TAHLEQUAH – Members of the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council unanimously approved four measures during their regular monthly meeting on May 11 at the W.W. Keeler Complex.
Councilors passed resolutions authorizing the CN warehouse to donate surplus items to the Marble City Fire Department and the Murrow Indian Children’s Home in Muskogee.
The full council also approved a pair of measures making adjustments to the fiscal 2026 Comprehensive Capital Budget and Comprehensive Operating Budget.
Cherokee Nation Business CEO Chuck Garrett told the council that commercial operations remain on firm financial footing despite shakiness in the economy.
“Despite some of the macro-economic headwinds, we continue to have some good success this year,” Garrett said. “Our gaming and hospitality business are particularly strong – particularly at both our tribal businesses and our tribal venues, but also at Gold Strike (Casino in Tunica, Mississippi).”
Garrett said some sectors have seen reduction in revenue, but planning has been helpful.
“When you see revenues have been off a bit, we’re still operating very efficiently,” he said. “Our margins are holding, and the bottom line is showing that. Of course, that is how we calculate our dividend.”
He also mentioned a cybersecurity achievement for Cherokee Federal, CNB’s government contracting concern.
“Cherokee Federal has recently received the cybersecurity maturity model certification,” Garrett said, adding that many competitors had not yet started the task. “We’re way out in front of our competitors on this.”
Speaker Johnny Jack Kidwell said CNB was among a small number of tribally-owned enterprises to achieve the certification so quickly.
In his monthly State of the Nation address, Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. listed an array of recent items, accomplishments and events, including the opening of the seventh and final Head Start center funded under the Verna D. Thompson Early Childhood Education Act.
“That’s $80 million to update all of our head start centers,” he said.
He also mentioned the $1 million Department of Justice grant to establish a judicially supervised mental health treatment court.
“We will all be better off if we’re able to bring mental health resources to that person in that particular situation,” Hoskin said.
Hoskin told council members to be vigilant for a state ballot measure on Medicaid expansion.
“It looks as if there will be something on the ballot in November of this year,” he said, reaffirming the administration’s opposition to any reductions to the program.
He also announced a May 19-20 expungement expo at the Chota Center for eligible Cherokee citizens with qualifying nonviolent state-level offenses.
“We want to help them lower that barrier to getting on with the rest of their lives in terms of employment and housing,” Hoskin said.
The next meeting of the CN Tribal Council is tentatively set for 6 p.m., June 8 at the W.W. Keeler Tribal Complex.
COMMUNITY SERVICES COMMITTEE
Earlier in the day, the Community Services Committee heard reports before tabling — until June — a proposed act that would amend the Emergency Assistance and Community Support Projects Act.
Todd Enlow, director for Housing Services of the Cherokee Nation, told the committee the COVID-era Homeowners Assistance Fund, which has processed more than $20.1 million in payments and assisted 2,405 households since 2022, will sunset at the end of September.
Brittany Denny-Davis of the Department of Human Services said elder nutrition sites in Nowata and Stilwell recently expanded to five days a week.
“We’re going to continue to work on our elder nutrition to get all of our sites up to five days a week,” she said.
CULTURE COMMITTEE
At the May 11 Culture Committee meeting, Molly Jarvis of Cherokee Nation Businesses said the annual Will Rogers & Wiley Post Fly-In has again been cancelled due to construction at the Will Rogers Birthplace Ranch.
“I did want to provide an update that, unfortunately, we will not be able to host the Will Rogers fly-in in the fall this year just due to that ongoing construction,” she said.
The fly-in event was postponed last year, as well, due to “critical renovations and new construction essential to the preservation of the historic home and surrounding grounds.”
For more than 20 years, the fly-in has welcomed pilots from across the region to honor the legacy of the “Cherokee Kid” Will Rogers and famed aviator Wiley Post.
Senior Reporter Chad Hunter contributed to this story.
