In a decisive and unanimous ruling issued on Monday, the Oklahoma Supreme Court has sided with Attorney General Gentner Drummond by effectively upholding tribal members’ rights to hunt and fish on their reservation lands using tribal permits — and without state interference.
The court rejected Governor Kevin Stitt and the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation’s attempt to declare Drummond’s December 2025 legal opinion “advisory only” and non-binding. Instead, the justices left the opinion in place, refusing to let the state use the courts to override settled federal law on the matter.
This marks a major follow-up to the case we covered back in October, when Drummond personally intervened to dismiss charges against Choctaw Nation citizen Shawn Robertson, which was the first high-profile prosecution of a tribal member cited for hunting without a state license on reservation land. At the time, Drummond announced his office would take over and immediately dismiss all similar cases, calling the state’s enforcement efforts a “senseless attempt to ignore the sovereignty of the tribal nations.”
Now just five months later, the state’s highest court has his back.
“This ruling is another rejection of Gov. Stitt’s unlawful campaign against tribal citizens exercising their long-held rights,” Drummond said. “The Court would not be used as a tool to override settled federal law and decades of cooperative wildlife management. My position has never wavered: federal law is clear, and it is my duty to uphold it.”
“It is time for Gov. Stitt and the ODWC to stand down, respect federal law and return to the collaborative partnership with tribal nations that has served Oklahoma’s conservation interests for decades,” he added.
The dispute traces back to 2021, when Governor Stitt allowed long-standing hunting and fishing compacts with the Five Tribes (Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee, and Seminole) to expire. Since then, tribes have issued their own licenses, often in the form of tribal membership cards, and argued that federal law and treaties protect their members’ rights to hunt and fish on reservation lands without needing state approval.
The 2020 U.S. Supreme Court’s McGirt decision, which reaffirmed reservation status for much of eastern Oklahoma, provided the legal foundation for the tribes’ position. Tribal leaders have repeatedly pointed out that their wildlife regulations not only align with but in many cases exceed the state’s conservation standards.
While Monday’s decision represents a clear victory for Attorney General Drummond in state court, it stops short of resolving the underlying legal questions. Multiple federal lawsuits filed by the tribes remain active in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma. Those cases will now serve as the primary venue for developing a more robust factual record on issues of jurisdiction, treaty rights, and the impact of state versus tribal wildlife regulations.
For the time being, Drummond’s opinion stands unchallenged in state court, meaning game wardens have no clear state-backed authority to ticket tribal members exercising treaty-protected rights on reservation lands.
“Our people have possessed long-standing hunting and fishing rights upon these lands, rights forever guaranteed by our treaties with the United States government and deeply woven into our tribal laws,” Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said. “While there have been misguided attempts to attack our right to hunt and fish by Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, this ruling represents a powerful affirmation of our enduring rights and a rejection of his lawless efforts to diminish our sovereignty… our ancestors have stewarded these lands, and because of decisions like this, our children will continue to hunt and fish here for generations to come.”
