OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — In an effort to keep Cherokee Nation license plates street legal outside of Cherokee land by the end of the year, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt is throwing out his demand that the Cherokee Nation accept a one-size-fits-all approach to all tribal car tags.

Initially, Stitt had said the Cherokee Nation must accept the same terms and conditions that the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations agreed to during the tribal tag compact discussions. Now, the governor’s office confirmed they have offered the Cherokee Nation a unique compact to address their needs and concerns and settle the matter.

“Governor Stitt has modified the State’s offer to address concerns raised by Cherokee Nation leadership,” Communications Director at the Office of Governor Stitt Abegail Cave said in a statement. “While he has held fast to his position that the State needs to be able to access Cherokee driver registration information to levy tolls on those travelling on the turnpike as well as settle the debt to OTA owed by Cherokee tag holders, Governor Stitt has made significant concessions in terms of tag agencies, jurisdictional concerns and overall amount owed to OTA. Governor Stitt wholeheartedly hopes that both parties can agree on these terms and sign an agreement that is good for all four million Oklahomans.”

According to sources at the state capitol who have knowledge of the new 10-year compact offered, the Cherokee Nation would retain its rights and all of the same legal agreements currently in place when it comes to what is done within the historic boundaries of the Cherokee Nation. The sticking points that the tribe and the governor have butted heads on is what happens to Cherokee drivers and their vehicles outside of those historic boundaries.

Sources told FOX23 that Stitt and his negotiating team are concerned about a section in the current Cherokee compact that pertains to what is called “Cherokee Nation extended,” in which, as a courtesy under the current compact, Cherokee citizens living in the Tulsa metro close to Cherokee land have been treated like Cherokee citizens within the reservation. The governor’s office insists that practice be stopped moving forward.

“If they live outside of the reservation boundaries, we believe they should be treated like everyone else,” one source said. “It all comes down to where do they actually live, and where do they park and garage the vehicle at the end of the day.”

One of the terms that Stitt’s office is keeping in place is the right for the Cherokee Nation to operate tag agencies off of their traditional tribal lands.

“We understand those are job creators, and they do good work for both the state and the Cherokee Nation,” one source told FOX23.

The Stat of Oklahoma, under the new unique compact being offered, will allow the Cherokee Nation to charge as much as it wants for Cherokee vehicles inside the Cherokee Nation. However, outside of those boundaries, even if it’s at a Cherokee tag office, the state will split the money 40-60, with the larger part going to the state.

“This is actually a five percent increase in how much money they will be getting in exchange for them no longer having the Cherokee Nation extended lands currently in place now,” one source said. “Right now, the split is 35-65 with the Cherokee Nation extended territory that the governor’s office believes violates the boundaries of the Muscogee Creek Nation and Osage Nation.”

The governor’s office said it respected the Cherokee Nation’s investments in schools and other work it does in northeastern Oklahoma, and didn’t want to be seen as a hinderance to that when it crafted the newly proposed compact.

When it came to turnpike tolls and the issue of tribal tags showing up in state databases, the governor’s office said it would not budge on getting tags into the system, but it was open to a possible settlement on unpaid turnpike tolls from Cherokee Nation tags. The governor’s office said it was told by the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority that Cherokee tags racked up about $8 million in unpaid tolls and counting since the state switched to its PlatePay system that allowed for traffic to keep flowing on turnpikes instead of stopping to pay tolls.

“The Turnpike Authority cannot just write off these unpaid tolls and pretend they never happened, that’s illegal,” FOX23 was told. “We have to collect something. We have to make these bond payments that paid for these roads.”

Stitt’s office is offering the Cherokee Nation a potential settlement that ranges between $4 million to $4.5 million and the state will eat the cost of the rest of the unpaid tolls just this once.

If that settlement is agreed to as part of the compact, Cherokee Nation tags will be in a system for the OTA to find the addresses of the drivers, and the drivers would be billed from their information that would now be in the state’s system moving forward. That information will also be available in the database the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and other law enforcement can access during traffic stops and other law enforcement business.

The Cherokee Nation Tribal Tag Compact expires on Dec. 31, just as we ring in 2025.

If nothing is agreed to, Cherokee Nation tags would not be considered street legal outside of the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation. Stitt also has warned drivers could possibly face tickets for doing things as simple as going to work or the store because they would be driving on roads they have not paid for through their tag taxes.

FOX23 reached out to the Cherokee Nation for comment on the new compact proposal and will update this story once we receive one.