OKLAHOMA CITY — The leaders of the state’s most successful tribal nations called on state lawmakers last week to override Governor Kevin Stitt’s veto of a bill that would allow graduating Native American students to wear eagle feathers and other cultural items at graduation ceremonies.
The group, known as the Inter-Tribal Council, is made up of the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Seminole and Muscogee (Creek) nations. Those five tribes represent more than 800,000 Native Americans in the U.S.
Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said the governor’s veto caused more division and insults to his Native American constituents.
“To be clear, Oklahoma law protects the right of Native American students to wear tribal regalia and other culturally significant items during graduation ceremonies,” Hoskins said. “This bill would have simply made those rights more clear so public school administrators do not mistakenly violate them. That’s why the Legislature approved this bill, along with other bills supported by tribes with nearly unanimous, bipartisan votes.”
Stitt’s veto of Senate Bill 429 caught tribal leaders off guard. The measure had passed overwhelmingly in both houses of the Legislature. Stitt’s veto message said nothing in state law prevents a school from allowing students wear tribal regalia at graduation ceremonies, but the governor said, school districts or institutions should be able to set the dress code at their institutions’ official graduation ceremonies.
The governor has vetoed 20 Senate bills in retaliation for the Senate not adopting his education plan.
Gary Batton, chief of the Choctaw Nation, said the measure was a common-sense bill with no costs to the state or schools. “We hope the House and the Senate will quickly override the veto to provide more freedom for Oklahoma students who want to honor their heritage,” Batton said in a media statement.
Lawton Republican Senator John Michael Montgomery, one of the bill’s authors, told KOSU Radio the measure likely has enough support in the Legislature to support a veto override.
“It’s certainly an avenue that I’m looking at to try to figure out, ‘do we have the votes for it?,’” Montgomery said. “I’m inclined in my reading on it is most likely I do.”