OKLAHOMA CITY — The head of the Cherokee Nation will not be invited back to speak on the House floor after he took a “political position” defending Medicaid expansion, the House speaker said Thursday.
House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, said Principal Chuck Hoskin Jr. was an invited guest and the House floor wasn’t the right place to discuss his concerns about the Legislature’s efforts to make adjustments to the state’s Medicaid program.
Hoskin said Thursday he was disappointed by Hilbert’s decision because he, as well as his predecessor, have spoken before the House and Senate on how legislative initiatives affect the Cherokee Nation for years.
“I’m disappointed, mostly because this doesn’t need to be a personal issue, which it oddly has become,” he said. “It really needs to focus on the 250,000 Oklahomans who get their health insurance through Medicaid expansion.”
He said he didn’t hear any negative feedback from lawmakers until receiving Hilbert’s letter.
House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, speaks at a news conference announcing details of the Fiscal Year 2027 state budget on April 1, 2026, at the state Capitol in Oklahoma City. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice) Last week, Hilbert penned a five paragraph letter expressing disappointment about comments Hoskin made vowing to protect Medicaid expansion during a 20 minute address to the full House.
Hoskin sent back a two-sentence reply, stating that Hilbert’s letter “illustrates the great challenges for tribes in engaging with the State of Oklahoma.”
The disagreement marked the latest dispute between state and tribal leaders, who in recent years have been at odds over a range of issues including gaming and tobacco compacts, criminal jurisdiction, taxation, car tags, and toll collection for tribal motorists.
In his letter, obtained by Oklahoma Voice, Hilbert wrote that it was “quite inappropriate and contrary to our House Rules for an invited guest to delve into political matters.”
“I was particularly concerned with the tone and tenor of the speech, which was in direct contrast to the public position of an overwhelming majority of the members of the House of Representatives,” Hilbert wrote.
Weeks earlier, the House had advanced two measures to send state questions to the ballot that ask voters to reconsider a 2020 citizen-led initiative that expanded Medicaid access to over 200,000 lower-income, working Oklahomans. Neither measure has been fully approved yet, and the Senate failed to garner enough support to place one of the Medicaid questions on the Aug. 25 ballot.
Hilbert wrote that he will continue to have an open door policy with Cherokee Nation leadership and to have honest dialogue.
“While it is certainly understandable, and frankly, to be expected for the Cherokee Nation to have public concerns with adjustments to Medicaid, there are other forums where this advocacy is more appropriate,” Hilbert wrote.
Hilbert said Thursday that he and Hoskin had discussed Medicaid expansion prior to the Cherokee leader’s speech on the House floor, but he was not aware of what messaging the speech would contain.
Hilbert said he would not, as an invited guest, make political statements at Cherokee or tribal meetings. Hoskin will not be allowed as a guest in a “speaking situation” on the House floor again, Hilbert said.
A spokesperson for Senate President Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, said Thursday that Paxton did not send a similar letter to Hoskin and will not be banning him from speaking on the chamber floor.
It is common for the House and Senate to allow invited speakers to their respective chamber floors. This week, Oklahoma State University’s president and head football coach spoke on the House floor as well as a member of a delegation from Taiwan.
Hoskin said Thursday he heard no negative reaction from Senate leadership or any other lawmakers other than Hilbert. Lawmakers loudly applauded the speech and Hoskin said he received handshakes from legislators on both sides of the aisle.
He said he has spoken about legislative initiatives every time he speaks to the House and Senate, including missing and murdered Indigenous people, preserving the state’s forestry service and harm reduction services.
“I hope I’m welcome again in the House of Representatives,” he said. “In fact, to effectively ban the leader of a sovereign tribal nation from a chamber of the Oklahoma House is a pretty strong position. I almost wonder if it shouldn’t be put up for a vote. But I suppose that’s the speaker’s purview, not mine.”
As principal chief, Hoskin leads over 480,000 Cherokee citizens – 289,000 of which are in Oklahoma.
“I also thought that my words were fairly measured, and I didn’t condemn anyone’s position,” he said. “I expressed the case for Medicaid expansion, and did declare that I would protect it, but I didn’t think that was a particularly controversial thing to say.”
Medicaid expansion has had a $162 million direct impact on the tribal health care system and a $222 million impact on northeastern Oklahoma’s economy, the tribe said in a statement Thursday.
Hoskin said while the comments and letter from Hilbert have a negative impact on relationships between the state and tribal nations, it will survive this “dust up.”
“I think that the friendship is bigger than a single reaction to a single speech,” he said. “I think our relationship is bigger than a strongly worded letter from the speaker to me.”
A day after Hoskin’s legislative speech letter, the Inter-Tribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes passed a resolution supporting the preservation of Medicaid expansion. The council is composed of some of the nation’s largest tribes, including the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole nations.
Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr.’s response to House Speaker Kyle Hilbert’s letter regarding the Cherokee Nation leader’s April 8 speech on Medicaid expansion. (Obtained by Oklahoma Voice)
Editor's note: This story was updated at 5:29 p.m. to include comment from an interview with Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr.
Oklahoma Voice is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janelle Stecklein for questions: info@oklahomavoice.com.