Cherokee Nation fueling economic growth in northeast Oklahoma

Cherokee Nation’s impact within our 14-county jurisdiction in northeast Oklahoma is undeniable. Ask any public school superintendent, county commissioner or small-business owner. From funding public education, building new roads and bridges and supporting first responders, Cherokee Nation’s role as a leader is clearly defined and distinct.

By far, one of the tribe’s largest impacts is on economic development and job creation. Cherokee Nation remains the engine that drives northeast Oklahoma economically. The tribe and its businesses currently employ more than 11,000 people and have a $2.03 billion economic impact on the state of Oklahoma.

Recently in Tahlequah, we topped out the new facility on the W.W. Hastings health campus, which will open in 2019. Once it is operating at full capacity and completely staffed in the coming years it will create 850 new health care jobs, and it will have a major impact in housing and retail needs.

Also in our capital city, we just broke ground on a new gaming site that will house a modern convention center. Our workforce at Cherokee Casino Tahlequah will be about 220 permanent jobs. The W.W. Hastings campus and Cherokee Casino Tahlequah will help fulfill our jobs mission in our home community. It will create dozens of good careers that include lucrative benefits packages with insurance and 401(k) plans. That means Cherokee families are making a good living here in Cherokee County. The future conference center is really the feather in the cap of this expansion for northeast Oklahoma.  There is a huge need in our region for a convention hall-type space that can house multiple meetings where people can stay, meet and eat in one location.

These new properties will be a regional attraction for health care and tourism, not to mention the hundreds and hundreds of construction jobs and opportunities these projects provide the region.

However, Cherokee Nation’s impact transcends just our own developments. We are good partners with regional entities like universities, career-techs and chambers of commerce. Collaboration with the Tulsa Chamber enabled Cherokee Nation to assist an Italian corporation, Sofidel America, on its expansion into Rogers County. The new paper manufacturing facility in Inola will create 300 permanent jobs and another 500 construction jobs. We are excited to continue partnering with state and municipal partners to create opportunities like this, because it supports our entire region.

The tribe’s Career Services Department, a critical team member in securing Macy’s Fulfillment Center workforce in Owasso, is now assisting DMI in expanding its employee base in Wagoner. DMI, a HVAC manufacturing company, has made significant investments in the community in the past year, and we are helping connect our people to good manufacturing jobs like these.

Our work in growing the economy within our 14 counties is a blessing, and we are proudly leading the way through innovation and collaboration. We believe in making sound investments that have a lasting impact on the Cherokee Nation and the Cherokee people and all of northeast Oklahoma.

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Community and Cultural Outreach Department successful in keeping citizens connected

The strength of the Cherokee Nation resides in our people. We are all Cherokees, whether we live inside or outside of our 14-county jurisdictional boundaries. Over the course of the past year, we have achieved many things that will improve the quality of life for our citizens. Those efforts can be seen today, and they will be felt for generations. We have created jobs, increased health care opportunities and invested in education like no other time in our history. One of the most important things we do is engage with our people locally at the community level. The work of Cherokee Nation’s Community and Cultural Outreach team connects people to Cherokee culture as well as continuing education programs. 

Today, our CCO staff provides capacity building and training to Cherokee community organizations. They also manage a community work/building program, a volunteer program, a cultural outreach program, a history preservation program and the Cherokee Language Master/Apprentice Program. This work is done within our 14 counties as well as our formalized 23 at-large communities across the United States. As the largest sovereign government in the United States with a citizenry of more than 360,000 people, we strive to keep our people connected to culture by offering our citizens informative and educational opportunities to learn and volunteer.

Our culture and heritage are who we are, and it is a blessing to share that bond with other Cherokees at CCO gatherings, which in the past year have been bigger and better than ever before. CCO’s work has helped revitalize the spirit of “neighbors helping neighbors,” a core Cherokee value.

In the past year, CCO has served 112 different Cherokee community organizations with technical assistance, a 55 percent increase from just two years ago. They offer community organizations tips on funding sources, grant writing, new program development, board of directors development, and ways to improve technology use and communication.


The volunteer program under the CCO umbrella coordinates with universities and other education-based programs, like AmeriCorps, to provide opportunities for students to come into the Cherokee Nation and volunteer their time and energy to build and repair homes of elders, veterans and other citizens in need. We have created collaborations that help Cherokees and completed 64 enhancement projects last year by partnering with schools like Ohio State, Texas Tech and University of Connecticut. The completed work has a monetary value of about $240,000.

