Speaker 1: Ten am. Also a little bit later on it's Todd
Speaker 1: Starns after our noontime news block. And right now I
Speaker 1: do believe we have the Chief with us. Good morning,
Speaker 1: is this Chief, Chuck Hoskins Jr. Yes, it is, hey, Chief?
Speaker 1: How are you doing? Sir?
Speaker 2: Doing well? Ill?
Speaker 1: Sorry for un like That's okay. That happens to everybody,
Speaker 1: especially had some state. So the Chief with the Jerry kenation,
Speaker 1: we've been hearing a little bit about this new Economic
Speaker 1: Impact report. Can you fill us in? Yes?
Speaker 2: I can we do this every two years. This report
Speaker 2: came out recently and it's a result of really us
Speaker 2: opening our books to a very skilled economists and taking
Speaker 2: a look at really everything we spend on our business side,
Speaker 2: on our government side, seeing where those dollars go to
Speaker 2: small businesses and towns that your listeners are in right now,
Speaker 2: or big businesses that are nearby. All of the spending
Speaker 2: that we do in terms of programs and services, and
Speaker 2: you add all that up and it's three point one
Speaker 2: four billion dollars annually. I think what's most important though,
Speaker 2: is again where those numbers come from. It's all that spending,
Speaker 2: all that investing, all the roads we fix, the kids
Speaker 2: we send to college on scholarship, the people we employ
Speaker 2: to the tune of about fourteen thousand, five hundred plus worldwide,
Speaker 2: mostly in Northeast Oklahoma. And the most important number to
Speaker 2: me when I look at it is the twenty three
Speaker 2: thousand jobs that are created or supported because of all
Speaker 2: this spending, and that time gets back to those small businesses,
Speaker 2: those medium sized businesses, those big businesses that employ a
Speaker 2: lot of people. So it's good news for the chair
Speaker 2: co nation and.
Speaker 1: Really everywhere, well, it's good to know. Good note somebody's
Speaker 1: doing better these days. Also, this year the four year anniversary,
Speaker 1: and this is the story we ran yesterday of the
Speaker 1: man Killer Soap Water Act. And what does this all entail?
Speaker 1: I know it has a lot to do with water quality.
Speaker 2: It does water quality, water quantity, and the just assurance
Speaker 2: that they'll be adequate water systems. What the law says
Speaker 2: is we're going to spend at least two million dollars
Speaker 2: above the federal funding that we might get. And Thomas,
Speaker 2: we talked about on this show federal funding ebbs and flows,
Speaker 2: and it's never adequate to meet all of the water
Speaker 2: infrastructure needs in Northeast Oklahoma. But we say, and increasingly
Speaker 2: this is our philosophy. We're not going to go to
Speaker 2: the United States to come to the rescue. So we're
Speaker 2: taking some of our business dollars and putting it into
Speaker 2: the kind of water projects that Chief Mankeller before she
Speaker 2: was chief, and her husband, Charlie Soap, actually before they
Speaker 2: were married. We're organizing Cherokee people around. There's a history
Speaker 2: lesson here. In the early nineteen eighties, the community of
Speaker 2: Bell did not have running water. The United States didn't
Speaker 2: seem to be coming to the rescue. What a Chief
Speaker 2: man Keller before she was chief due she said, let's
Speaker 2: to organize, let's dig our own water line, and so
Speaker 2: the community got organized with the help of the Cherry
Speaker 2: Connation to do it. On that basis. We've named this
Speaker 2: law after her and her husband who's still with us,
Speaker 2: Charlie Selp became the Council of the other day. We
Speaker 2: put millions TOM into mostly small water systems that need help.
Speaker 2: I'm talking about just replacing lines, replacing water, you know,
Speaker 2: sanitation facilities, replacing pumps, replacing meters. Those things are making
Speaker 2: a big difference. We've also done surveys tom to find
Speaker 2: out what the Cherry keep people need in terms of water.
Speaker 2: Are they on rural water, are they on well water?
Speaker 2: Are they on municipal What do they think about their water?
Speaker 2: Where can we help? And so, Tom, it's four years
Speaker 2: in millions of dollars to help everybody with water. We're
Speaker 2: just going to keep our foot on the gas and
Speaker 2: keep fixing water systems.
Speaker 1: Very good. Now, schools is in the news. You had
Speaker 1: your public schools a preciation day.
Speaker 2: We did so. Every year, Tom, we cut a check
Speaker 2: to schools across northeast Oklahoma, one hundred and seven school
Speaker 2: districts within our reservation and in adjacent areas, seven point
Speaker 2: six million dollars shared among the schools. It's a time
Speaker 2: to number one, provide funds with no strings attached to
Speaker 2: public schools. They like that, they need that. It makes
Speaker 2: a difference in the day to day lives of students
Speaker 2: and teachers and all the other folks that make schools operate.
Speaker 2: But the other thing is it's a good time to
Speaker 2: talk about public education. Celebrate what it means to be
Speaker 2: a teacher, Celebrate people who give up their time to
Speaker 2: be school board members. Celebrate people who are the administrators
Speaker 2: and the staff of the schools. They need that uplift
Speaker 2: from time to time, because there's plenty of reasons in
Speaker 2: public education to sort of feel like you're up against it.
Speaker 2: And I think if you look at budgets in the
Speaker 2: state of Oklahoma, we adjusting for inflation and student counts,
Speaker 2: spend less really than we spent about a decade ago.
Speaker 2: There's got to be more funds for public education. We
Speaker 2: know they're out there, but the Cherokee Nation is always
Speaker 2: there for our schools, and we were there once again
Speaker 2: this year.
Speaker 1: Also a little bit about the tags don't doesn't that
Speaker 1: help school with their moneys as well?
Speaker 2: It does. That's the source of these funds. And so
Speaker 2: the Tag Compact was renewed by Governor and I placing
Speaker 2: our signature on a compact last year. Tom It's that
Speaker 2: it was the seasons of Miracles last December, not only
Speaker 2: celebrating Christmas, but celebrating that Chief Chuck Hoskin and Governor
Speaker 2: Kevin stid could agree on something. So there we go.
Speaker 2: We agreed on this car Tank Compact, resolved a lot
Speaker 2: of issues, significantly, kept in place a framework that provides
Speaker 2: funds to public schools, law enforcement, roads and bridges, and
Speaker 2: maintain something that we have to have the state to
Speaker 2: agree to, which is tags for Cherokees who live outside
Speaker 2: of the Cherokee Nation. So we accomplished all of that.
Speaker 2: It's helping a lot of people.
Speaker 1: Wonderful news. Hey, Chief, thank you very much for visiting
Speaker 1: with us. I know you've got a tight schedule, but
Speaker 1: thank you for making room for us. Always to thank
Speaker 1: you very much. That is Chief Chuck Hoskins Junior right
Speaker 1: here from Cherokee Nation, Principal Chief thereup. We've got our
Speaker 1: group from a Truity Credit Union coming in in just
Speaker 1: a moment here for one on one with the pro
Speaker 1: somehow you get the feeling it's going to be two
Speaker 1: on one today.