Cherokee Nation Status Report 2004 (918) 456-0671, Ext. 2210 FAX (918) 458-5580 Cherokee Nation Director of Communications@cherokee.org © Cherokee Nation - All Rights Reserved Report to the Cherokee People 2004

Message From the Principal Chief

One of the most enjoyable parts of my job is traveling throughout the Cherokee Nation, meeting our people, talking, swapping stories and, of course, eating a good home-cooked meal. The Cherokee Nation is big: 14 counties in northeastern Oklahoma. What I have found is that Cherokees who live up north on the Kansas border in South Coffeyville have a lot in common with the Cherokees who live down along the Arkansas River in Muldrow, and with Cherokee families who live in Kenwood, Rocky Mountain, Gore, Porum, Dry Creek, Salina, Inola, Bluejacket, Copan and everywhere in between.

What they all have in common are strong Cherokee communities. Our job at the Cherokee Nation is to help those Cherokee communities grow and remain strong for the next 100 years. The Cherokee Nation cannot count on receiving the same level of federal funding we receive today. In the future, the federal government may decide to stop funding tribes at all. It wouldn’t be the first time. The only thing that has kept the Cherokee Nation alive today is strong Cherokee communities, and the resources of the Cherokee Nation should be directed to making sure that those communities are here to stay, even if some of our programs receive cuts from the federal government.

So what makes a strong community? Again, what I have found is that strong Cherokee communities succeed the most when they have three things: a distinctly Cherokee culture, economic opportunity, and a sense of ga-du-gi, working together as a community. For the sake of simplicity, I call these three things Language, Jobs and Community, and I have made them my personal focus over the past year and will continue to do so in 2005.

Language

Our language is one of the things that make Cherokee people special. An old saying about the Cherokee language makes things clearer. When you speak only English, it’s like seeing the world in black and white. When you know Cherokee, it’s like seeing the world in color. Everything is a little brighter, funnier in Cherokee. We owe it to our children to teach them Cherokee, to pass on that part of our legacy.

That is the reason the Cherokee Nation puts an emphasis on language. It is the foundation of our culture. Cherokee history, from family stories to our Constitution, should be written by people who know our language and our culture. So as we assist local Cherokee communities we will pay special attention to funding programs that incorporate Cherokee language, history and culture. We will work with local schools to provide language immersion classrooms, where children speak Cherokee to one another and the teacher. We will give priority in education scholarships to fluent Cherokee speakers. We will develop Cherokee language instructors to teach in public schools.

Jobs

In the past year, there has been some economic bad news in northeastern Oklahoma. Major employers in Tulsa, Bartlesville, Muskogee and Stilwell have shut their doors. However, the Cherokee Nation has shown progress. Our companies are becoming more profitable and we have hired hundreds of Cherokees in the past year. We have even begun new businesses, like our high-speed wireless Internet company, Cherokee ConneX, which will provide both jobs for Cherokee people as well as income for the Cherokee Nation in the future (page 11).

The Cherokee Nation will continue to bring jobs to our Cherokee communities, so our people can stay home, raise families and give back to other Cherokees. A family that is self-supporting is an asset to any community; we will continue to provide opportunities for Cherokee families to be self-supporting.

Chad Smith, Principal Chief

Joe Grayson, Jr Deputy Principal Chief

Community

Our Cherokee Nation programs will become more community-focused and community-driven. With programs like the “Our Generation” project (page 15), Cherokee communities have taken the lead in determining what kinds of services they would like to receive and how they can work to make that a reality. When communities identify needs, we will work together with them to meet those needs. Communities and individuals that help themselves and help others will receive priority, along with our elders, our young and our handicapped citizens. Cherokees who can help themselves and their communities will be encouraged to do so.

Language. Jobs. Community. Joe Grayson and I are committed to continuing a distinctly Cherokee culture, to providing economic opportunity, and to encouraging the true community spirit of Cherokee people, ga-du-gi.