Wedding rings

An Oklahoma-based Native American tribe has voted to approve same-sex marriage.

The Osage Nation tribe in northern Oklahoma voted on Monday in a special election to approve same-sex marriage.

As a Native American sovereign state, tribes are not affected by the 2015 Supreme Court ruling in favour of same-sex marriage.

52 percent of people in the special election voted to approve the change of definition of marriage to include same-sex couples.

The results of the election, published by Reuters, means the tribe’s judicial branch can issue marriage licences to same-sex couples.

The Osage Nation has 20,000 citizens and joins a number of other Native American tribes to approve same-sex marriage.

Others include the Cherokee Nation and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.

“I know that for a lot of people it was a controversial issue, but for me, it was not,” said Osage legislator Alice Buffalohead, the measure’s author to Reuters.