Tribes ask for repeal, want race lessons to be allowed
DURANT — Leaders of Oklahoma’s largest tribes urged state lawmakers Friday to repeal the controversial new law that blocks public schools from teaching students some concepts about race and gender.
The Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee and Seminole nations also called on the Oklahoma State Board of Education to stop enforcing the law, known as House Bill 1775.
“Education that lacks an accurate and thorough portrayal of history, no matter how uncomfortable it can be at times, is an incomplete education,” Muscogee Nation Principal Chief David Hill said. “We owe our students more than that.”
The Five Tribes’ pushback against HB 1775 comes one week after the Osage Nation Congress did the same. The tribal nations are joining a growing chorus of criticism and confusion over the new law and how it has taken hold in Oklahoma public schools. Indigenous leaders fear the law could prevent students from learning accurate portrayals of Native people and tribal nations that shaped the state’s history.
“House Bill 1775 is a solution in search of a problem,” Cherokee Nation Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said. “It derails the progress Oklahoma has made to teach the full, complex history of our state’s relationship with Native American tribes.”
Hoskin and other leaders of the Five Tribes unanimously approved a resolution calling on the law to be overturned. Their vote closed out a joint meeting of the tribes at the Choctaw Casino and Resort in Durant. “Education that lacks an accurate and thorough portrayal of history, no matter how uncomfortable it can be at times, is an incomplete education. We owe our students more than that.”
Muscogee Nation Principal Chief David Hill
The timing of the tribes’ meeting – one month ahead of the general election – meant each tribal leader placed extra emphasis on voting as they each spoke to the crowd of 300 tribal citizens, elected officials and employees. None used the stage to endorse a specific candidate, but all made clear they hoped to elect more allies to Oklahoma’s top ranks.
“This coming election is mission critical to us,” said Choctaw Nation Chief Gary Batton, who declared the first week of October as voter registration week throughout his tribe’s southeast Oklahoma reservation.
Hill named statewide races for governor, attorney general and superintendent of public instruction as most critical. Gov. Kevin Stitt and tribal leaders have come down on the opposite sides of issues throughout Stitt’s first term in office. The rift has pressed tribal leaders to unite and “work around” Stitt, Hill said.
Their latest shared goal is voter registration. “It’s really essential to the progress of our people and our communities,” said Chickasaw Gov. Bill Anoatubby. “We need to encourage people to vote.”
Seminole Nation Chief Lewis Johnson described the governor’s race as one with generational impacts for Native communities.
“This government that has been in place at the head of the state not only has been antagonistic toward tribal governments, but has been antagonistic towards your grandmother, antagonistic towards your aunties and your uncle and my uncle, antagonistic towards my little ones,” Johnson said.
Several tribes and individual tribal leaders are backing Stitt’s opponent, current Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister. Hoskin created a social media hashtag to express his support: #JoytotheRez.
At Friday’s meeting, Hoskin acknowledged the challenge tribal nations face: people showing up to vote. Oklahoma suffers from low voter turnout. Still, Hoskin expressed optimism about the voting power of the large citizenship base of the Five Tribes.
“All of what we do hinges a great deal on whether we have friends in the United States government, on whether we have friends in the state government, whether we have friends among local officials,” he said. “That cannot happen by accident.”
Hill and other Native leaders are planning a voting rally in Oklahoma City at the end of the month to make a final push to get out the vote. “We need to carry this momentum and our collective voice to the polls so that we have ready and willing collaborators in elected office that will work with us,” Hill said.