Sharing Cherokee culture is one of the most important jobs at CCO, which coordinates weekly cultural presentations, oftentimes conducted by Cherokee National Treasures in all areas of Cherokee life. The presentations are filmed and are popular on YouTube. Our team recognizes the need for a strong cultural identity, the expansion of our language and the preservation of our history.

Nationally, attendance is up almost 25 percent at our at-large meetings in the past year. The spirit of community is alive and well in these endeavors. It is always a blessing to see so many friends and meet new ones as well.

We have laid a strong foundation for success in the past year within our CCO programs. The staff has a wide range of expertise, and participating in CCO’s community events are some of my favorite responsibilities as Principal Chief. Every CCO meeting, educational program, cultural presentation, language workshop or leadership lesson is made with one goal in mind: to make the Cherokee Nation and our people strong.

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Raising wages for our teachers is the right thing to do

As the Chief of the Cherokee Nation and the son of public schoolteachers, it has troubled me to see the inaction at the state level as teachers across our great state struggle. The time for action is now, and Cherokee Nation is taking the lead by granting our certified teachers the pay raise they deserve.

Recently, I proposed—and the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council approved—a lump sum payment of $5,000 to all certified teachers, effective immediately. Additionally, certified teacher pay will increase by $5,000, effective the beginning of teacher contracts in FY18-19.

Over the past decade, the state of Oklahoma has made drastic budget cuts to public education. At the same time, teachers continue to meet additional demands beyond simply fulfilling the daily lesson plans.  From monitoring student safety to test preparation to finding ways to help students in need of food or school supplies, Oklahoma teachers go above and beyond the call of duty each day and with fewer resources each year.

We have the best colleges in Oklahoma (several in our jurisdiction like Northeastern State University and Rogers State University), which train our brightest minds for the educational workforce. Yet, sadly, when they graduate, they often leave to teach in other states or are forced to leave the children they love teaching for higher-paying jobs. The state absolutely must address teacher pay this legislative session because we are in a crisis. However, Cherokee Nation will not wait any longer.

This pay raise is in keeping with Cherokee Nation’s longstanding commitment and support of public education. We started the first institution of higher learning for females west of the Mississippi River.  We established a system of free public education well before Oklahoma statehood. We continue to achieve excellence today at Sequoyah High School, the Cherokee Nation Immersion School and through our support of public schools and students across northeastern Oklahoma.

In addition, we recently issued $5.4 million to 108 schools through our car tag compact. The amount given annually has doubled since 2010, and since 2003, Cherokee Nation has contributed more than $50 million to public education through the compact.

Cherokee Nation is unwavering in its commitment to public schools, students and teachers. Our pay raise reaffirms that commitment and, I hope, sends a message to state leaders that they should follow Cherokee Nation’s lead and raise pay for all certified teachers in the state. The Cherokee Nation understands the role of teachers. It is a profession that we know is of extreme value and importance. Teachers impact so many lives and should be rewarded as such.

 

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Cherokee National Youth Choir earns prestigious Governor's Arts Award

The Cherokee National Youth Choir recently won the Governor’s Arts Award. It is the most prestigious arts award in the state of Oklahoma. It was my honor to nominate the Cherokee National Youth Choir for the Community Service Award from the Oklahoma Arts Council, an award annually issued by the governor.

This particular honor recognizes Oklahoma individuals or groups for significant contributions to the arts in the areas of leadership and volunteerism. Without a doubt, the youth choir acts as ambassadors for the Cherokee Nation, as their beautiful voices show the strength of the Cherokee Nation and our culture.

The group is active in the community through volunteer efforts, and it raises awareness to important causes. Members often lead fundraisers or donation drives when community members are in need.  Their dedication does not end with music.

Typically, the choir consists of 30-40 young Cherokees from northeast Oklahoma communities. The members, who perform traditional Cherokee songs in the Cherokee language, are middle and high school youth, usually in the sixth through 12th grade. The students compete in rigorous auditions every year for inclusion in the group, which is funded solely by the Cherokee Nation and is directed by Mary Kay Henderson and Kathy Sierra.

The goal of the choir is to increase awareness of Cherokee culture and it is an important tool to keep our young citizens involved in the Cherokee language and heritage.

A staple at Cherokee Nation events and ceremonies, the choir’s music has a special way of connecting its audience to Cherokee Nation’s history, culture and language. That success is not limited to the tribe’s borders.  Over the years, the group has performed around the United States, including two appearances at the Macy’s Day Parade in New York. Founded in 2000, the choir has recorded 13 CDs and has performed with legendary artists like Foreigner, Dolly Parton, Vince Gill, Roy Clark, Kenny Rogers and the Oak Ridge Boys.

