TAHLEQUAH – Months of negotiations on a vehicle tag compact were concluded on Dec. 6 – at least from the perspective of the Cherokee Nation – when Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. signed the terms of the agreement with the state of Oklahoma during a brief ceremony inside the W.W. Keeler Complex.
The compact must also undergo procedural approval with the state, but CN Attorney General Chad Harsha, addressing a special meeting of the Tribal Council’s Rules Committee earlier in the day, anticipated no complications.
Under the new compact, the CN will continue to issue tags to citizens within the reservation and at-large. The agreement is for 10 years – consistent with past tag compacts – and becomes effective Jan. 1. Hoskin said the negotiations were difficult, but credited the state with negotiating “in good faith.”
The compact was unanimously approved at a special 9 a.m. meeting of the Rules Committee, was passed unanimously by the full Tribal Council at a special 10 a.m. meeting, and was signed by Hoskin at 10:30 a.m.
“I am pleased that the state recognized the benefits on all sides from decades of successful compacting and our mutual interest in continuing this collaboration,” Hoskin said. “Throughout this process, we sought an agreement that would benefit both Cherokee Nation citizens and Oklahomans, and I am proud of the good-faith negotiations to achieve this favorable outcome. This new compact upholds our tribal sovereignty and ensures we can continue to provide essential funding for public schools, roads and law enforcement agencies for years to come.”
However, when speaking to the Rules Committee, Hoskin and Harsha acknowledged the CN didn’t get everything it wanted.
“I think it was obvious to everyone who works in this government that this (compact) would not be easy,” Hoskin said. “I do believe this is in the best interest of the Cherokee people. It locks us in a compact for 10 years. It maintains a framework of revenue sharing that has been important to people we care about.”
There was little enthusiasm expressed by the Rules Committee for the condition the CN pay $2 million over three years to the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority as a PlatePay fee to address billing issues. But the tribe also held onto its tag offices and can issue car tags to any CN citizen anywhere in Oklahoma.
Without a compact, the tribe lacks any legal authority to issue tags outside of the Cherokee Nation Reservation.
Hoskin explained to the Cherokee Phoenix that the PlatePay issue resolved an information sharing issue between state agencies relating to toll charges, but the compact did not address any future issue as to whether the state could impose tolls fees on Cherokee Nation citizens.
Some funds from CN tag sales will continue to go to public schools, roads and law enforcement, which have received $258 million in funding since 2002.
Any additional revenue from state taxes or fees on Cherokee citizen vehicles “principally garaged” outside of the reservation will largely go to education and infrastructure.
CN citizens living outside the reservation can use state or tribal tag offices, but are “subject to payment of fees and taxes provided by the compact.”
“One of the biggest changes to this compact is the expanded jurisdiction area,” Harsha said. “Under our existing compact, the in-reservation treatment extended to the whole of five counties where the reservation partially covers – so Mayes, Muskogee, (Wagoner) Tulsa, Rogers.”
Harsha explained that starting Jan. 1, CN citizens in those five counties move to the “at-large model.” There is a four-year-grace period on all tags issued before Dec. 31, where Cherokee drivers can continue to renew their tags at the CN.
“All in-reservation tribal citizens will have to go to a Cherokee Nation tag office,” Harsha said. “So, beginning Jan. 1, for example, if a tribal citizen outside the reservation boundaries wants to get a Cherokee tag for a new vehicle, they can go to a state tag office and get a tag there. They’ll, of course, have to pay the same rate that would apply for all state tags, but we also do have a rebate process that will provide some savings.”
The remittance to the CN with the new at-large model is 40%, up from 35%. Harsha also said there was a “miscommunication” during the compact negotiations that the CN was not sharing driver information with outside law enforcement, which he said was not true. Under the compact, he said the CN will continue to share information with law enforcement, “in addition to providing information to the turnpike authority to help resolve the plate pay issue.”
There is a FAQ for further information about the effects of the new motor vehicle compact at:
cherokee.org/media/xcdgpszz/2025-cherokee-nation-car-tag-compact-faq-edits.pdf
link