Cherokee lead effort for talks on multi-tribal compact

Thursday, February 17th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. (AP) -- The Cherokee Nation is leading an effort to determine if Oklahoma is interested in a multi-tribal compact for car tags. The state now receives no money from the sale of the car tags sold by individual tribes. "Our tribe certainly wants to engage in revenue sharing," said David Mullon, Cherokee Nation associate general counsel. The Cherokees do not offer tribal tags now.

Mullon said he has been told to "lay aside any impact on the funding for the schools because a portion of the cost of a tribal tag would be earmarked for the schools." Schools receive 35 percent of the cost of each state tag sold in the school district, the Oklahoma Tax Commission says.

Officials of the Cherokee, Creek and Chickasaw nations plan to approach Gov. Frank Keating through his Indian counsel, Kirk Kickingbird, on Feb. 29. Mullon said leaders of the Choctaw and Seminole tribes would be welcome to join the effort.

Mullon has suggested that any Cherokee sale of tribal tags be confined to Cherokees living within the 14-county boundaries of the Cherokee Nation. "There are Oklahomans living in California, but that doesn't mean you get to have an Oklahoma tag in California," he said. "It would be extremely difficult to issue tags to anybody outside the 14 counties," Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chad Smith said Tuesday in a tribal legislative forum. "We don't even know how many tribes are selling tags in Oklahoma and no way of tracking them," said Oklahoma Tax Commission spokeswoman Joanne Kurjan.

Smith said existing law allows exemptions from state tax if the cars are primarily based in Indian Country. "A lot of tribes are pushing the envelope on what Indian Country is," Smith said. "It is a gray area -- extremely gray." He said a compact with the state could minimize legal questions involved in the sale of tribal car tags, he said.

Mullon said matters that need to be studied include using existing tag agencies to market the tribal tags. He said that would be more convenient for tribal members than to have to go to tribal headquarters. He also said an area to be explored is becoming part of the state system so state and out-of-state law enforcement officers can readily check the validity of tags.