Speaker 1: And we have a Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chalk Hoskin Jr. Boy,
Speaker 1: you got a lot on your plate today, young man,
Speaker 1: don't you.
Speaker 2: Hey, it's been a great summer. We've been very busy,
Speaker 2: but yes, sir, we do.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 1: We've got the big national holiday coming up here, the
Speaker 1: Cherokee Nation National Holiday, that is huge, and we ought
Speaker 1: to be seeing probably a bigger turnout than we've seen
Speaker 1: in a while, I think so.
Speaker 2: I think for a number of reasons. One is, year
Speaker 2: after year it's growing course, as you and I know,
Speaker 2: because we talked during those time frames. Yeah, COVID knocked
Speaker 2: us off course, but when we came back to in person,
Speaker 2: it just was overwhelmed. Not overwhelming in the sense we
Speaker 2: couldn't handle it, but just sort of wonderful to see
Speaker 2: huge crafts, one hundred thousand visitors descending on Tallequall for
Speaker 2: our celebration, and of course it's Indian and non Indian,
Speaker 2: it's people from all over and that is wonderful. So
Speaker 2: I think it'll be the highest turn out ever, not
Speaker 2: just because we keep getting bigger, but the weather I
Speaker 2: think is going to be in our favor. We'll see
Speaker 2: you never know, but anyway, I'm looking forward to lots
Speaker 2: of stuff to do.
Speaker 3: We've got a big event coming up.
Speaker 1: We've got the well I believe it just happened, the
Speaker 1: groundbreaking ceremony for the Addiction Center.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is one of the most I think important
Speaker 2: things we've done. Now if you measure it by the
Speaker 2: amount of money for this particular facility, not the biggest
Speaker 2: square footage, not the biggest, but tom this is about
Speaker 2: drug and alcohol treatment for Cherokees who need it. We
Speaker 2: don't presently have an adult facility. We have one for youth,
Speaker 2: and sadly we need it. It stays busy, but we
Speaker 2: need one for adults. We contract out a lot of
Speaker 2: the services right now, and some of the contractors are
Speaker 2: very good, some not as good, but all of them
Speaker 2: are not uniquely Cherokee. So this time will be in Tahlequa,
Speaker 2: nineteen thousand square feet. It'll be a residential facility. So
Speaker 2: this is for Cherokees who go into the initial phase
Speaker 2: of you know, sort of a crisis where you're getting
Speaker 2: stabilized and then you're sort of in a residential setting,
Speaker 2: but also with healthcare providers because you still need it.
Speaker 2: It's one of a number of phases we have to
Speaker 2: build out. So there's two great things. One is it
Speaker 2: will bring healing to those who use this service, and
Speaker 2: there's so many that need it. The second thing is
Speaker 2: tom and then I've talked about this before on the show.
Speaker 2: We're making the opioid industry pay for every single penny
Speaker 2: of it because we we took them to court, we
Speaker 2: settled the case, we stared them down, we exposed them
Speaker 2: as a menace. We're taking all those dollars and putting
Speaker 2: it into real opportunities for healing, the flagship of which
Speaker 2: will be this facility.
Speaker 1: This is not the only thing that Cherokee Nation has
Speaker 1: been building lately. Boy, I want to tell you you've had
Speaker 1: people working, working, working. We've got the new Cherokee Immersion
Speaker 1: Middle School going up there.
Speaker 2: We do and just taking it from you know, thirty
Speaker 2: thousand foot level. We're in the middle of one point
Speaker 2: one seven billion billion with the be in capital projects
Speaker 2: at the Cherokee Nation, and it spans a lot of things,
Speaker 2: and we'll get to the immersion school in the moment.
Speaker 2: But it could be you know, a single home we're
Speaker 2: building for an elder, It could be a housing addition,
Speaker 2: could be a hospital which we're building four hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty million dollars, could be you know, the drug treatment
Speaker 2: center we're talking about. So it's all over the region.
Speaker 2: It's and it's creating a lot of economic impact, putting
Speaker 2: a lot of people to work, putting a lot of
Speaker 2: folks who are in some cases new to being business
Speaker 2: small business owners getting a chance to provide services to
Speaker 2: these jobs. So we look at the immersion school time.
Speaker 2: We've talked before about our robust language program. We've gone
Speaker 2: an immersion school that teaches kids from pre k to
Speaker 2: sixth grade reading, writing, and arithmetaking Cherokee, and it's part
Speaker 2: of the strategy to save the Cherokee language. This is
Speaker 2: another piece. This is the middle school so that kids
Speaker 2: that go through that experience can continue on in an
Speaker 2: immersive environment. This will be a thirty million dollars facility
Speaker 2: in Tahlequall, sixty six thousand square feet, state of the art,
Speaker 2: and it really helps build up what is a language
Speaker 2: revitalization campus, but I think is unmatched in the country.
