Gov. Kevin Stitt has appointed former Cherokee Nation tribal council member Wes Nofire to serve as the state's Native American liaison.
Nofire vacated his seat on the tribal council to run for Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation last spring. He has openly criticized the McGirt decision as tribal nation leaders tout it as a win for their sovereignty.
Stitt says he's bringing NoFire to build bridges with his office and tribal communities throughout the state. But Cherokee Nation officials have already called the appointment disappointing.
Former state Representative and current Chickasaw Tribal Legislature member Lisa Billy served as the first Secretary of Native American Affairs in the Stitt administration. She left in 2019 after saying Stitt was creating "unnecessary conflict" with the tribes in the state in her resignation letter.
She was replaced by Brian Bingman, who serves double-duty as Secretary of State.
The city of Tulsa is officially conducting its third excavation to find gravesites of victims of the 1921 Race Massacre.
At a press conference at City Hall Tuesday morning, Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum says the city has already begun searching for more graves of massacre victims.
“We will follow this investigation wherever it leads us," said Bynum.
Bynum was joined by state archeologist Dr. Kary Stackelbeck and Brenda Nails-Alford, a descendant of massacre survivors.
Dr. Stackelbeck says her team found a series of bricks that were laid out in a way consistent with makeshift headstones.
“We had one... and then we had another, and then we had another until we ended up actually exposing a row of these," said Stackelbeck.
Bynum said the city’s goal is to use DNA analysis to connect any possible remains of victims with their living descendants.
Crews at Oaklawn Cemetery will be using heavy equipment before hand-excavating the site as work continues for roughly a few weeks.
An analysis by the non-profit news outlet Oklahoma Watch shows Oklahoma's kindergartners are now the least-vaccinated in the region.
The latest survey of school-year exemption rates shows that 3.5% of kids entering kindergarten got an exemption from getting the standard vaccines to start school. That's up a full percentage point from the previous year.
The growth is almost entirely for religious or philosophical reasons.
Health officials say vaccinations—and a critical mass of children getting them—prevent the spread of disease in classrooms.
Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters announced the State Department of Education is partnering with PragerU for the state’s history curriculum.
Founded by conservative talk show host Dennis Prager, PragerU is not a university but rather a non-profit media organization that aims to offer an alternative to what it calls QUOTE “the dominant left-wing ideology in culture, media, and education.”
PragerU Kids is geared toward younger audiences. Its materials center around videos featuring quick vlog-style edits. They’re narrated by young people through a lens of what the Oklahoma Department of Education’s website calls “traditional American values that inspire self-reliance, patriotism, and resiliency.”
Some of the videos cover topics in American civics.
Others address sociocultural topics, like gender expression.
State Department of Education spokesperson Dan Isett says the partnership will offer a more robust history curriculum than the state has provided educators in the past.
He couldn’t provide many details about differences in the curricula but says the state is working with PragerU to develop Oklahoma-specific materials. Isett says it’s yet to be determined whether any of the PragerU Kids content will be required teaching curriculum in Oklahoma’s public schools.
Demetrize Carter, 43, was shot in the chest by an off-duty Del City police officer at a Choctaw high school football game where one student was shot and killed by a minor who has since been arrested.
Billy Clark, an attorney hired by Carter’s family, said Carter was attempting to help Cordea Clark — no relation — when the off-duty officer shot him.
"He had his hands up speaking with one of the Del City officers, basically explaining that, you know, the kid that was shot was on the ground dying. He was attempting to help him as best he can, and his hands were up the whole entire time. No weapon, nothing in his hands that was of a threat. And then all of a sudden he got shot," Clark said.
Clark said Carter is still in the hospital. The Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the shooting.
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