OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma Corporation Commissioners and the agency’s staff are looking into what prompted the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes to announce they will enforce their own environmental regulations on oil and gas operations within tribal boundaries.
The three commissioners quickly responded with assurances to oil and gas operators that they are considering the matter.
The Corporation Commission regulates the oil and gas industry in Oklahoma in accordance with Article IX, Section IV, of the Oklahoma Constitution, which decrees: “All oil pipe companies shall be subject to the reasonable control and regulation of the Corporation Commission…” The state Corporation Commission was responding to the tribes’ creation of their own Environmental Protection Commission.
The debate was triggered by a July 7 letter sent by Billy Nichols, Environmental Director of the Cheyene Arapaho Environmental Protection Commission (EPC). It was mailed to all oil and gas exploration/ production operators working within the territory of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes.
“Pursuant to the sovereign authority of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes and in accordance with federal law, this notice serves to inform all Oil and Gas Operators and Midstream Operators conducting operations within the territorial jurisdiction of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes that the Cheyenne Arapaho Environmental Protection Commission has been formally established and is now fully operational,” Nichols wrote.
Further, “effective immediately” the EPC is vested with the authority to inspect oil and gas facilities and associated infrastructure, monitor environmental conditions related to air and water quality, and to enforce compliance with applicable environmental regulations, Nichols said. The environmental regulations included the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and “all relevant federal, tribal and intergovernmental environmental protection standards.”
Failure to comply, Nichols warned, could result in assessment of fines, enforcement actions, and other remedial measures as “deemed necessary by the EPC to protect the health, welfare, and natural resources of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.”
Oil and gas operators within the tribal boundaries were “hereby directed to fully cooperate with EPC personnel and to maintain accessibility for scheduled or unscheduled inspections.”
Tribes’ environmental law created this year A bill to create the “Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribe Environmental Quality Act of 2025” was introduced in April and approved in May during the regular session of the tribe’s Tenth Legislature.
“The Legislature of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes finds that it is necessary and proper to establish a comprehensive framework for environmental protection, including the creation of an Environmental Protection Commission, to promote the health, safety, and welfare of the Tribes and their lands, waters, and people.”
The bill also stated the tribe has the authority to create the commission and its enforcement powers.
“The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes are duly recognized by the United States Secretary of the Interior as a self-governing, Sovereign Nation, that is a federally recognized Indian Tribe with all rights, privileges, and powers attendant thereto as a sovereign government … under an amended Constitution ratified [in] April 2006 and approved by the Secretary of Interior on May 17, 2006.”
Among its many provisions, the Environmental Quality Act states that the Environmental Protection Commission is authorized to:
• Direct the Tribe and approve plans and specifications for and to inspect construction, remediation, operation, and closing of waste disposal sites, oil and gas facilities, plus operations of “other environmentally sensitive sites.”
• Direct inspections of closed or abandoned waste disposal sites, oil and gas well sites, and other regulated sites to determine compliance [with] rules and regulations for proper protective measures.
• Enforce the laws of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes regarding the environment, including but not limited to the issuance, modification or revocation of permits, establish enforcement procedures and hold hearings, issue appropriate orders or directives, and promulgate rules applicable to activities and persons subject the jurisdiction of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes as they may deem appropriate to protect environmental resources and public health and welfare…” Nichols’ letter is what prompted the Corporation Commissioners to respond. Regulators respond “Oklahoma oil and gas operators should know we are reviewing this matter closely and they should be assured the agency is moving forward with business as usual,” Corporation Commissioner Brian Bingman said.
Bingman, who previously served as Oklahoma’s Secretary of Native American Affairs, added, “We always look for ways to work collaboratively with our tribal partners when appropriate, but as it sits today the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes do not have the proper ’Treatment as a State’ designation by the federal government required to claim and execute this regulatory function.”
“It’s important that we do not allow this letter to upend the flow of business for one of our state’s most important industries,” Commission Chair Kim David said. “We are in contact with our partner agencies on how best to address this issue, and the agency has its own Pollution Abatement Department to address environmental concerns.”
Commissioner Todd Hiett, who is completing his 12th and final year on the Corporation Commission, said, “I believe further information from our tribal partners will be needed to understand what clarification they would like to see regarding regulation of the oil and gas industry. What do [the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes] plan to do and how do they plan to do it?” he wondered. “When these issues have arisen in the past, tribal leaders met with the commissioners for discussions,” he said.
“In the meantime, we are confident that agency staff will continue appropriately regulating the industry and safeguarding public safety in accordance with OCC’s mission.”
This is not the first time that regulatory authority has been the subject of legal questions between tribal
governments and the state.
McGirt decision is still creating legal questions Most of the issues arose after the U.S. Supreme Court decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma.
That was a landmark 2020 decision which held that the domain reserved for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation by Congress in the 19th century has never been dissolved and constitutes “Indian Country” for purposes of the Major Crimes Act. Consequently, only the federal government can prosecute Native Americans for serious crimes allegedly committed within the boundaries of the Muscogee (Creek) reservation in eastern Oklahoma.
Subsequently, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, after in-depth research performed by multiple state district courts, applied the McGirt rationale to the four other “civilized tribes:” the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Seminole nations.
The Court of Criminal Appeals later extended the ruling to five other indigenous tribes: the Quapaw Nation, the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, the Peoria Tribe of Indians, the Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma and the Wyandotte Nation.
Nevertheless, not every tribal reservation in Oklahoma remains intact.
The First and Second Medicine Lodge Treaties of 1867 reserved a large expanse of southwest Oklahoma for the Kiowa, Comanche and Apache tribes, including western parts of present-day Jefferson, Stephens and Grady counties, a southern part of present-day Caddo County, and all of present-day Comanche, Cotton, Kiowa and Tillman counties.
However, Congress dissolved the KCA tribal reservation by an Act dated June 6, 1900, the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled 71 years ago, in 1950, in the case of a full-blood Apache man who was accused of murdering a full-blood Comanche woman in Caddo County.
It should be noted that McGirt applied solely to major crimes such as murder, manslaughter, rape and child molestation. The Supreme Court’s ruling did not extend to civil, regulatory nor taxation issues.
In late 2020 the Seminole Nation informed oil and gas companies that they were subject to taxes in the tribe’s “jurisdictional area.”
One letter sent by the tribe to an oil and gas company related, “This letter is intended to provide notice to all operators in our area that to actively produce oil and/or gas within our jurisdictional area, an Operator’s Permit issued by the Seminole Nation is required.”
“Sending letters to every single operator in Seminole County can be seen as an attempt to intimidate those engaging in productive economic activity within the county to pay taxes and fees that the Seminole Nation has no jurisdiction to levy,” then-Attorney General Mike Hunter responded.
In January 2021 the Seminole Nation’s thenchief Greg P. Chilcoat issued a statement on the tribe’s taxation authority over nonmember oil and gas producers within the Seminole Reservation.
“As a sovereign nation predating the U.S. Constitution, the Seminole Nation has the inherent authority to levy severance taxes on nonmember oil and gas producers operating on the Seminole Nation’s trust and restricted lands,” Chilcoat wrote. “Tribal authority to levy taxes over nonmembers on trust and restricted lands stems from the tribe’s 'right to exclude' as well as the right 'to control economic activity within its jurisdiction, and to defray the cost of providing governmental services.’” The Seminole Nation had not applied taxation authority over nonmember oil and gas producers operating on fee simple land, he said.