Cherokee Nation, state make tag compact

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. (AP) _ The Cherokee Nation has become the first Indian tribe to sign an agreement with the state for motor vehicle tags. <br><br>The compact means tribal money will go toward public schools

Tuesday, October 1st 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. (AP) _ The Cherokee Nation has become the first Indian tribe to sign an agreement with the state for motor vehicle tags.

The compact means tribal money will go toward public schools and roads. It also will allow law enforcement agencies to register tribal tags into a national motor vehicle database.

Gov. Frank Keating and Cherokee Chief Chad Smith already had approved the compact when the Joint Committee on State and Tribal Relations gave the final nod Monday.

The compact formalizes a plan adopted by the tribe a year ago.

The tribe began selling motor vehicle tags last October and decided then to set aside 38 percent of revenues for schools that teach American Indian children. An additional 20 percent of the revenues were earmarked for roads within the Cherokee Nation's 14-count service area.

The tribe has sold $3.3 million worth of tags and will begin doling out money to schools within tribal boundaries this month, Smith said. Those schools are expected to receive $1.2 million.

``Automobile tags are a symbol of the Cherokee Nation's sovereignty and governmental authority,'' the chief said. ``As a government we use the revenues to educate the children in our public schools and to make the roads our people drive on safer.''

The tribe has spent more than $30 million on road projects in northeastern Oklahoma and said it has committed an additional $50 million to current road projects.

The Cherokee Nation, with more than 210,000 members nationally, is the second-largest Indian tribe in the country behind the Navajo Nation. It sells motor vehicle tags only to tribal members living in the Cherokee Nation jurisdictional area.

Cherokee Nation tags cost $75 for a new car, with rates dropping as low as $10 for cars that are more than 17 years old.

The Cherokee Nation is one of 22 tribes in Oklahoma that issue car tags.

The compact will make it easier for tribal members to obtain vehicle tags because the tribe will now be allowed to sell them in other local tag agencies. Before the agreement, the tribe could sell them in only one office, which is in the tribal headquarters of Tahlequah.