Cherokee Nation Donates Money Collected From Traffic Tickets Back To Local Law Enforcement

The Cherokee Nation is now giving some of the money it collects from traffic tickets back to certain police departments who wrote the tickets.

This comes after a federal court ruled cities don’t have jurisdiction over municipal crimes committed by tribal citizens on tribal land.

Tuesday, the Cherokee Nation signed an agreement with the City of Verdigris to donate all but $30 from each traffic ticket back to the city.

The signing added Verdigris to 23 other cities within the reservation that are getting money back from traffic tickets written by their officers.

Chuck Hoskin Jr., the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, said it’s important to not cut off a source of funding for local agencies.

"We look across the reservation, we see counties, we see towns, who need extra, and we know that if they're able to have better equipment and able to maybe make some capital improvements to their infrastructure, other needs, it's good for all of us,” said Hoskin, Jr.

Keith Crawford, the Mayor of Verdigris, said once the Cherokee Nation started offering these agreements to towns on the reservation, city leaders knew they wanted to take part.

Crawford said it will also be easier for tribal citizens because they can pay their traffic tickets directly at the office of the agency that gave them the ticket.

"There's always two ways to go at it, we can fight it, or we can agree,” said Crawford. “Everybody has an opinion about it and what this does to them, but we've always been good neighbors. They've always been good neighbors with us. We've worked several projects with them."

Hoskin, Jr. is calling on cities and the state government to continue to work with the tribes after recent court rulings like Hooper vs. Tulsa.

A federal court ruled in that case, a tribal citizen did not have to pay a traffic ticket issued by Tulsa Police.

"I think we've seen that tribal sovereignty is good for this state, if we view the world not in a who wins, who loses, but in a 'what can we do together' frame of mind, I think we're all going to be better off,” said Hoskin, Jr. “I think we are proving it today in Verdigris."

Crawford said he doesn’t see the agreement as anything out of the ordinary, and it's just a return to the way things used to be.

"This is really not a change, it's just going back, in a way, it's historical,” said Crawford. “It's historically already there. So it's just something we haven't been doing the way we probably should have been doing it all along."

The Cherokee Nation hopes to make agreements with every city that has a police force on the reservation.

Currently, all of the municipalities that have a police force within the reservation are cross-deputized with the Cherokee Nation.

For a full list of the cities that have agreements with the Cherokee Nation to donate fines back to their respective departments, click here.