Every tribal member over 18 can participate in the vote with a valid driver's license, Cheyenne and Arapaho CDIB card or passport, according to Tribal Council Coordinator Albert Old Crow.
The meeting will be held at the tribe's R.E.S.P.E.C.T Gym.
The agenda includes a resolution regarding a three-year moratorium on data centers on tribal lands, ending in October 2029. That would give the tribe time to study AI data center impacts and enact legislation to protect its members, according to the resolution's language.
"The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal members are natural environmentalists," the resolution reads. "The intent of this Resolution is to protect and prevent a negative impact on the health of Tribal members, the general public and the environment."
Gov. Reggie Wassana has previously floated the idea of constructing a data center on Cheyenne and Arapaho land, after visiting both the Choctaw Nation Data Center and Colusa Tribal Town Data Center. He weighed the impacts in a Facebook video last year, noting the high water and electricity use required to operate it, as well as the potential financial gains.
"If we can work an agreement out, the Tribes could stand to make tens of millions of dollars a month," Wassana said at the time. "I mean we could go as far as making $200 million a year on a data center."
If the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal Council approves the resolution, it takes immediate effect. The Tribal Council Branch is separate from the Legislative Branch and empowers all tribal members over 18 to establish its own rules of order and procedure.
If the moratorium is enacted, the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes join a handful of other tribal nations to ban hyperscale data centers on their lands, including the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma, Seminole Nation and Cherokee Nation.
This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage.
