ODOT To Replace Tribal Boundary Signs With New Ones That All Look The Same

The Oklahoma Department of Transportation will remove all tribal boundary signs and replace them with new ones, that all look the same.

However several nations told ODOT they are not happy with this new policy.

The goal is to create consistency for travelers according to ODOT. Now all signs will be brown, and rectangular, and the word reservation will be removed. 

ODOT says Osage Nation and Muscogee Nation had some issues with the new signs. There is worry that uniform signs won't show that each tribe is unique and a concern the color brown represents historic sites and not current entities. ODOT says under national standards brown means cultural interest and they believe that's the best fit for a sign that declares tribal boundaries. 

“If tribes have concerns about that, you know, they could always advocate for that to be added to the manual of Uniform Traffic Control devices,” said Rhonda Fair, ODOT Director of Community Engagement “So then there would be consistency nationwide, not just with the tribes in Oklahoma, but with tribes in all states.”

Muscogee Creek Nation told ODOT they don't want a new sign, but the old ones will still be taken down leaving them without boundary markers on state right of ways. The new signs will also leave off the word reservation because ODOT says there are too many meanings for it. 

“With the McGirt decision, some tribes are reservation recognizes having a reservation for criminal jurisdiction, others are not,” said Hensen. “We did not want to get into a situation where we were putting up signs that did not have the word reservation and then a tribe gets recognized as having a reservation … and then we're going through this ordeal where we're changing out signs rapidly in response to changes in the legal landscape.”

Several of the tribal nations had asked for dual-language signs, so the signs would be in their native language as well as, in English. ODOT says they can't accommodate that on all of Oklahoma's state highways for all of the boundary signs but they did propose as a compromise. They said they would put signs up for the tribal headquarters that service the tribal citizens that are in both the indigenous language and standard English.

The old signs used to be partially paid for by tribes but under a new policy these new signs will be fully funded by ODOT. 

Tribes are allowed to keep their signs as long as they don't use them on the state's right of way, according to ODOT.

The agency says it's still working on getting a date for when the signs will be installed.