It has been a remarkable year for the Cherokee National Youth Choir. In addition to the recent state award, it also won the award for Best Pop Recording during the 17th annual Native American Music Awards this past year. Another impressive honor the youth choir secured in 2014 was its selection for a GRAMMY Foundation award worth $10,000 for stressing the importance of music in school. More than 120 other vocal groups were considered for that effort.

The Cherokee National Youth Choir is part of the long tradition of excellent musical talents in Oklahoma, and they have brought acclaim and accolades to the Cherokee Nation and the state. The talent represented each year within the Cherokee National Youth Choir is impressive, and I could not be more proud of their contributions. These young people represent the best of the Cherokee Nation and remain the future of our communities.

The choir’s latest album, “Just Jesus,” is available through Cherokee Nation’s Gift Shops or online at www.cherokeegiftshop.com.

 

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Federal diabetes program for Indians is saving lives in Cherokee Nation

The recent federal budget extension includes funding for the reauthorization of the Special Diabetes Program for Indians. This is significant for the Cherokee Nation and all of Indian Country. The budget for SDPI has been renewed at the current funding level of $150 million until the end of FY 2019.

Sadly, one in four Cherokees over age 50, and one in three over age 60, has diabetes. But through the federal investment in SDPI, Cherokee Nation has received the resources needed to address our disproportionate burden of diabetes. SDPI is a lifesaving program and continues to play a significant role in improving health care quality and access for Cherokee families.

Established in 1997, SDPI currently supports more than 300 diabetes programs in 35 states that have led to significant advances in diabetes education, prevention and treatment. Last year, more than 10,000 diabetes patients in the Cherokee Nation Tribal Jurisdictional Service Area benefited from SDPI.

SDPI funds have been utilized to support nearly 30 schools and Cherokee community organizations in increasing physical activity levels and healthy nutrition for schoolchildren and community members.  It’s critical we begin the education process with our youngest citizens to ensure they grow up eating healthy and getting plenty of physical activity.

Cherokee Nation’s program, one of our most successful public health programs, targets Type 2 diabetes through collaborations with coalitions that include the state, municipalities and communities to implement programs such as Farm-to-School efforts to reduce diabetes risk factors. We have served 527 participants with prediabetes education and activities, which resulted in a loss of 4,478 pounds and an average weight loss of 8.5 pounds per Cherokee Nation participant.

Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published data that shows some diabetes rates are improving for tribal citizens. Native people have experienced a 54 percent decline in rates of end-stage renal disease due to diabetes, which represents the steepest decline of any ethnic group. These kinds of improvements have resulted in significantly more patients with controlled blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol. These health indicators are associated with the reduction of diabetic complications, including heart attack, strokes, blindness, amputations and kidney failure.

Simply put, SDPI is saving lives in Cherokee Nation, transforming communities and saving our federal health care system dollars. We are pleased congressional leaders did the right thing and continued its funding.

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Efforts in health care financial management equate to more services, more assistance for Cherokees

Cherokee Nation Health Services offers our citizens some of the best care available in Indian Country. Folks in northeast Oklahoma know this, but recently we changed a few things that are creating more and better health services for Cherokee families. I am proud to say we are reaping the benefits of those efforts.

When someone comes to a Cherokee Nation health center and needs something that our own clinics do not provide, like a knee replacement for example, we send them to a specialist who is outside our network of Cherokee Nation doctors and health care providers. Under that system, we negotiate with insurance companies, hospitals, doctors and other vendors and pay for those services.  When patients have a primary insurance, Medicare Part A and Part B, or Medicaid we are able to spend significantly less on the required service and then spend those dollars on other patients.

In our recent history, the growth of referrals for care like this have been dramatic. In 2004, our system averaged 87 of these referrals per day. In 2017, those referrals had grown to an average of 410 per day. Because of this growth in needed referrals, our programs have had to manage their available resources. Some of the services that were being declined over the past year include elective orthopedics and some of the related diagnostic tests to those procedures.

To help address some of the recent limitations we had on issuing referrals for outside costly, nonlife-threatening treatments, we changed our records system, moving all patient health and medical records to a digital format. When a patient comes in, our newly installed software communicates with all payment systems, including IHS, private insurance companies, Medicare and Medicaid.

The new efficiency has helped enable the tribe to collect almost $9.5 million in the first three months of FY2018 in third-party billing. Those additional funds will translate to more contract health dollars to approve referrals for surgeries, MRIs and other related tests and help cover a portion of more elective orthopedic referrals for our patients, who visited Cherokee Nation Health Services more than 1.2 million times last year.

