OKMULGEE, Okla. – Former Muscogee Creek Nation Tribal Historic Preservation Officer Turner Hunt spoke with Mvskoke Media on the department’s YouTube program “Live Wire” on Jan 23. Hunt detailed allegations that he was terminated for contacting the National Parks Service with information that MCN was not in compliance to apply for the yearly THPO grant from the NPS.
Hunt stated that he became the MCN THPO in 2021 with the condition that he be allowed to address issues with yellow parking bollards placed in front of the MCN Council House in downtown Okmulgee. Hunt’s investigation into the issue led him to section 106 paperwork filed by MCN in 2019. These documents stated that the project would not affect any properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The MCN Council House is listed on this register.
Hunt then contacted the Oklahoma State Historic Preservation Office to see if the situation could be remedied. According to emails provided by Hunt, both the OK SHPO and the regional office of the National Parks Service that deals with historic landmarks agreed that the bollards were a negative impact on the Council House. Both also agreed that the section 106 review was done improperly.
Hunt then had meetings to try to address the situation. Any changes to the bollards would require consultation with community groups, the City of Okmulgee and the NPS to develop a mitigation plan. According to Hunt the MCN has not taken any actions to address the parking bollards.The yellow parking bollards are still in place at the time of the publishing of this article.
In addition, Mr. Hunt also claims that the MCN is not in compliance with regulatory requirements for the application for the NPS grant that funds the THPO office.
In 2011, the MCN entered into a Memorandum of Agreement with the NPS and the United States Department of the Interior. This MOA is a legally binding document that is necessary for the MCN to apply for THPO grant funding from the NPS. The MOA is a list of actions that the MCN and the NPS agree to do. The THPO grant amount for the most recent year was $97,491.
During his time as THPO Hunt found that the MCN had not fulfilled some of the MOA requirements. Hunt’s main concern was the fact that the MOA required the development and implementation of a reservation wide historic preservation plan covering historic, archeological, and traditional cultural properties. According to Hunt during his time as THPO he was not able to find a copy of this document.
The MOA also requires a Cultural Review Committee that will serve as the THPO’s advisory board. Hunt claims that during his time as THPO he was not overseen or advised by any board.
Hunt attempted to establish the committee during his time as THPO, but when he budgeted for the meetings he was told that any expenditures would need to have legislation passed through the National Council.
Hunt also stated that MCN had not been conducting consultations with other tribes that call Oklahoma their ancestral home as was required by the MOA.
The MOA also requires MCN to solicit public comments, which Hunt claims it has not.
Hunt pointed out the lack of these MOA requirements to his superior, MCN Secretary of Culture and Humanities RaeLynn Butler, but reported no action was taken.
Hunt had concern that the MOA noncompliance would have an impact in the ongoing lawsuit between the MCN and the Poarch Band of Creek Indians concerning the original Hickory Ground.
Hunt was able to meet with Principal Chief David Hill, and was told that Hunt should speak with “outside counsel” which Hunt interpreted to mean Mary Kathryn Nagle, the Cherokee lawyer who is handling that suit.
Hunt did not contact Nagle. Instead, Hunt sent an email to the NPS informing them that in his opinion as MCN THPO the MCN was not in compliance with it’s MOA with the NPS and DOI. Because of this, he would not be applying for the THPO grant. Hunt also asked that the NPS decline any THPO grant application that doesn’t have a letter from the THPO attached.
June 2024, Hunt was terminated from the THPO position for emailing the NPS without authorization. Following his termination Hunt attempted to utilize the employee protection act, but was denied.
In December of 2024, NCA 24-162 was introduced in the MCN National Council Land, Natural Resources and Cultural Preservation committee. NCA 24-162 would authorize the expenditure of the NPS THPO grant.
This led to Hunt sending an email to all the National Council representatives asking if they had reviewed the MCN MOA or the budget for the THPO office to see if the noncompliance had been addressed.
The legislation was then sent back to committee at the Dec 14 MCN NC Regular Session. Hunt then reached out via email to McIntosh District Rep. Galen Cloud requesting a meeting to speak about the legislation. At the meeting Hunt offered alternatives to the legislation that he thought would rectify the situation such as updating the legislation to reflect that the grant is to be used for THPO and MOA compliance or changing the funding source for the THPO office to tribal funds.
Hunt also sent an email to try to get time to speak at the reintroduction of the legislation, now numbered NCA 25-013, at the LNC committee meeting, but did not get a reply. When he attended the meeting in person he was not allowed to speak. Rep. Cloud asked Historic and Cultural Preservation Department Director Robin Soweka Jr. if the nation would be notified by the NPS if the THPO program was noncompliant. Soweka stated that he believed that the NPS would give the department notification if the program was noncompliant. Soweka also stated that the THPO program had already been approved for the grant.
