OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved a request from Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt's administration to allow the state, not tribal nations, to regulate environmental issues in Indian Country, even those lands that may be inside historical tribal reservation boundaries.

Stitt, a Republican, requested the authority in July, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court determined that a large swath of eastern Oklahoma remains a Muscogee (Creek) Nation Indian reservation.

In the July 22 letter to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, Stitt requested state authority to administ...