New VA center in Sequoyah County expands health care capabilities in northeast Oklahoma

America’s veterans, including many Cherokee men and women, committed a portion of their lives to preserving our collective freedoms. They deserve the best possible health care we, as a country, can provide. I am proud the Oklahoma Veterans Commission recently selected the city of Sallisaw, a community in the heart of the Cherokee Nation, for a new state veterans center in Oklahoma. The planned veterans center in Sequoyah County will be located on a 90-acre plot on Sallisaw’s south side for easy accessibility. It will be a great complement to our Redbird Smith Health Center, located nearby.


In fact, the commission’s selection of Sallisaw for the new center will be an excellent addition to the wide range of health advances and investments Cherokee Nation has already made throughout northeastern Oklahoma. We’ve expanded and built new clinics across our 14 counties. Next year we will dedicate a new, 469,000-square-foot health care facility at the W.W. Hastings campus in Tahlequah, and we’ve secured an agreement with the OSU School of Medicine to launch the first-ever medical school on tribal land.


The center is a relocation from Talihina to Sallisaw. The commission could have selected many terrific locations from across our great state, but they chose to be right here in Cherokee Nation. That’s not by accident. Our corporate arm, Cherokee Nation Businesses, stepped up to make investments that made relocation to Sequoyah County viable and attractive for such a move. The leadership of Cherokee Nation Tribal Council members E.O. Smith and Bryan Warner was essential to help form the alliances that made this possible. This outcome is a model for how public-private-tribal partnerships should work. Successful partnerships like this one will only make our entire region stronger and healthier.


The brand-new facility will be constructed and opened within three to five years, and will employ about 275 people, adding a large number of quality jobs that will support economic growth and add to the area’s tax base. Cherokee Nation’s Career Services Department will lend its support to recruit and fulfill the new center’s workforce needs. We know the people of Sallisaw will embrace this new opportunity and be warm and welcoming not just to the veterans and veterans’ families, but to the center’s employees and their families as well.


It is my honor to say that Cherokee Nation supports veterans through many means. Our Cherokee Nation Veterans Center provides a place for veterans of all eras to gather for fellowship. Employees there assist veterans in accessing necessary Veterans Administration benefits. The Cherokee Nation and VA hospitals have an agreement to provide better care for Native veterans by providing primary care and sharing chart information. We provide veterans across our region access to healthy food via a unique partnership with the Eastern Oklahoma Food Bank. Cherokee veterans are honored monthly during Tribal Council meetings, and our annual Cherokee Warrior Flight takes Cherokee veterans to Washington, D.C., to see the memorials built in their honor.


It’s exciting to see our vision at Cherokee Nation for healthier citizens and communities, especially for veterans, is shared by others. We welcome the new VA center at Sallisaw with open hearts and open arms.

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Saving our Cherokee language by identifying fluent speakers

Cherokee Nation is embarking on a huge undertaking: surveying our citizens for an accurate number of fluent Cherokee speakers. Knowing our baseline number of speakers is essential as we continue our aggressive work in Cherokee language revitalization. As of today, our Community & Cultural Outreach department has identified nearly 2,000 fluent speakers. Just a few years back, we estimated that number at about 4,000. We are losing our speakers at an incredibly rapid rate.

Our Cherokee language is sacred, and we have an obligation to save it. It’s a battle we must win. Toward that end, we are investing more than $50,000 to conduct this community survey. Once it is finalized and complete, we can use the data to apply for additional national funding for language preservation programs.

This survey and the information collected are critical steps in growing the Cherokee language.  The vast majority of our fluent speakers are over the age of 60. As those elders pass away, we lose speakers far more quickly than new speakers emerge. Thus, this effort becomes even more urgent, as we know we must identify as many first-language speakers as possible so that they can share their knowledge with a new generation. As part of the survey, Cherokee Nation will award special medallions to the identified fluent Cherokee speakers.

Recently, we hosted our first Cherokee Language Speaking Employee Appreciation Day. It was exciting to see more than 150 fluent Cherokee-speaking employees gather to discuss ways to continue growing the language. All of the tribal government’s various language programs, including the Cherokee Immersion School, the Cherokee Language Master Apprentice program and the Cherokee Translation Department came together to share ideas and look at ways to coordinate efforts.


Our investments in language are having a visible impact. I now see young Cherokee children and even teens who are becoming fluent, something we once thought was gone forever. We are experiencing a true language revival. I believe through our hard work the Cherokee language is regularly heard, seen, appreciated and being used more by all generations.

The Cherokee language is a defining aspect of our culture; it is an integral part of our identity as Cherokee people. If our language disappears, we will be without the core of the vibrant and thriving culture we share from generation to generation.

I commend the commitment and determination of our CCO department and look forward to what this survey will yield in our language efforts. For more information on the identification survey of Cherokee speakers, contact the Cherokee Nation’s CCO department at 918-207-4995.

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Cherokee Nation Angel Project: A brighter holiday for children in need

All children deserve the joy of a bountiful Christmas morning and the experience of tearing open a gift especially selected and wrapped for them. As a father, grandfather and now great-grandfather, it is a tradition I never grow tired of watching. At the Cherokee Nation, we are blessed to have a wonderful program in place for low-income children that ensures they don’t miss out on that magical feeling on Christmas morning.

 

Cherokee Nation’s Angel Project is gearing up to serve thousands of children in need, allowing them the special feeling of knowing there is a present waiting under the Christmas tree for them this holiday season. Last Christmas, almost 2,000 Cherokee children were provided for—kids who might not otherwise have had anything to celebrate on Christmas morning.

 

Our Angel Project started in the early 1990s and has continued to expand each year. It serves Cherokees 16 and younger who reside within our 14-county tribal jurisdiction.

 

The angel tree stands in the lobby of the main tribal complex in Tahlequah, and the paper angels hanging on it represent children in our communities. Each ornament contains a child’s information and his or her Christmas wish list. The children’s needs range from simple necessities like socks, shoes and coats, to the fun toys and games little ones enjoy so much. No matter the gift, we know with your help, we will create a happy holiday memory that will last these children a lifetime.

 

I also want to take this opportunity to thank our generous employees for their participation in the annual program. Every year, I am amazed at how they pull together and ensure all the angels are provided for. And for the team of Cherokee Nation employees who run the Angel Project, it is a massive undertaking. They coordinate this program during one of the busiest times for families, while still keeping up with their regular job duties. Wado, Angel Project staff!

 

The Angel Project runs completely on donations with the assistance of the local community, but it also draws interest far and wide. People throughout the country often send donations, if they aren’t able to travel here to pick up an angel in person.

 

As Christmas draws closer, please help us make sure that every wish of every angel is fulfilled. To adopt an angel, visit the W.W. Keeler Tribal Complex, 17675 S. Muskogee Ave., Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and select an angel ornament off the tree. Presents should be returned unwrapped to our Cherokee FIRST desk in the lobby by Dec. 7. Our staff will wrap and deliver them anonymously to the angel’s family. Additionally, if you want to make a financial donation to the Cherokee Nation Angel Project, please visit www.cherokee.org, scroll to the bottom and click on “Giving to the Cherokee Nation.” You can designate “Angel Project” as your intended recipient.

 

I encourage each of you to find it in your heart to adopt a Cherokee angel, even two or three, if you have the means.

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