In a new court filing, state officials challenged the claim made by tribal leaders that tribal members in eastern Oklahoma are not subject to state hunting laws.

“Attorney General Gentner Drummond, in a politically motivated and legally unsound opinion, backed up these claims,” a press release from Governor Kevin Stitt’s office alleges.

In the federal court filings, state officials emphasized that “[f]or more than a century, [the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation] has uniformly enforced its facially neutral hunting and fishing laws on all fee lands within the State, including those owned, leased, or managed by the State.” The filing goes on to emphasize the “significant” departure the positions expressed by the tribes and Attorney General would be from wildlife enforcement practices in the state without a compelling legal reason.

The filings also reiterate what the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed in Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta: States do not need a permission slip from Congress to exercise their sovereign authority, and eastern Oklahoma continues to be part of, not separate from, the State of Oklahoma.

“A foundational American value is that laws are applied equally to everyone, regardless of race,” Stitt said. “The Attorney General is out of line in using his position to push a result that helps his political allies while hurting Oklahoma’s own interests and ignoring decades of responsible conservation.”

The tribes’ position, echoed in Drummond’s opinion, argues that federal law somehow “preempts” Oklahoma’s wildlife laws in eastern Oklahoma. But the state’s filings explain that the tribes and the Attorney General fail to identify any federal law or treaty that strips the state of jurisdiction. Furthermore, there is no legal precedent, treaty, or federal law that would instruct a state to not enforce state law on state-owned or state managed property.

“For more than 100 years, the State of Oklahoma has worked to protect wildlife and promote safe hunting, fishing, and outdoor recreation,” Stitt said. “Like many sportsmen with tribal heritage, I purchased a lifetime hunting and fishing license to support the mission of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.”

According to the news release, the federal court will now decide whether the tribes’ “novel legal theories – advanced with the support of a politically motivated attorney general – can overcome longstanding precedent, state sovereignty, and settled principles of law.”

This action comes after Attorney General Drummond dismissed a case against a tribal member when he was ticketed for hunting on state-owned land without a hunting license.