Indian Tag, or No Indian Tag?

[inactive]

I have a Cherokee tag but live in the creek nation. No one bats an eye here. Washita County I can't speak for though.

The tag isn't much cheaper, and the first year may cost more with the title transfer (and lien fee if there's a loan). The big savings are in exise tax on a purchase.

 

[vvvvvvv]

I have a Cherokee tag but live in the creek nation. No one bats an eye here. Washita County I can't speak for though.

The tag isn't much cheaper, and the first year may cost more with the title transfer (and lien fee if there's a loan). The big savings are in exise tax on a purchase.

Only savings here is a 20% rebate in total fees. All taxes and fees are to remain the same as if I were renewing a plain tag from what I read and how it's been explained to me.



Part of what I'm getting at is I like to drive a little fast. I often get a finger-waving from a friendly Trooper (sometimes while being passed). Will an Indian tag change that?

 

[Oklahomabassin]

I think that will depend on the LEO. Each have personal opinion.

 

[RidgeHunter]

Rural area + "sketchy" appearance or ratty car + Indian tag= DUI/ drug search stops. Each of the aforementioned doubles your odds of getting hassled.*

In town, nice car, clean cut = all the other white people with Indian tags. No one notices.

* Source: scientologist/amateur cartographer.

 

[nofearfactor]

I do both. I live most of the year in Wagoner county so I get the wife and kids vehicles even though theyre in my name tagged OK in Coweta, Im Osage-Kaw so I usually get tags for my personal vehicles that I license in OK from the Osage tribal tax agency in Pawhuska, and then get tags for my CA licensed vehicles in CA because they stay there.

(I go back and forth between short and long hair, right now its long again but not long enough for dreads like it was when I first moved here 12 years ago. I dont think I have ever been pulled over and hassled anywhere just because of having an indian tag and looking scraggly- that Im aware of anyways- and Im pretty scraggly lookin even though I dont drive hooptys any more. Actually it would seem like a sketchy looking guy driving an expensive sports car would get pulled over more but unless Ive been caught speeding more than 10mph over I usually dont get pulled over much and when I do I usually get off with a warning luckily. If being a musician/artist with long hair and tattoos from neck to ankle doesnt trigger getting the dogs called in on ya though then everyone else should be safe. I did get kind of targeted and hassled once about 15 years ago in Missouri by their highway patrol outside of KC because of my tag and my looks. He told me he pulled me over for speeding but also by my 'looks' and driving a sports car tagged in CA. I was driving thru Missouri on I-35 in a black Supra twin turbo. I was asked if he and another officer on the way could look thru my car, since I knew I didnt have anything in the car that wasnt supposed to be there I said sure, then they proceeded to tear my car up. I was told that the long dreads and tattoos in that car, being a musician, AND #1 being from CA out in the midwest were all big red neon flags. It was funny watching them look so fiercely for something that wasnt there, but it wasnt so funny putting my car back together on the side of the road).

 

[TedKennedy]

I could get the Cherokee tag, but I don't. (plus, Cherokees make it a hassle if you live in Creek Nation)
My wife gets Pawnee tags - much, much cheaper.

She's brown, I'm white, neither of us gets pulled over. (and she's currently going to school in MO, so she accumulates lots of miles)

 

[inactive]

I could get the Cherokee tag, but I don't. (plus, Cherokees make it a hassle if you live in Creek Nation)
My wife gets Pawnee tags - much, much cheaper.

She's brown, I'm white, neither of us gets pulled over. (and she's currently going to school in MO, so she accumulates lots of miles)

All the Cherokee tag requires is a drive to the welcome center in Catoosa. easy Peasy.

 

[TedKennedy]

All the Cherokee tag requires is a drive to the welcome center in Catoosa. easy Peasy.

They must've changed the rules - no matter. I'm proud of my heritage,too. I'll stick with the Oklahoma tag.

 

[smcgee10]

I would get the Choctaw tag. If I understand correctly you are just paying your regular registration. The monies still go to the places they would normally go (i.e. schools, county roads, ...). However the Choctaw nation is basically giving you a rebate for a portion of the registration fee.

 

[nofearfactor]

The monies still go to the places they would normally go (i.e. schools, county roads, ...).

Money collected for state tag fees is shared by the state and the school districts in the county where each tag is bought. Money collected for tribal tags goes to the tribe. Each tribal council decides how the money is spent.

Most of the money goes to tribal educational and health care programs. Some tribes allocate funds to non-Indian community services, said Mary Williams, administrator of the Osage tribe's tax commission and president of the Oklahoma Intertribal Tax Association.

Of the state's 39 tribes, 15 are selling vehicle tags, Williams said. Tribal plates can be issued only to tribal members, and the tribal tags only can go on vehicles that are kept in the jurisdictional boundaries of the specific tribe.

Most tribes selling their own tags average in size between 2,500 and 3,000 members, said Barbara Warner, executive director of the state Indian Affairs Commission. Some are smaller, such as the 200-member Modoc tribe.

She said the impact on state revenue is minimal, considering that fewer than half of the members in the tribes are licensed drivers.

Not every tribal member buys a tribal plate, though in most cases they are cheaper than what the state charges, Warner said. Tags can be bought only at tribal headquarters unlike state tags, which are available in every county.