The Seminole County Board of County Commissioners held a special meeting on Friday, July 30 to revisit the current jail contract Seminole County has with the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma. The County has proposed a new contract that includes a raise in the rate to cover increased costs for housing. All the other cities and entities that use the jail have already agreed to this raise.

District 1 Commissioner Russell Yott explained that when the met with the Seminole Nation on Friday, they extended the current contract to September 30, and the current Seminole Nation administration agreed to pay the same rate as the cities and other entities are paying during this extended time only. The issue will be on the agenda when the new administration takes office at the beginning of September, and this will allow time for negotiations before the contract expires at the end of the month. Copies of the new contract were sent to the incoming Administration.

The old contract was due to expire at the end of June. Several representatives from the Seminole Nation tribe attended the County Commissioners meeting on June 29 seeking an extension and asking to be on the Commissioner’s July 19 meeting agenda, which would be after the July 10 Seminole Nation election.

Challenger Lewis Johnson defeated incumbent Greg Chilcoat for the position of Chief of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma in the July 10 election. Because the current Chief cannot sign a major agreement a month before he leaves office, and the newly elected Chief has not yet been instated, there was no representatives from the Seminole Nation at the July 19 meeting.

Following the July 19 meeting Seminole County Sheriff Shannon Smith stressed that he does NOT want it to appear that Seminole County is refusing to house any prisoners, but he is extremely concerned about the liability he would assume housing Seminole tribal members without the proposed contract. These concerns are even stronger due to the many uncertainties created by the recent Supreme Court’s Oklahoma v McGirt decision that, because Congress has never dissolved the borders of the Muskogee (Creek) reservation, the tribe retains jurisdiction in criminal cases that had previously been handed to the state. This ruling has since been extended to each of Oklahoma’s Five Civilized Tribes, which includes the Seminole Nation.