Speaker 1: Good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome, welcome, welcome. It
Speaker 1: is time now for our community connection. Right here on
Speaker 1: K one, the one you trust. I'm Tom Davis, and
Speaker 1: on the telephone with me we have the Principal Chief
Speaker 1: of Cherokee Nation, Chuck Hoskin, Junior and Chief. Good morning
Speaker 1: to you. Get enough rain over there in your area.
Speaker 2: We have plenty, Tom, plenty, I can assure you a
Speaker 2: good morning to you.
Speaker 1: Oh, my goodness, you've been busy, busy, busy, busy, busy.
Speaker 1: My goodness, sakes building bridges and a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: other things. I guess we had you on one of
Speaker 1: our news stories with the Double Creek Bridge project over
Speaker 1: here in Washington County recently.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a really great project. You know, Washington County,
Speaker 2: like a lot of counties across northeast Oklahoma, have some
Speaker 2: deficiencies in some of the bridges, and so we worked
Speaker 2: with the county. But we're able to secure one hundred
Speaker 2: percent of the funding for this bridge. I think it
Speaker 2: was open a million, only one point one million dollars
Speaker 2: to replace that bridge at the time. That bridge probably
Speaker 2: outlasts both of us because it's well built, and that's
Speaker 2: good and what I shared at the event WITHDTH Commissioner
Speaker 2: done lap is such a great friend of the Cherokees,
Speaker 2: is that, look, we ought to be bringing dollars home
Speaker 2: for rural infrastructure because if we don't, a real infrastructure
Speaker 2: is going to wither on the bud we can't have that.
Speaker 2: So that was a great project.
Speaker 1: A federal budget impacts, I think everybody is kind of
Speaker 1: just waiting around to see what's going to happen. What's
Speaker 1: happening over there in the Cherokee Nation, Well.
Speaker 2: Big, big concerns on two fronts. One is what will
Speaker 2: the budget look like? And the budgets that have been
Speaker 2: proposed are not favorable to a lot of programs that
Speaker 2: I care about, and for that reason, a lot of
Speaker 2: people that I care about. I'm talking about proposed zeroing
Speaker 2: out of h Heat low income heating program. I'm talking
Speaker 2: about bigger numbers, like the entire Department of the Interior
Speaker 2: year has a thirty percent cut. Now, Department Interior is
Speaker 2: our main interface, ours being the tribes with the government
Speaker 2: the United States. Within that, as we're starting to look
Speaker 2: at the budget proposal, it's got some pretty significant cuts
Speaker 2: to bure of anian education. Of course, we run quite
Speaker 2: school on a contract in Burebandian education. It's got cuts
Speaker 2: to public safety programs and everybody knows we've been trying
Speaker 2: to step up public safety, law enforcement, and post MA
Speaker 2: thod era. So that's concerning dropping self governance dollars. Then
Speaker 2: elsewhere in the budget we've got the closure of job Corps.
Speaker 2: So let me if I could just break down two
Speaker 2: things that I think are important for people to think about.
Speaker 2: One is what does the budget look like? And then
Speaker 2: that's a concern to all of us and ultimately Congress.
Speaker 2: Besides that, the President. Besides that, it'll be the result
Speaker 2: of elections, and that's that's how the country works, and
Speaker 2: that's how it should work. The concern I have, though,
Speaker 2: time is the immediate termination of programs by the executive
Speaker 2: branch of the United States that is causing some chaos.
Speaker 2: In some cases, it's causing a lot of inefficiencies, and
Speaker 2: I think it's the opposite of what it's being billed as,
Speaker 2: which is reducing spending and inefficiencies. Because let's take job
Speaker 2: Core for example, Tom right now young people at Talking Leaves.
Speaker 2: Job Corps were one of about one hundred contractors across
Speaker 2: the United States that operates job Core because the administration
Speaker 2: said we're shutting down job Core. We got kids scrambling,
Speaker 2: and we're scrambling trying to get them home safe. These
Speaker 2: are low income kids. They often face social and economic barriers.
Speaker 2: That's the reason they're in job Corp, trying to better
Speaker 2: their life. So I would rather be a debate about
Speaker 2: job Core, debate about public safety dollars, a debate about
Speaker 2: low income heating assistance, and then decide, well, what's the
Speaker 2: budget going to look like instead of what I'm seeing
Speaker 2: in job Core is a great example of just an
Speaker 2: immediate shut down that catches everybody by surprise and causes
Speaker 2: a lot of inefficiency because I've got staff Tom that
Speaker 2: instead of teaching kids trades or getting their ged, they're
Speaker 2: trying to get them bus rides home, and that that's
Speaker 2: not a great use of onse.
