The sign read, “Cherokee Customers: This Tag Agency is for State of Oklahoma taxpayers. Your tag office is on Main Street by the Sonic.”
COLLINSVILLE, Okla. – On July 24, Cherokee Nation officials successfully requested that the Oklahoma Tax Commission force the Collinsville Tag Office to remove a “tremendously offensive” sign that was posted on its door.
The sign read, “Cherokee Customers: This Tag Agency is for State of Oklahoma taxpayers. Your tag office is on Main Street by the Sonic.”
Coowesta Sunday-Timmerman originally posted a picture of the sign to her personal Facebook page on July 22 before alerting tribal officials.
“All races in this country, including Native Americans, have worked hard to get to a place of respect and equality, and this sign was tremendously offensive to the Cherokee Nation and the Cherokee people,” Deputy Chief S. Joe Crittenden said. “It suggests that our citizens are not taxpayers, when in fact 38 percent of the sale of tribal car tags, which was $5 million this year, goes to support 107 public school districts in this state, and many of our tribal citizens purchase Oklahoma car tags.”
Crittenden also said the sign’s tone of “your tag office” evokes an “attitude of inequality, which is very sad to see in today’s time.”
“We’re pleased to see that the sign was taken down and hope this is a teachable moment for the community,” he added.
As of publication, Sunday-Timmerman’s post had garnered more than 600 shares and dozens of comments accusing the Collinsville Tag Office of discrimination, while others said the situation could be a simple misunderstanding.
One commenter said the sign is “definitely discrimination,” while another wrote, “I suspect they meant to provide directions to Cherokees who want a Cherokee car tag instead of a state tag.”
Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin Jr. commented on the photo stating, “Not only do we Cherokees pay taxes, we generate around $2 billion annually in economic impact, employ 11,000 Oklahoma taxpayers, create jobs indirectly for thousands more, give a higher percentage of our car tag revenue to education than does the state… and I’ve just scratched the surface.”
In a Facebook post, commenter Niandra Fawn shared screenshots of private messages between her and the Collinsville Tag Office’s Facebook page.
The tag office’s page responded to her questions about the sign by stating, “It’s a sign allowing customers of Cherokee Nation that they are in the wrong place so they don’t have to wait. It has happened in the past that Cherokee customers came in and had to wait on us with other customers until we could tell them they were at the wrong office.”
Fawn responded by asking the tag office to word the sign differently, as she saw it as “disrespectful.” The tag office responded by stating that it would be “insulting” to call Cherokees “Oklahoman tax payers” due to their sovereignty.
Contrary to the statement, CN citizens pay taxes on local, state and federal levels, and tribal sovereignty applies to the CN as a government. Individual CN citizens cannot claim to be sovereign.
The Cherokee Phoenix reached out to the Collinsville agency for comment but the office agent could not be reached as of publication. A manager for the office said the sign was “not negative from our point, but it’s just being picked up as negative from everybody else.”
The Oklahoma Tax Commission declined to comment.
– Published with kind permission of The Cherokee Phoenix, www.cherokeephoenix.org