Attorney General Gentner Drummond has cautioned the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (ODWC) that it must rescind its misguided and unlawful policy to pursue criminal charges against tribal members for hunting and fishing in Indian Country.
“These enforcement actions are not merely ill-advised—they are unlawful. They expose individual ODWC officers to personal liability,” the Attorney General wrote in a Nov. 13 letter to ODWC Director Wade Free. “They waste limited law enforcement and prosecutorial resources on cases that cannot succeed. And they inflict significant harm on the State’s government-to-government relationships with the Five Tribes—relationships that took years to rebuild and that benefit all Oklahomans.”
At issue is a directive from Gov. Stitt to ODWC leadership that tribal members will be prosecuted for hunting or fishing on Indian reservations without a state permit. Drummond has vowed to take over such cases and dismiss the baseless charges.
In his letter to Free, Drummond outlined how the ill-advised policy is based on a stark misreading of case law and violates well-established federal law that recognizes tribal sovereignty over hunting and fishing of tribal members.
“The practical consequences of ODWC’s policy are equally troubling,” Drummond wrote. “ I have been informed that: (a) ODWC game wardens are actively threatening and citing tribal members engaged in lawful hunting activities on reservation lands; (b) Citations are being referred to the Governor’s office for prosecution by special counsel in state court; (c) Game wardens are reporting information about tribal members to their superiors, creating investigative files on individuals exercising protected treaty rights; (d) The State has appointed special counsel to prosecute at least one Chickasaw citizen for hunting on the Chickasaw Reservation without state licenses.”
Drummond added he is prepared to litigate the matter if such policies are not rescinded.
“I take no pleasure in the prospect of litigation between state agencies. But my paramount obligation is to the rule of law and to the protection of Oklahoma’s legal and fiscal interests. ODWC’s current policy threatens both,” he wrote.
Read the letter to the ODWC director.