Speaker 2: Along the way, we're putting a lot of Cherokee fluent
Speaker 2: and second language learning speakers to work. So it's really
Speaker 2: something that's part of this bigger strategy. We're very excited
Speaker 2: about it. We just broke ground recently.
Speaker 1: My goodness sakes, and you're getting a very valuable piece
Speaker 1: back from museum.
Speaker 2: I understand the gill Crease Museum in Tulsa. Many listeners
Speaker 2: know of it or have been to that museum. It's
Speaker 2: a wonderful institution. Here's what is so special about it.
Speaker 2: Mister Gilcrease the turn of the twentieth century acquired a
Speaker 2: lot of items, and in this particular instance, he acquired
Speaker 2: a printing press that was used by the Cherokee Nation
Speaker 2: in the nineteenth century, so the post removal era in
Speaker 2: about the nineteen forties until the turn of the twentieth century.
Speaker 2: The sad story of that printing press is when the
Speaker 2: government of the United States allotted our lands and imposed
Speaker 2: the state of Oklahoma over Cherokee Nation and other tribal nations.
Speaker 2: The United States actually shut down our newspaper, took our
Speaker 2: printing press, and that was the end of an era
Speaker 2: of Native American journalism. To think about that time, I
Speaker 2: loved this country. That wasn't a great moment for it
Speaker 2: when the country literally dismantled the free press and the
Speaker 2: Cherokey Nation. Enter Thomas Gilcrees, who acquires this after it
Speaker 2: goes to different places. I'm talking about what is now
Speaker 2: a very old printing press from the nineteenth century. He
Speaker 2: acquires it, cares for it, keeps it in the Gilcrease Museum.
Speaker 2: They've loaned it to us for really about a decade
Speaker 2: now in our Supreme Court Museum in Tahlequaal. But what's
Speaker 2: so special is right now in this era, we've got
Speaker 2: institutions museums who are thinking about their collections and trying
Speaker 2: to repatriate them to tribal nations or to otherwise be
Speaker 2: more responsible with them. Gilcrease sets a high standard and
Speaker 2: so they have signed over that printing press to the
Speaker 2: Cheroke Nation. There was no law that said they had,
Speaker 2: no law said.
Speaker 3: They had to.
Speaker 2: They just thought it was the right thing to do.
Speaker 2: And I think people need to know that story. I
Speaker 2: hope they come see the printing press because if you
Speaker 2: see the printing press, and people can see it, if
Speaker 2: they come down for the holiday during that Labor Day
Speaker 2: weekend to see that printing press, you realize what the
Speaker 2: Cherokee Nation was doing in the nineteenth century, that we
Speaker 2: had a newspaper, you start to learn about the Cherokee Phoenix.
Speaker 2: That would be an experienced lost if not for Thomas
Speaker 2: Gilcrease and.
Speaker 1: Great now up here locally, we've been doing business pretty
Speaker 1: darn well up here in Dewey at the new facility
Speaker 1: that about a year old.
Speaker 2: Now, I do believe it is, and we've been doing
Speaker 2: some additional remodeling work. We're talking about the Cherokee Nation
Speaker 2: Community building in Dewey. It's sort of right off the
Speaker 2: main drag there as you go into town, and it's
Speaker 2: the home of a Cherokee run nonprofit called Cherokee Cultural Community.
Speaker 2: So what you're seeing increasingly at this facility, which is
Speaker 2: a former church but we have brought it back to
Speaker 2: really a wonderful facility. But what you see there with
Speaker 2: the nonprofit is opportunities for community members to sort of
Speaker 2: learn about Cherokee culture and language and share a meal.
Speaker 2: It's just sort of a place for getting together and
Speaker 2: not just Cherokee. Tom We've got Cha Indians and nan
Speaker 2: Indies that go to these different media. But we have
Speaker 2: an increasing presence with career services helping people get jobs
Speaker 2: in the area and human services helping people with the
Speaker 2: safety net if they are, you know, maybe in financial
Speaker 2: free fall because they got a bad break and let's
Speaker 2: face it, Tom, we're all sort of a bad breakaway
Speaker 2: from needing help. Well locally, Now in Dewey people can
Speaker 2: get those services. That is I think just the latest
Speaker 2: chapter and what will be at many more chapters in
Speaker 2: increasing our presence in Washington County. And I got a
Speaker 2: credit counselor dor Patskowski, who's just been the greatest advocate
Speaker 2: for these kind of efforts.
Speaker 3: The word is wow, does that save a drive?
Speaker 2: It does? And look, Tom, if you're driving down for
Speaker 2: the holiday, that's great, and I want people to do it.
Speaker 2: If you're driving down because you need to get a
Speaker 2: job and you're driving a talklar or clamoor man, that's
Speaker 2: too far. So we're going to keep it close to home.
