Stitt vetoes bill funding Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples investigations

Yahoo

08-05-2025

OKLAHOMA CITY – On a day multiple tribal nations were marching at the Oklahoma State Capitol for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Awareness Day, Gov. Kevin Stitt vetoed a bill that would increase funding to a department inside OSBI that investigates those cases.
House Bill 1137 was an amendment to Ida's Law, that Stitt signed into law in 2021. Ida's Law created the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples department but relied on federal funding that never materialized. HB1137 would have removed the federal funding requirement.
In his veto message, Stitt did not point to budgetary concerns, rather he said the bill was an attempt to put one race above another.
'While I support efforts to solve missing persons and homicide cases, I cannot endorse legislation that singles out victims based solely on their race. House Bill 1137 requires the creation of a unit within the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation that focuses exclusively on missing and murdered Indigenous persons. But every missing person – regardless of race or background – deserves equal attention and urgency,' he wrote. 'Oklahoma already has both the Missing Persons Clearing House and the Cold Case Unit within OSBI, which are tasked with investigating disappearances and unsolved cases across all communities. Creating a separate office that prioritizes cases based on race undermines the principle of equal protection under the law and risks sending the message that some lives are more worthy of government attention than others.
'Justice must be blind to race. Our resources and investigative efforts should be deployed based on the needs of the case, not the identity of the victim.'
In response, Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. pointed to the fact that Ida's Law already was on the books.
'Gov. Stitt's breathtaking ignorance of the issues facing tribes and existing teamwork to resolve those issues reached an absurd level today with his veto of HB 1137. The existing 'Ida's Law,' a bipartisan reflection of the sort of teamwork needed to address missing and murdered indigenous persons cases, is an effective law that enables tribal law enforcement and OSBI to work better together on MMIP cases,' he wrote in a press release. 'HB 1137, a bipartisan amendment to Ida's law, was a housekeeping measure designed to strip an unnecessary federal funding requirement. Gov. Stitt's veto message, issued on a day we raise awareness across the country on MMIP issues, exposes that he lacks the foggiest idea that Ida's Law is on the books, what it does on a low budget cost high impact basis, or what the simple amendment was designed to do.'
Hoskin accused Stitt of purposely sowing discord by using the term 'race.'
'He also continues to conflate the political status of tribal citizens with 'race,' a tired old subject meant to divide and confuse people,' Hoskin wrote. 'Native Americans are disproportionally victims of violent crime and disproportionally so in cases that go unsolved. Serious leaders across the state and the nation understand that and are taking action.'
HB 1137 passed through both chambers with almost unanimous support. Stitt has taken similar action in the past concerning tribal exclusivity on gambling issues and concerns over tribal tags and hunting/fishing licenses.
'We are sovereign nations and our treaties require the U.S. Government to live up to certain responsibilities,' Iowa Tribe Chairman Jake Keyes posted to social media. 'They continue to not only fail at this, but now they look to completely eliminate those responsibilities. More than ever it's important for our people and our tribal leaders to make our voices heard.'
KOCO television station in Oklahoma City reported OSBI told the news station it would continue to fund the MMIP department.