Speaker 1: Boy. I understand that you had a visit by the
Speaker 1: Justice Department touring some of your facilities.
Speaker 2: We did you know the first part of that, since
Speaker 2: Tom is scary got a visit by the Justice Department, Yeah,
Speaker 2: that makes me that unless you you say the rest
Speaker 2: which you did, which is to talk about travel sovereignty
Speaker 2: to tour our facilities. It was really good because we
Speaker 2: got to meet uh, some career staff that have been
Speaker 2: worked for the Department of Justice and some new appointees.
Speaker 2: And I want to tell you, you know, there's a
Speaker 2: lot of debates in the country about the new administration
Speaker 2: and pros and cons, and I just laid out some
Speaker 2: cons a while ago on a lot of budget things.
Speaker 2: I have found the interaction with some of these political
Speaker 2: appointees and including the principal Deputy Attorney General Emil Bouvet,
Speaker 2: to be good because they're interested, they want to learn more,
Speaker 2: and they came to Cherokenation to learn more about how
Speaker 2: we've scaled up our Marshall Service a prosecutor's office. Well,
Speaker 2: we're doing more with rehabilitation than we've done before. All
Speaker 2: that's good, and all of that's an opportunity to show
Speaker 2: what we can do in partnership with the federal government,
Speaker 2: shifting gears. Just a minute at Counselor Patskowski and of
Speaker 2: course you represents the Artisville area. And then we went
Speaker 2: to visit with the Department of Interior officials just yesterday.
Speaker 2: And then you go back a month Tom and I
Speaker 2: visited with the Secretary Health and Human Services Robert F.
Speaker 2: Kennedy Junior. So we're getting in front of these new
Speaker 2: officials and trying to show them the good news about
Speaker 2: what's going on in the Cheroke Nation and trying to
Speaker 2: build some partnerships.
Speaker 1: You know, you were talking a little bit about, of course,
Speaker 1: the government's budget and everything, and said, Congress the President,
Speaker 1: how are you coming along with this portion of a
Speaker 1: treaty that you had to be fulfilled of getting a
Speaker 1: delegate into.
Speaker 2: Tom. It's slow going. And I think one of the
Speaker 2: first times I ever talked about that was on this
Speaker 2: show in twenty nineteen. That was a younger, more naive
Speaker 2: Chief Hoskin. Now was a younger Tom. I don't know
Speaker 2: if it was a younger, more naive Tom, but as
Speaker 2: a younger, more naive Chief Hoskin. Because I have learned
Speaker 2: that Washington's even tougher Tom in the last five years
Speaker 2: than I thought, and it has been tough to get
Speaker 2: this delegate seated. But the cause is still righteous. It's
Speaker 2: still a treaty, it's the supreme law of the land.
Speaker 2: I would say, let's put it in context. We're in
Speaker 2: the midst of dealing with a lot of budget cuts
Speaker 2: that are hurting, and I just talked about job cort kids,
Speaker 2: you know, low income kids. We're dealing with trying to
Speaker 2: protect low income heating assistance for elders. We're dealing with
Speaker 2: public safety issues candidly, and I think people appreciate this.
Speaker 2: I've got to make sure those are front burner issues
Speaker 2: because these are immediate concerns of people that the Cherokee
Speaker 2: Nation cares about and communities we care about. The delegate
Speaker 2: issue is still very much on our agenda. It's just
Speaker 2: we've got to prioritize things we're doing. And so right now,
Speaker 2: when I'm in front of a member of Congress, I'm
Speaker 2: talking about protecting funding for programs that people are relying on.
Speaker 2: And so we'll keep up the fight though. Cherokee delegate
Speaker 2: dot Com is still the website people can go to
Speaker 2: to pitch in their voice.
Speaker 1: We've got to remember the removal bike ride that's taking
Speaker 1: place right now. That is quite a deal. This kind
Speaker 1: of grows every year.
Speaker 2: It is. It's really remarkable and a lot of people
Speaker 2: know about it, but people who don't should know that.
Speaker 2: You know, the Trail of Tears eighteen thirty eight to
Speaker 2: eighteen thirty nine was a dark chapter in the history
Speaker 2: of the United States. It was a really difficult and
Speaker 2: tragic chapter in the Cherokee story. But nearly two centuries later,
Speaker 2: we've got young people every year who take that period
Speaker 2: of history. They take it back, and they make it powerful,
Speaker 2: and they make it about hope and promise for the future.
