For months, I’ve thought about getting a fishing license from the Choctaw Nation, as I have mostly decided that, for the first time since I was a teenager, to take the sport back up and get out there on Oklahoma’s waters and, hopefully, figure out some of these issues of forced masculinity that I continually wrestle with.
But, as soon as I was in a popular sporting goods store looking for a new rod and reel, news came out over the wire that Gov. Kevin Stitt, in his constant temper tantrum with the Indigenous populace of Oklahoma, announced that he would not renew the state’s current hunting and fishing license agreements with the Cherokee and Choctaw Nations.
Fuck.
Still smarting—and possibly will be until he’s forcibly ousted from office, hopefully, come election year—from the Supreme Court decision in the McGirt case, like the weasel he is, he came out of his dark hole to say that his decision to end them was made for the benefit of all Oklahomans.
From Yahoo! News:
“Governor Stitt believes that all Oklahomans should receive equal treatment under the law,” his office said in a statement.
Stitt wanted the Cherokee and Choctaw nations to start paying full price for the 200,000 state hunting and fishing licenses they collectively buy every year. The change would increase the tribes’ payments from $2 per license to $42 or more. Without an extension, the agreements expire Dec. 31
It's funny how white people—and make no doubt about it, Stitt’s most definitely a white dude masquerading as a Cherokee princess—will only talk about “equal” treatment or inclusion in a mocking, divisive tone when they’re trying desperately to stick a knife right in the gut of the party they’re trying to bleed dry.
This latest attempt by Stitt to euthanize the tribes will undoubtedly hurt him and the state in the long run, as both Batton and Hoskin say they “plan to exercise their nations’ treaty rights to allow citizens to hunt according to their own tribal laws.” It will more than likely lose the state at least $38 million dollars in funding.
“The state’s decision to end the hunting and fishing compacts with the Cherokee and Choctaw nations is disappointing especially in that it only hurts the state of Oklahoma, but the true intent is to demean tribal sovereignty,” Muscogee Principal Chief David Hill said.
It’s yet another terrible leadership decision by Stitt done completely out of hatred—one that will hurt far more than the weekend sportsman, as many people in the tribes use the fish and game they hunt as a source of food, especially in the winter months—one that will affect the Chickasaw, Muscogee and Seminole nations in the upcoming months.
_
Follow Louis on Twitter at @LouisFowler and Instagram at @louisfowler78.
