Tribal-municipal cooperation in Oklahoma

James C. Collard
Dept. of Political Science, University of Missouri, Saint Louis
August, 2006
 

Abstract
This investigation examines the current status of intergovernmental cooperation between tribal and municipal governments in Oklahoma. It proposes that five socio-economic variables, nine attitudes, and seven issue salience variables influence the level of importance tribal and municipal officials place on cooperation between their governments. Individualized surveys were sent to three hundred fifty-six municipal and thirty-nine tribal governments in the state. The responses to these surveys produced thirty-six tribal-municipal dyads that were analyzed using four statistical techniques: descriptive statistics, chi-squared, pairwise correlation, and conversion of the ordered logistic regression into odds ratios. Qualitative information was gleaned from the responses to the open-ended questions on the survey, follow-up telephone interviews with municipal and tribal officials, one-on-one discussions with numerous tribal, municipal, and business leaders in the state, and a focus group with the City Managers Association of Oklahoma.

The analysis showed that while there is general agreement cooperation between tribal and municipal governments is important, there is very little regular contact between tribal and municipal officials in Oklahoma. Next, there is no relationship between the socio-economic variables and the level of importance tribal and municipal officials place on cooperation. Third, while there are similar attitudes among tribal and municipal officials concerning the level of importance to place on cooperation, there are also important differences. Fourth, tribal and municipal officials in Oklahoma have very different views concerning the importance of seven key issues that define tribal-municipal relationships in the state; the most significant being that while tribal leaders list sovereignty as the number one issue, the municipal leaders list it last. Finally, racism is still a serious barrier to tribal-municipal cooperation in Oklahoma. The study closes with the proposed outline of an intercultural dialogue model, and the casting of municipal officials as domestic diplomats, as methods for enhancing cooperation between tribal and municipal governments in the state and the nation.