Speaker 2: And they take off on a nearly thousand mile bike
Speaker 2: ride from Nuachoda, Georgia, which tom Knuichoda was our former
Speaker 2: capital before our removal, and they will ride back, and
Speaker 2: I see it every year. Their lives have changed. Not
Speaker 2: only do they go through the physical preparation and the
Speaker 2: physical endurance of a difficult ride, they go through things
Speaker 2: mentally and emotionally that are a lot of growth. And
Speaker 2: I always see these young people years down the road.
Speaker 2: Invariably they're doing great and interesting things. And I think
Speaker 2: part of it is because they were part of this
Speaker 2: powerful annual remember the removal ride, and we kind of
Speaker 2: live vicariously through them, So we kind of travel through
Speaker 2: them with them on social media to see them visit
Speaker 2: historic sites where our ancestors were laid to rest, where
Speaker 2: our ancestors were rounded up with stockades, where our ancestors
Speaker 2: looked back to the East Tom seeing their homeland for
Speaker 2: the last time in eighteen thirty eight, and we just
Speaker 2: a right there with them, So it's a great event.
Speaker 2: We wish them a safe journey just recently and will
Speaker 2: welcome them back June to twenty first here in Tahawuah.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm going to jump off course here a
Speaker 1: little bit. I want to encourage folks when you go
Speaker 1: down to Tahiquah. If you go to the museum, you'll
Speaker 1: learn the story of the Cherokee and how they came
Speaker 1: to the eastern part of the United States. It's a
Speaker 1: very interesting story, one I wasn't aware of until I
Speaker 1: walked right in and a gentleman explained to me what
Speaker 1: I was looking at. I'm like, oh my gosh. And
Speaker 1: then you take the progression or sometimes in that case
Speaker 1: with removal a regression, and you get the complete story
Speaker 1: once you're in there. But that is the past that
Speaker 1: needs to be remembered. But coming up on Saturday is
Speaker 1: the future of Cherokee Nation. That is the general election.
Speaker 2: That's right, Cherokee Nation, Tom one of the oldest democracies
Speaker 2: on the planet, and so we're going to exercise democracy
Speaker 2: on Saturday. We've got about half of our council seats
Speaker 2: are up for reelection. Staggered election similar to how you
Speaker 2: see the Senate of the United States. Sen at the
Speaker 2: state of Oklahoma operate, so not all the seats are up,
Speaker 2: so not everybody has got a vote to cast, but
Speaker 2: districts two, four, five, seven, nine, ten, eleven, and fifteen
Speaker 2: and one at large seat up. Polls are open seven
Speaker 2: am to seven pm. People can go to Cherokee vote
Speaker 2: dot org and find out a loss of information on
Speaker 2: the election. They can call the Election Commission at nine
Speaker 2: one eight four, five, eight, five, eight nine nine, and
Speaker 2: we make it easy or easier than if you're not
Speaker 2: able to go Saturday, you can come to Tahlequaw today
Speaker 2: to seven pm. Polls are open early vote at the
Speaker 2: Election Commission. Tomorrow open as well, but Saturday is the
Speaker 2: big day. We'll see how it goes. That's democracy and
Speaker 2: I'm all for it, sir, very good.
Speaker 1: Hey, one other thing, how is the Visitors Center doing
Speaker 1: over there in beneina I Every time I every time
Speaker 1: I pass by there, you got cars, you got people
Speaker 1: coming in and out. I've been in and out. It's
Speaker 1: pretty dark.
Speaker 2: Nice, it's a great facility. And I think it's going
Speaker 2: to really have even more interest as we get near
Speaker 2: the one hundred year celebration of Route sixty six. As
Speaker 2: you know, Tom, that is on Route sixty six, just
Speaker 2: off I forty four. We had a lot of international
Speaker 2: travelers any given years since we've been open, and they
Speaker 2: come in their interests. Of course, we get a lot
Speaker 2: of national, interstate travelers and within the region travelers. We're
Speaker 2: going to get a lot as we build up to
Speaker 2: that centennial. It's great, it's going well, and it's a
Speaker 2: great place to showcase authentic Cherokee art, history and culture.
Speaker 1: Very good, all right, Chief Chruck Hoskin, Junior Principal Chief
Speaker 1: of Cherokee Nation, thank you for being with us today.
Speaker 1: Oh thank you, Tom, Well, all right, thank you.