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Good morning, good morning, good
morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome.

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It's time now for our community connection
in today we have Track Hoskin Junior,

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your principal chief of Cherokee Nation.
Long time, no see about a

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week. How you been, Hey, Tom, I've been good and it

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was good to see you last week. Well, well, you've got a

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big to do up there in Dewey. That is a beautiful building you have

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up there. It really is.
I think it is something that's a great

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asset for the community generally, but
certainly a great asset for Cherokee Nation.

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So of course, what we're talking
about is the new cheroy You Nation Community

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building, the newest Chery Nation community
building. It's located at seven hundred East

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Durham Road and Dewey, formerly a
church. Very good building we put we

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put a lot of resources in it
to rehab it and it's really a showcase.

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So it's a great venue for public
events, for meetings. It's got

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a great kitchen. We've upgraded.
It's going to tom be a hub of

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Cherokee life in that part of Washington
County. We'll have cultural class us as

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language classes, history classes. But
it's also something that again the community can

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use as a local community organization called
Cherokee Cultural Community that's a nonprofit. They'll

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rent that building out and of course
you know spaces space is needed for all

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sorts of family and public events,
and so that community's got another one and

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Cherke Nation is proud to be providing
it. Well, dany what we had

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a housefall, that's for sure.
Set even was at a premium standing room

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only after one hundred plus, yes, sir, was something else. Now

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we had something a very big take
place. Something was mentioned during the Cherokee

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National Holiday and it was a very
special week was so Cherokee National Holiday is

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and you know, I've talked about
this for years and I look forward to

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it every year, Labor Day weekend, every year chero National Holiday. But

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it really is something that kicks off
as we get into the into the spring

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in the summer months and so we
are gearing out for it. We have

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our traditional games are back and those
games over the period of last ten twenty

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years have been something that take root
in the community. So marble stickball and

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other games cornstock shoot, people locally
will participate and they'll make their way to

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the finals if you will. At
the Cherokee National Holiday. So those parts

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of Cherogy National Holiday are kicking off. The overarching theme this year though,

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at the holiday is building our nation, strengthening our sovereignty, and so as

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to get through the summer. Tom
you'll see more from the Cherokee Nation in

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terms of what that means, in
terms of themes and terms of activities that

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it all builds to that Labor Day
weekend. People can find out more at

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each Cherokee Holiday dot com. That's
a good way to kick off just beautiful

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springtime. But of course we're dealing
with a lot of issues at the Cherokey

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Nation, some very encouraging and some
a bit discouraging. We're dealing with missinggan

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merged Indigenous women. We're dealing though, with other things like college scholarship.

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So it really runs the game at
We've got to challenges ahead, but we're

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taking them on. You know,
until this was really brought to light a

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couple of years ago, I did
not realize the number of people who go

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missing or murdered who just happened to
be Indigenous people. That those numbers are

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alarming. They are, and I
admit this freely when I speak publicly about

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it. I am among I would
say a lot of public officials who just

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didn't have this in my consciousness.
And of course I'm obviously Native American.

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I've obviously we've been in Cherokee leadership
for a while. It was twenty nineteen

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the first time that I ran across
the TOM. I'm in Jay, Oklahoma

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for another purpose, and there's a
rally going on about missing and mur Indigenous

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women, and that's when I came
to learn about statistics about how disproportionately Native

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women in this country are victims of
violent crime or victims of domestic violence,

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are victims of crimes that go unsolved, and in many cases it's it's that

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they're missing and potentially victims of crimes. Part of it TOM is historic because

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of where people live on tribal lands, what resources are in our most importantly

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not available. Some of it's the
jurisdictional overlaps, which in Oklahoma we've done

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I think a good job collectively of
addressing, but across the nation not as

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good. Where you have gaps in
law enforcement created again by some really strange

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aspects of the federal law that leaves
some gaps and sometimes tension between local police

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departments and tribal police departments. All
of that leaves the victim out in the

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cold, sometimes literally out in the
cold, sometimes dying sometimes did All those

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statistics, though, and all those
reasons have spurred us at Chern Nation to

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action. So we've taken some action
last week. We recognize Missing and Murdered

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Indus People awareness, Monk, but
we also recognize that we've made some progress.

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And so you know, sometimes Tom, there's tension with the state of

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Oklahoma not on this issue. Work
with the legislature, and the governor signed

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a bill two years ago to play
an MMIW agent with the Oklahoma State Uer

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of an investigation. So if a
young Native woman goes missing, there's not

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this chaos among law enforcement. There's
in fact, coordination, and so that's

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a sign that the state and the
tribes work together to take this serious.

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We put a great deal of effort
into domestic violence programs, in the victim

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services programs. We have our own
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Person agent that helps

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coordinate. So I see Tom,
fortunately, people in leadership positions across different

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governments working together, even though it
took us too long to get here,

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but we are here, and so
I feel like we're making some progress,

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but I think we just need to
continue to put this in the consciousness of

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the public. Make people understand that
you're a Native woman in this country,

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you are more likely to suffer from
violent crime, domestic violence, and your

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crime is going to go and solve
more likely than not. We on a

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better note, tires are being a
little bit more positive here. We were

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talking about college scholarship assistance and how
is this coming along. Yeah, it's

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coming along nicely. The Cherokee Nation
today has about five thousand people on scholarships.

