The law, the Adam Walsh Act, requires tribes to establish plans for their own sex-offender registries through tribal statute within their reservation areas. Failing to meet the deadline, the tribes forfeit the offender registration over to the state, the statute reads.

Oklahoma has an estimated 5,347 registered sex offenders, 2007 Department of Corrections figures show. State officials said the Adam Walsh Act will further ensure that offenders are registered in the state of Oklahoma, which requires dual registry with a state and local law enforcement entity.

"If an offender lives on tribal land, then they will be required to take their address verification to that tribe, because the state has no jurisdiction on tribal land," said Lawana Hamrick, Oklahoma Department of Corrections sex offender registry coordinator.

The federal law requires tribes to have a plan through tribal statute in place by July 27, and have a working sex-offender registry within two years from that date.

Some local Indian law specialists said the statute addresses a complex problem and that federal lawmakers did not consult with tribes before passing it. The lack of foresight creates frustration and misunderstanding, one lawyer said.

"It is a stealth law," said Tulsa attorney Michael McBride. "If tribal governments do nothing, that particular tribal government will automatically lose some criminal jurisdiction."

The law has the potential to expand state power in Indian Country, a consequence that is alarming to tribes, he said. Other tribes view the deadline as a decided swipe to tribal sovereignty. Kay Rhoads, Sac and Fox Nation chief, said her 3,300-member tribe passed legislation that will create a registry.

"I don't think there's any tribe that will make a law to intentionally protect sex offenders," she said. "We have our own court systems, the law should respect us as sovereigns."

Osage Principal Chief Jim Gray said his tribe's 12-member congress hopes to establish a registry system, before the deadline. It takes 10 days from passage for an Osage law to become effective.

"My reading of the tea leaves says it will pass," he said.

The Cherokee Nation's justice department is drafting legislation that will support the creation of a sex offender registry within its 14-county jurisdiction, officials said.

Once drafted, the tribe's council is expected to approve the legislation. Todd Hembree, council attorney, said failing to meet that date brings an alternative that the Cherokees find unlikely. "We will not forfeit anything to the state," he said.

The Muscogee (Creek) tribe, however, will turn its sex-offender registration over to the state.

A Creek resolution passed in March stipulates that sex offender registration within its boundaries is delegated to the State of Oklahoma without compromising its jurisdiction. Other provisions of the tribal law stipulate that the Creeks' official Web site will have links to sex offender registrations within the tribe's eight-county jurisdiction, the tribal statute reads.

Other provisions of the law allow for federal grant funding to tribes to help them implement their sex offender registry. No specific appropriations have been discussed.

S.E. Ruckman 581-8462
se.ruckman@tulsaworld.com