The committee passed NCA 25-013 unanimously and the bill went before the full National Council at the Quarterly Session held on Jan 25. During the session Secretary Butler spoke about the noncompliance allegations brought by Hunt.
“ We don’t deny that there are any issues of noncompliance. This Memorandum of Agreement that established our THPO office was activated in 2011 and was signed by Principal Chief A.D. Ellis. And it really came to light after the McGirt decision, we started evaluating all agreements the Nation had and seeing whether the McGirt decision did need attention to expand our tribal boundary, the reservation. The reservation protection commission, which I was a part of, did help identify that the grant, I mean the Memorandum of Agreement needed to be updated. But also our former THPO identified areas that we needed to work on as well and we have been actively working on that since we’ve been made aware. I know at the time I was the manager of the department, you know I had reported these issues to my, the Secretary of the Interior Jesse Allen. At the time, we had several meetings with many different departments about how to address some of these issues. We do not believe that every allegation that’s been made against this agreement or this program is true, and we are willing to meet with anybody to talk about the things that we’re working on. But you know this grant application in particular, we’re saying to the park service that we are interested in amending our memorandum of agreement from 2011 with the assistance of the National Park Service. We are also seeking advice from the National THPO program on the best way to move forward with that. We have sent several emails to the Park Service that have gone unanswered. You know the agreement also states that the Park Service would evaluate our program every four years and they have never evaluated our program since its inception. However they continue to award grants and so also you know because we’ve known about these noncompliance issues since around 2020, 2021, we have continued to apply for the grant with no hesitation and are putting in our application that we are working to insure any noncompliance issues are being addressed and specifically in fiscal year 2024 – 2025. And the grant was awarded so there is no, you know, we’re not trying to hide or cover up or deny that there are any ongoing issues with regulatory compliance. I will also say that in the decade that I have worked for the Nation, we’ve reviewed over 20,000 projects under section 106, and there are a handful that had some issues and it takes more than one person to fix them. I would compare it to the McGirt ruling where we know what the court said, and the counties know what they said but they’re not actively doing anything to make corrections to that business was done as usual. And so it takes education, it takes meeting with each department at the Nation to go over this law and to train employees on how to make sure that we’re meeting these regulatory requirements. And we have been doing that and will continue to do that. We are actively working on our reservation wide preservation plan,. It is in progress, we have elements that are complete. We have amended code, we have done many things that we’ve been working on to try to get where we need to be.”
Mvskoke Media emailed a detailed list of questions to Secretary Butler, but did not receive a response. Director Soweka was also given some time to speak on the THPO grant,
“Yes we are following every responsibility in our agreement to get this THPO grant. We are doing the reservation wide surveys. I recently turned in our annual accomplishments report. We did 65 acres of surveys on reservation land. We, as Secretary Butler stated, we have a preservation plan. We are updating it. We continue our section 106 reviews and we consult with federal agencies, state agencies, tribal agencies. There is only one thing that I think the Mvskoke Nation needs to do and that is outgoing tribal consultation because we’re not descendants of this land that we’re on now. The descendants are Caddo, Wichitaw, Osage and we need to start sending outgoing consultations to those tribes to make sure we’re not disturbing any of their sites. But since I’ve been in this position, Osage, none of those tribes have contacted me saying you’re destroying any of our sites or anything like that. I have a contact with Osage, they say we’re doing fine, I am in contact with the NPS THPO Manager, for the THPO Program, and he is willing to sign a letter saying we’re in compliance, we just need to turn in these annual reports.”
Before the Council voted on the legislation, Creek District Rep. Dode Barnett addressed citizens that had been following the allegations on social media,
“It’s been interesting in the last couple of weeks to see the energy and the attention. I had made a comment earlier in the year that a lot of what this department does goes unnoticed and is without recognition, not that you guys are asking for any recognition, and now all of a sudden there’s a huge spotlight thrown on what you do. And so what I would ask of our citizenry is the same energy that you are following the drama with, support these folks. Because what they do is important and it’s integral to our sovereignty, thank you.”
NCA 25-013 was adopted unanimously. On Jan 23 Hunt received a letter from the MCN HR department claiming that he was in possession of MCN property that must be returned immediately. The letter threatens judicial intervention and possible action by the MCN Attorney General. The letter is unclear about what MCN property Hunt has in his possession, but it does mention federal grant applications.
At the time of the publication of this story, there are no records charging Hunt with any crimes in the MCN District Court.