Ponca ambassador calls for tribes to unite and oppose Oklahoma’s environmental oversight request

Casey Camp Horinek, the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma’s environmental ambassador, speaks at a Black Lives Matter protest earlier this summer in Ponca City. [Jordan Green/The Oklahoman] A tribal leader is calling for Oklahoma’s Native Americans to unite as the federal government ponders the future of key environmental regulatory activities in Oklahoma’s Indian Country. In July, Oklahoma asked the EPA to grant it the authority to continue regulating key environmental issues across areas of the state designated as Indian Territory before statehood. The federal agency is currently consulting with the tribes and taking comment on the state’s request. The request comes as Oklahoma and the Five Tribes continue to discuss ramifications from the U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-to-4 decision that Congress failed to dissolve the Creek Nation’s reservation in 1907. While the case dealt specifically with a criminal matter that happened within the Creek Nation’s pre-statehood territory, tribal and state officials interpreted its outcome as more broadly applicable to areas of eastern and southern Oklahoma held by the Five Tribes before Oklahoma joined the union in 1907. Casey Camp Horinek, environmental ambassador of the Ponca Tribe, said the state’s request seeks to undermine the Supreme Court’s decision in the McGirt case […]

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