To address the growing problem of unregistered tribal tags creating roadside danger for law enforcement, and to ensure all Oklahoma drivers pay tolls on state turnpikes, Gov. Kevin Stitt has submitted a model compact to all tribes that issue tribal license plates.

Under the compact, the State of Oklahoma would manufacture all tribal tags and therefore also have records of associated registration information. Tribal governments would face no associated cost from production and registration but would nonetheless receive a significant share of tag revenue to use as they wish.

“As you are likely aware, the State of Oklahoma has recently entered new, long-term motor vehicle registration and license tag compacts with the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations,” Stitt wrote in a letter sent to numerous tribal government leaders. “Those compacts reflect a carefully considered agreement that provides mutual benefit to the State and the respective Tribal Nations. The purpose of this letter is to further convey my desire to enter long-term motor vehicle registration and license tag compacts with all of Oklahoma’s tribal partners. To that end, my office has prepared the attached model compact, which reflects the same terms as those agreed to by the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations.”

Under Stitt’s proposal, members of any compacting tribe would pay the same amount for a tribal tag that non-Indians pay for traditional state-issued car tags. Much of that money supports road maintenance in Oklahoma.

But compacting tribes would receive a significant share of the funds generated by the sale of their tribe’s tags, and the compacts state that compacting tribes may use those funds at the tribe’s “exclusive discretion,” and tribal governments may even use that revenue to provide rebates to tribal citizens to offset the cost of purchasing a tribal tag.

The agreement would also make it easier for many tribal citizens to obtain tribal tags if they do not live within the historic reservation lines of their tribe. Under the compact, those individuals could go to any Service Oklahoma location in Oklahoma to obtain a tag. Those individuals currently must drive to a tribal government building within the historic reservation lines of the tribe.

Because tribal car tags are effectively unregistered with the State of Oklahoma, other than those issued by the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes, police are often unable to pull up vital registration information during routine traffic stops, including whether warrants have been issued for a driver.

In July 2023, the head of the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety told state lawmakers that the lack of registration information on many tribal tags placed law-enforcement officials in danger during traffic stops and that organized crime figures were starting to exploit the registration loophole.

The lack of transparency also allows cars with many tribal tags, other than those issued by the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes, to drive down state turnpikes without paying tolls.

As of May 15, the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority reports that cars with unregistered tribal tags have run up $11.5 million in unpaid tolls, including more than $5.6 million in unpaid tolls by cars with Cherokee Nation tags and more than $2.2 million in unpaid tolls by drivers with Muscogee (Creek) Nation tags.

The governor has noted that will ultimately create cost-shifting that raises tolls for all other Oklahoma drivers.

In his letter, Stitt encouraged tribal leaders to embrace the proposed compacts as a win for both the tribe and state, as the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes have done.

“If these terms meet your approval, my counsel stands ready to immediately finalize and circulate the agreed model compact for signatures,” Stitt wrote.

Stitt’s letter was sent to the Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, Alabama Quassarte Tribal Town, Apache Tribe of Oklahoma, Caddo Nation, Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribe, Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Comanche Nation, Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe of Indians, Eastern Shawnee Tribe, Fort Sill Apache Tribe of Oklahoma, Kaw Nation, Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma, Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma, Kialegee Tribal Town, Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, Kiowa Indian Tribe, Muscogee (Creek) Nation, Modoc Nation, The Otoe-Missouria Tribe, Osage Nation, Pawnee Nation, Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma, Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, Sac and Fox Nation, Quapaw Nation Business Committee, Seneca-Cayuga Nation, Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, Thlopthlocco Tribal Town, Shawnee Tribe, United Keetoowah Band of Cherokees, Tonkawa Tribe, Wyandotte Nation, and the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes.