The immeasurable impact the area’s three major tribes make in Oklahoma resonated Thursday at the Tulsa Regional Chamber’s inaugural State of the Tribal Nations event at Renaissance Tulsa Hotel & Convention Center.

Before a sold-out crowd of more than 850 people, executives from the Cherokee, Muscogee and Osage nations shared insights on panels focused on tribal leadership, economic development and tourism/cultural education. 

“We’re at the table in terms of charting a future for this state,” Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said. “They wouldn’t have predicted that 117 years ago. You wouldn’t have predicted that in the 20^th century when the United States was suppressing tribal nations. 

“…The Cherokee Nation is going to succeed because the Cherokee people are meant to succeed. As long as we’re working together, I think success is just in our DNA.” 

Hoskin appeared with Osage Nation Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear on the Tribal Leadership panel. Muscogee Nation Principal Chief David Hill was unable to attend the event because of a funeral, though Muscogees were represented on the other two panels. 

“The largest misconception that I’ve seen is that we no longer exist as a people as we did in the past,” Standing Bear said. “That is not true. We are still here. We are proud. We are culturally relevant. We’re good neighbors.

“We have our own custom and our ways, and we are going to keep those. We have to hang on and keep advancing and teach the children.” 

Illustrating how Indigenous people can be misunderstood, Hoskin said the so-called “special handouts” Native Americans receive originate from treaties, statutes and court decisions that the federal government has failed to honor. 

“The question always is whether the United States is going to live up to those legal obligations,” said Hoskin, who heads the largest tribe (about 460,000 citizens) in the country. “So, when people see resources flowing to tribes or they see particular laws or programs that are designed to lift Native Americans up, that is because of the injury done to Native Americans or it is because of some trade-offs that were born of deals that were not fair and the United States has an obligation to make right.

“What we have to do as tribal leaders…is that we have to continually remind the country that these things that tribes are trying to do are really rooted in history. They are rooted in law and that is a very complex subject. It is the obligation of tribal leaders to help educate the public, and this is one way we can do it.” 

Standing Bear said his tribe will continue to fight for his citizens’ mineral rights. 

In 1978, the federal government prohibited Osage mineral rights from being inherited by a non-Osage citizen. By that time, however, through deception and other means, many rights already were held outside the tribe.

Today, an estimated 26% of all Osage headrights interests are held by non-Osages. 

“This is a direct result of federal governance over ourselves and our property,” Standing Bear said. “We are pushing aside those shackles and learning how to govern ourselves like we used to.”

RaeLynn Butler, secretary of culture and humanities of the Muscogee Nation, was her tribe’s representative on the tourism and cultural education panel. She said the Muscogees are witnessing the most growth in the Nation’s history. 

“We need people to build partnerships with everybody because we do feel it’s important that our voice is a part of the decisions that are made in our communities,” she said. 

Butler added that it’s paramount that the tribe’s history is told accurately.

“If you are learning our history from a book, most likely it wasn’t written by us,” she said. “So, it’s important to reach out to the Nation directly and make sure you are talking to the right person.”

Hoskin praised the Tulsa Regional Chamber for assembling a tribal forum on such a large scale. 

“The Tulsa (Regional) Chamber is really setting the standard in this state or in this country on how to interact with the tribes,” he said. “…The Tulsa Chamber is interested in what tribes can do. They do it on the basis of respect. That’s the reason this is one of the best relationships around.”