At the White House Tribal Nations Conference in September, President Barack Obama said the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s Dakota Access Pipeline protest “highlights why it’s so important” that federal agencies consult, listen, and work with Tribal Nations on a government-to-government, “sovereign-to-sovereign” basis. In making his statement, the outgoing President reaffirmed the federal government’s primary tribal policy of the past forty-six years, a policy embraced by both parties. When President-Elect Donald Trump asked Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to join his cabinet, I was assured that the incoming Administration would continue this smart, common sense, and valuable policy.
Attorney General Pruitt has a just and proud record of advocating for Oklahoma and state sovereignty. Generally, state and tribal sovereignty advocates don’t make for the most likely of allies, since federal law tends to put the interests of the two at loggerheads. But Oklahoma’s story demonstrates that we all benefit when we are able to find a way to work together. It is not always easy to find that path, as the scores of age-old state-tribal water fights throughout the West can attest to. But in his representation of Oklahoma in the recently concluded water negotiations with the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations, General Pruitt demonstrated his ability to do that hard work. As Oklahoma’s chief lawyer in those talks, he demonstrated a keen mind, an ability to listen, and commitment to working with the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations, no matter the thorniness and difficulty of issues. And he did so without abandoning his state constitutional duty to represent Oklahoma’s sovereign interests.
Attorney General Pruitt’s engagement in the water talks was a service to all Oklahomans, and as the Chickasaw Nation’s Ambassador to the United States, I can speak to my own respect for his hard work with us—work he approached in a respectful spirit of government-to-government, sovereign-to-sovereign engagement. As a tribal citizen, I am confident he will bring that same smart, common sense, and valuable approach to his service as Director of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and as an Oklahoman, I am glad he will represent all of us in that manner.
Editor's Note: Neal McCaleb is the Ambassador to the Chickasaw Nation