Speaker 3: That is great. A lot of great things happening.
Speaker 1: And of course the big holiday coming up to what
Speaker 1: else do you have on your calendar here? Because I
Speaker 1: know with the big holiday that's taking a chunk of
Speaker 1: it here, you've got a lot going on, a lot going.
Speaker 2: On, And just briefly on the holidays, just to remind listener,
Speaker 2: it's Labor Day weekend. Yeah, people can people can come down,
Speaker 2: you know, the real big days or Friday and Saturday.
Speaker 2: Some things on Sunday though, so a person could come
Speaker 2: down for the weekend, come down for a day. There's
Speaker 2: lots to do, a parade. The powow is really known
Speaker 2: across the country an inner travel pow wow. Friday night.
Speaker 2: Saturday night, I'll give a state of the Nation address
Speaker 2: sort of talking about our vision for the future. That'll
Speaker 2: be Saturday, and so lots to do. But beyond that,
Speaker 2: you know, we're staying busy. My dear friend and partner
Speaker 2: in this effort, Brian Warner, our Deputy Chief. I got
Speaker 2: to tell you Tom, he's the hunter in this partnership.
Speaker 2: He's the guy. He's the outdoorsman. Not so much meat,
Speaker 2: thank goodness, though he's Deputy Chief because he's had the
Speaker 2: vision to make sure we've got more hunting and fishing
Speaker 2: opportunities for the Cherokee people. And so we've got some
Speaker 2: what we call controlled hunts coming up. We've got a
Speaker 2: lot of acres of hunting and fishing Preserve, four thousand
Speaker 2: alone in Sequoia County. That's where we'll have some controlled hunts.
Speaker 2: Cherokee citizens can go to that got dooogie portal which
Speaker 2: citizens are familiar with and register for a random drawing.
Speaker 2: So we may have veterans at a controlled hunts so
Speaker 2: they can go experience that youth, fluent speakers, elders, different
Speaker 2: groups that may not always have the opportunity to do
Speaker 2: what many people love to do. And so thanks to
Speaker 2: our Deputy Chief that these annual controlled hunts, people can
Speaker 2: go to our website Cherokee dot o RG will learn
Speaker 2: more about those.
Speaker 3: Chief.
Speaker 1: Don't mean to put you on the spot, but I
Speaker 1: just remembered this. I remember seeing that Cherokee Nason was
Speaker 1: looking to expand its hospitality around the Bartlesville area, plans
Speaker 1: to do some building in nearer Bartlesville.
Speaker 2: We've got property in Barlsville and we've applied to put
Speaker 2: that in trust and that all of course has been public.
Speaker 2: Here's the interesting thing about the Indian gaming industry. You
Speaker 2: got to be strategic. That's true in any business, but
Speaker 2: the hoops you have to jump through in Indian gaming
Speaker 2: to be strategic are different than other markets. So other
Speaker 2: businesses can acquire property and then decide sort of is
Speaker 2: this strategically where we want to go and what do
Speaker 2: we want to use the property for the world of
Speaker 2: Indian gaming come, you've got to take some legal steps
Speaker 2: to make a property potentially available for gaming. I'm saying
Speaker 2: a lot to get to an answer to the very
Speaker 2: simple question, but it does get complicated. And so we
Speaker 2: do have that property in Bartlesville. We're always evaluating different
Speaker 2: uses and we're always looking at an ever changing gaming market,
Speaker 2: and so could we have gaming in bartlesviill it's possible.
Speaker 2: If we were any sort of other kind of business,
Speaker 2: this would just be another piece of property that business
Speaker 2: owns and we would just strategically decide what to do
Speaker 2: with it. In the world ndiing gaming, there's a lot
Speaker 2: of necessarily public notice about it, which gets people talking
Speaker 2: about there's a casino coming in. I can tell folks
Speaker 2: there's no concrete plans for a casino, but we wouldn't
Speaker 2: be buying land and going through this process if it
Speaker 2: wasn't a possibility. I don't mean be coy about it
Speaker 2: or non responsive, but it's complicated. But here's the thing.
Speaker 2: We can compete and win anywhere. Bartlesville is such a
Speaker 2: great community, and anywhere we go, I promise you will
Speaker 2: be good partners. You can go anywhere we've developed any
Speaker 2: sort of business, and I think we're sort of the
Speaker 2: best friends you could have. So stay tuned. I promise
Speaker 2: you Tom, as we get further on the road, you
Speaker 2: and I'll talk about it more.
Speaker 3: That sounds great, and I understand the legality.
Speaker 1: There's nothing like a lot of tape to go through
Speaker 1: and get things done. Chief Chief Chuck Honskin, Junior Prince
Speaker 1: Jeep of Cherokee Nation, thank you for spending time with
Speaker 1: us today.
Speaker 2: Thanks Tom,