robertson also admitted to not having his tribal membership card on him, according to Gillham’s probable cause affidavit.
“I asked if he knew about the recent statement from ODWC regarding state law which requires all hunters to possess appropriate licensing regardless of race,” Gillham wrote. “He said he had heard something about it and knew the Choctaw chief had issued a statement in response to the ODWC announcement, and that he had seen something on Facebook about it, but hadn’t paid too much attention to it.”
In an Oct. 8 press release, ODWC officials said game wardens would continue enforcing state wildlife laws “regardless of tribal citizenship,” pointing to the recent Oklahoma Supreme Court decision in Stroble v. Oklahoma Tax Commission, which examined whether tribal citizens who live within their tribe’s reservation boundaries and derive their income from a tribal source are exempt from state income taxation.
“To date, the United States Supreme Court has not extended its ruling in McGirt beyond the Major Crimes Act,” the justices wrote in a per curiam opinion. “To date, the United States Supreme Court has not extended its ruling in McGirt to the state’s civil or taxing jurisdiction. And it is not this court’s place to do so.”
While the petitioner, Alicia Stroble, has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review her case, ODWC spokesperson Micah Holmes said the agency believes the ruling confirms that state fish and wildlife regulations apply to all Oklahomans.
Tribal leaders: ‘Tribal members have an unquestionable right to hunt’
Drummond’s Thursday press release said any further cases filed against members of sovereign tribal nations “for hunting on tribal land without a license will be taken over by the Attorney General’s Office and promptly dismissed.”
Choctaw Nation Chief Gary Batton thanked Drummond for a “commitment to following the law.”
“We are a sovereign nation, and tribal members have an unquestionable right to hunt and fish on our reservation using their membership card as their license,” Batton said in a statement Thursday. “The right to hunt and fish is inherent, rooted in the sovereignty and traditions of tribal nations long before the founding of the United States. These rights were not granted by the federal government but were retained by tribes and later acknowledged and affirmed through treaties, federal law and court decisions. We have managed natural resources productively and responsibly for many years.”
Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. also praised the decision in a statement and thanked Drummond for his efforts to work collaboratively with state and tribal leaders.
“The Cherokee Nation applauds Attorney General Drummond’s commitment to the rule of law and the recognition of citizens’ rights under tribal law,” Hoskin said. “The Cherokee Nation has long-standing hunting and fishing rights guaranteed by our treaties with the United States government and as is reflected in our tribal laws. At the behest of Gov. Stitt, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation’s misguided attempts to attack our right to hunt and fish is just the latest example of the state’s efforts to diminish tribal sovereignty and circumvent federal and tribal law.”
Stitt characterized the dismissal of the state game warden’s citation as “another example of Drummond supporting lawlessness in the state of Oklahoma.”
“That Choctaw citizen, he was hunting on state-owned land, and the local DA filed that ticket,” Stitt said. “So you have law enforcement who wrote a ticket to an Oklahoman. I don’t care of they are Choctaw or a Black person or Hispanic or a white person or Chinese, if they’re in the state of Oklahoma hunting on state land — that means they can come on your land. Are you telling me that they can come on your land and poach deer without you knowing about it? This is state-owned land, so it’s just another example of Drummond’s lawlessness and promoting lawlessness in the state of Oklahoma.”
Stitt’s reference to the Hugo Wildlife Management Area as “state-owned land” and Drummond’s reference to the area as “tribal land” summarizes the root of the lingering disagreement, which stems from Stitt’s 2021 decision to end state compacts with the Choctaw and Cherokee nations. The agreements had required each tribe to buy a minimum number of discounted state-issued licenses for their citizens. First signed in 2015 and 2016, the deals initially provided benefits to both the tribes and the state. Oklahoma saw a boost in federal wildlife funding based on the increased number of licenses issued, while tribes provided their citizens with accessible hunting and fishing privileges for free. But Stitt questioned why the tribes were paying only a $2 portion of a $42 license when the minimum purchase requirements in the compacts were not being met.
After Stitt allowed the compacts to expire, the Five Tribes began issuing their own licenses and later signed reciprocal agreements in 2024, permitting their citizens to hunt and fish on one another’s lands.
