The city of Shawnee and area tribes such as the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Sac & Fox Nation, the Absentee Shawnee Tribe and the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma are locked into bitter disputes over Shawnee’s efforts to impose sales taxes on their tribal trust lands. The acrimony has grown intense enough that the Citizen Potawatomi Nation seeks to de-annex itself from the city limits. News sources reported that Shawnee City Commission members have proposed excluding other City Commission members from voting on Commission business involving tribal issues, based solely on tribal membership.

Recently, though the City Commission voted to reduce its legal budget, terminate services of a New Mexico law firm advising the city on the tax issues and end its efforts to collect the sales taxes.

The Potawatomis operate supermarkets, casinos, fuel stop and convenience stores, a museum, putt-putt and softball facilities on 1,150 acres of trust land in Shawnee. The United States maintains that tribes exercise jurisdiction over trust lands and are generally exempt from local and state jurisdiction. The city maintains that the tribes should collect city sales tax on purchases made by nonmembers on trust lands. City and state have ratcheted up pressure by threatening audits and the loss of sales tax, beer and liquor permits. Sovereign goodwill is near a low in Shawnee and the Oklahoma Tax Commission presses on. Hopefully, cooperation will prevail.