It also allowed us to measure quality outcomes and efficiency, so doctors can earn more incentives when patients are treated and get what they need. The strategic changes in the physician salary structure reward our doctors for the quality and quantity of patients they see. Quality is up across the board at Cherokee Nation Health Services, and we have more funds dedicated to contract health needs.

I am proud of the strategic efforts we made to modernize our health system and collect more from private insurance, Medicaid and other third-party billing streams. The increase in collections also comes from our successful outreach to sign up more patients for Affordable Care Act marketplace insurance, SoonerCare and Medicare. These aggressive efforts to enroll more Cherokee Nation Health Services patients have been successful and are helping provide better health care services for our people.

Our patients have more health needs than we could ever possibly meet, so we are evolving with the times. There is constant growth in health care, especially as the “baby boomer” generation matures and needs more and more care. We want all our patients—Cherokees as well as other Natives in northeast Oklahoma—to live healthier lives. To address these growing challenges, we have been resolute in committing more gaming revenue dollars specifically for contract health services, which now is an annual commitment of about $7 million.

We feel that these changes will set Cherokee health on a path for unprecedented financial security and open up more dollars for specialty care, including visits to cancer doctors and heart doctors and a return to covering a range of bone and joint surgeries.

Soon we will open the largest tribal health care facility ever built in America. A topping out ceremony is planned on March 9, and in 2019, when the facility (located at the W.W. Hastings campus in Tahlequah) is opened, it will house more health care specialists of our own and have two MRI machines. Currently, Cherokee Nation does not have either of those specialty services in-house, and we use contract health dollars to help pay for citizens needing those medical services.

Patients can get more information about additional coverage options by contacting their patient benefits coordinator at any Cherokee Nation Health facility or visiting www.CherokeeCare.com.

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Cherokee Nation seed bank preserves Cherokee food history

Preservation of Cherokee heritage comes in a wide array of forms. We have Cherokee Nation preservationists in areas like language, which is spoken and written. We have song and dance traditionalists, and we have master artisans devoted to traditional Cherokee arts like carving, pottery and basket weaving. However, during my tenure as Principal Chief, one of the most popular and highly participatory efforts has been food preservation through the Cherokee Nation seed bank program.

Our effort, led by Senior Director of Environmental Resources Pat Gwin, is something that just about any Cherokee nationwide can do and enjoy with their family. For Cherokee Nation citizens, it is a way to perpetuate crops that Cherokee people have relied on for generations.

Despite a difficult growing season in 2017, Cherokee Nation’s seed bank will offer an assortment of seeds this year. In 2017, we issued about 3,785 seed packages to tribal citizens and estimate to do about 5,000 this year. Requests for heirloom seeds will run through the end of April.


The heirloom seeds possess traits that any grower desires, including being drought and pest resistant and having low fertilization needs. The seed bank, which originally started in 2006, has a supply stock that is healthy, strong and unique to the Cherokee people.


Historically, our people have always been exceptional agriculturalists, and our ancestors farmed these same crops for hundreds of years. It connects who we are today as Cherokee people to our rich history, is something we can share with our kids and grandkids, and promotes healthy food consumption and physical activity. Anything we can do to encourage a new generation of Cherokees to connect with their tribal heritage is worth pursuing.


Applicants are limited to two varieties of seeds, and each request must include a copy the Cherokee Nation tribal citizenship card, as well as proof of age and address.


To submit an order, visit https://secure.cherokee.org/seedbank and create an account. Follow the instructions to see a complete list of available seeds and to place and track orders. For more information, email seedbank@cherokee.org or call 918-453-5336.


The seeds that are available this year include:

Corn

Cherokee Flour (a large flour corn)

Colored (multicolored)

White

Yellow

Cherokee White Eagle (a dent corn)

Beans

Cherokee Long Greasy

Trail of Tears (a small jet black bean)

Turkey Gizzard Black

Turkey Gizzard Brown

Squash

Georgia Candy Roaster (a long storing squash that can be prepared as squash, sweet potatoes or pumpkin)

Gourds

Basket

Dipper

Jewel

Buffalo Gourds

Trail of Tears Beads

Indian Corn Beads

 Tobacco

           Native Tobacco (ceremonial tobacco, not smoking tobacco; restricted to those at least 18 years of age)

 Native Plants

           Buttonbush

Cutleaf Coneflower

Hearts-a-bustin

Jewelweed

New Jersey Tea

Possum Grape

Purple Coneflower

Rattlesnake Master

Rivercane

Sunchoke

Wild Senna

 

 

 

 

 

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