OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office announced they will not allow Native American hunters to be prosecuted by the state for hunting in “Indian Country” without a state license “when they are otherwise acting in accord with duly enacted tribal law.”
A hunting-without-a-license charge that was filed Oct. 24 in Pushmataha County District Court was dismissed Oct. 29 by Senior Deputy Attorney General Jimmy R. Harmon.
Shawn Kohl Robertson, 24, of Antlers, an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation, received a citation Oct. 14 from James Gillham, a game warden employed by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.
Gillham said that evening he saw Robertson pull a boat out of the Kiamichi River and onto a trailer at Rattan Landing. Afterward, Gillham said, he and Robertson began chatting “about what he had been doing.” Robertson “indicated he had been hunting” on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers property south of Rattan Landing, in the Hugo Wildlife Management Area, which is managed by the ODWC.
The game warden said he peered inside Robertson’s boat and saw a compound bow and some arrows, and Robertson was dressed in hunting attire. “When I asked if he had done any good, he told me he had not seen anything except some other hunters” who were camped nearby.
“I asked Robertson if he had a hunting license he could show me. He replied he did not have a hunting license but was a tribal member,” although he didn’t have his membership card with him.
The ODWC issued a statement Oct. 9 which “reminds all hunters and anglers that state fish and wildlife laws apply to everyone in Oklahoma regardless of race, heritage, or background.” Consequently, Gillham issued Robertson a citation for “resident hunting without a valid license” and “we went our separate ways.”
The Attorney General’s office took over the case and dismissed the charge. “This is another senseless attempt to ignore the sovereignty of the tribal nations in Oklahoma,” the office wrote in a media statement, adding that “any further cases filed against members of Native American tribes for hunting on tribal land without a license will be taken over by this office and promptly dismissed.”