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That's a great investment. I mean
that means Cherokees that go through college

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are going to be in a position
to have better earning power, have better

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options with their careers, hopefully live
in their communities, and help build those

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communities up stronger economically. It also
does something for a family to have a

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college educated household, colleges and for
everyone. That's why we put twenty nine

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million dollars in the last few years
into career tech. But for those who

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want to pursue college, we're there
for them. So right now to two

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thousand dollars scholarship, We're going to
bump that up to twenty five hundred over

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the next two years. We're talking, though, Tom, about millions and

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millions of dollars added to this program, and so it's not an insignificant number,

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but it's a great investment. I
think the real challenge for the Cherokey

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Nation in the future is to make
sure we do our part to build up

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a workforce that's ready for the jobs
at tomorrow, and so not only giving

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more scholarship dollars tom, but making
sure there's jobs at home and so all

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of that, though, is a
holistic approach, or it calls for a

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holistic approach. Certainly, funding college
scholarships isn't the only part of that,

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but it's a big part of it. So college kids can expect more money

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in their pockets than the years to
come. What some people may or may

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not know is that Charon Key Nation, your industries are more than just the

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hospitality industry. You've got aeronautic,
You've got just about everything going on their

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construction. Yeah, he runs the
gamut or really getting into it security,

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which Tom is just something that if
you're like me, you may not fully

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understand it security, but we benefit
from it every day or we're thankful that

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it works with thankful net work,
and when it doesn't work, we sure

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know about it. But we're also
talking about big systems for the government of

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the United States, for other governments
and corporations. So we're getting into that

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aspect of it that calling upon us
to need a generation of Cherokees that are

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IT experts. We also need a
generation of Cherokees that are medical experts.

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We need a generation that are business
leaders that can go into all facets of

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the many, many business sectors that
were in it. It's a great time.

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I think about my great grandfather and
my grandfather rather who was an ironworker,

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full blood Cherokee iron worker, and
he could never imagine I think that

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we'd live in a world with Cherokee
Nation would be commanding this much of the

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economy and the different business sectors in
terms of needing workers, needing trained people,

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and really leading the way. So
if people right now, whether the

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Cherokee or not, want a job, I'd encourage them to check out our

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website to go to Cherokee jobs dot
org. There's a lot of jobs out

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there, Tom and they're all over
the country. And chief one thing that

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you have that a lot of places
in Oklahoma don't, but they wish is

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a nice sound stage to produce video
productions and also things for the computer as

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well. Yeah, that is the
way of the future. One of the

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things we're looking at the Chery Nation
is how can we get into things that

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are really permanent industries in this country. There's a lot of industries historically that

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are up and down. Multimedia creative
content, those are really permanent industries.

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Whether we're talking about Netflix or the
movie industry, or a local commercial TV

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production that's going to be here,
why shouldn't it be in the Cherry Nation.

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If you go down to a Losso
which is not too far from where

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you're sitting, you can see this
state of the art studio where we've had

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films produced. We've had you entry
level content produced, high end content produced.

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But it's really part of the future. And so people growing up as

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Cherokees now that want to be storytellers
can do so in a state of the

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art facility. If they want to
be filmmakers, they can do so close

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to home. They want to work
in any of the number of trade that

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are created by the film and TV
industry. The generation coming up tom is

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going to have a better chance to
do it than you and I could have

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ever hoped to. And so that's
exciting. No, indeed, indeed,

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are you taking applications now for Summer
Youth Work program? So schools, schools

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out, Baby, it's time to
go to work. It's time to get

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to work, and it's fun to
work for the Cherocky Nation or some of

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our partner employers. What we do
is we pay the wage of these young

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people, and people can go to
our website Cherokee dot org right now and

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find out more information. But we
pay the wages and they'll work either for

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the Cherokey Nation or they might work
out in the community and work out for

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businesses. And for many of these
young people, it's the first time they've

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earned a paycheck and the pride that
comes along with that. Tom, Tom,

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I couldn't write a check big enough
or create some you know, support

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program big enough to cover the invaluable
pride that a young person gets when they

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go through a summer and have worked. And that pride is something we want

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them to take through their entire lives. That we feel like if we make

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the investment now, it's the best
investment we can make, no matter what

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they do in life. I think
they're going to have a great summer with

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the pride of work and earning a
paycheck, and that is just priceless.

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It is. We're talking with Principal
Chief of Cherokee Nation, Chock Honskin Junior.

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And you know, once again,
if folks want to know a little

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bit more about what's going on with
the tribe, they've got a couple of

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websites for you to take a look
at. Yeah, I encourage everybody to

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go to Cherokee dot org. That's
the hub of everything, Cherokee dot org.

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People can find me on social media
and I provide a lot of content

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a lot of these subjects we talk
about. My Facebook page is Principal Chief

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Chuck Hoskins Junior, a chege Nation
Principal to Chuck Hoskins Junior. Lots of

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content there. People can go though, if they're interested in the Cherokee National

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Holiday to the Cherokee Holliday dot com
and Tom you've seen it, you've been

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there. A couple of hundred thousand
people could descend on talent call this Labor

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Day weekend. If people who are
interested, get interested, now book your

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room. It's a great time.
It is it is I understand that the

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elections are coming up. What is
that first part of June. First part

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of June, June, the third. We encourage people to get out and

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vote. It's always healthy for democracy
with more people vote, and I think

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they'll be high turnout this year.
At this point in the cycle, Tom,

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people who are registered to vote,
the deadlines pass, people who have

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requested an absentee ballots, the deadlines
pass, ballots are going out, but

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people can go out to their polls. And again Cherokee's interested in go to

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Cherokee dot org and find out just
done, buy a spacing information about the

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election. That's what it's all about. I tell you what, Cherokee Nation

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is a robust democracy and we see
it every day