Creek Nation council to mull pact with DEA
BY CLIFTON ADCOCK World Staff Writer
Saturday, March 29, 2008
The Muscogee (Creek) Nation
tribal police agency soon might
have a powerful tool in the fight
against the rising amount of drug
crimes on tribal land.
The tribe's National Council will
consider a resolution Saturday that
would allow the Lighthorse Tribal
Police to enter into an agreement
with the U.S. Department of Justice's Drug Enforcement Administration that would cross-commission a tribal officer as a DEA Task
Force agent.
If passed, the agreement would
be the first of its kind between the
DEA and a tribal police force, Lighthorse Police Chief Jack Shackelford
said.
The Creek Nation Lighthorse has
a similar cross-commission agree
ment with the Tulsa Police Department, allowing intelligence sharing
and investigations between the two
agencies, Shackelford said.
"It's opened a lot of doors for us in
enforcing laws on tribal land against
non-Indians," he said.
The tribal agency includes more
than 20 patrol officers, two criminal
investigators and a K-9 unit. Officers
are charged with enforcing tribal,
state and federal laws in the Creek
Nation.
The officer in the new position
would be a liaison between the DEA
and the Lighthorse police, allowing
for a convenient flow of information
between the two groups in drug investigations, Shackelford said.
"It's giving us the opportunity to
gather information from the DEA
and work with them for cases on
tribal property," he said. "It
opens doors for us to get
(criminal) intelligence."
Under the proposed agreement, the officer would receive intense training under
the DEA and could be used to
assist in any case the federal
agency is working on in the
area, he said.
The tribe also is looking at
cross-commissioning with
the state's drug enforcement
agency, the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Danger
ous Drugs Control, Shackelford said.
The drug enforcement
agency already cross-deputized with one Oklahoma
tribe last spring, the Chickasaw Nation, and is interested
in doing the same with other
tribes, said Mark Woodward,
an agency spokesman.
The timing for such cross-deputizations is perfect,
Woodward said, because the
amount of drug-related crime
near casinos and other tribal
land is on the rise mostly because drug runners and drug
dealers are exploiting jurisdictional boundaries.
Someone involved in a drug
crime being investigated by
tribal police might simply
drive off the tribal land and
out of the tribal police jurisdiction, or a drug dealer being investigated by the state
drug agency might go onto
tribal land and out of the
agency's jurisdiction to do a
deal or to launder money
through a casino's games,
Woodward said.
With cross-jurisdictional
agreements, those walls are
broken down, he said.
Shackelford said the tribe
probably will approach the
drug agency within a couple
of weeks about a cross-jurisdictional agreement.
Other issues: Other items
on the National Council's
agenda include:
- A resolution supporting
negotiations between the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers to
enter into a lease with the
Creek Nation for the Fountainhead Golf Course.
- Appropriation of funds to
demolish the old Fountainhead Lodge.
- A resolution allowing the
sale of liquor and beer at the
Muskogee and Tulsa casinos.
- A resolution authorizing
the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Health System to conduct a cost and feasibility
study for two urgent care clinics, one in the Tulsa area, the
other in the southern region
of the tribal jurisdiction area.
- A resolution approving
the project budget of the new
Tulsa casino.
Clifton Adcock 581-8367
clifton.adcock@tulsaworld.com
MEETING TODAY
The Muscogee (Creek)
Nation’s national council
is scheduled to meet at 10
a.m. Saturday at the
Mound Building auditorium
at the Capitol Complex
in Okmulgee.
The meeting can be
viewed online via live
streaming video at www.
tulsaworld.com/muscogee.
