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May 17, 2011

Tribe OK’s amendment

By BETTY RIDGE Special Writer

TAHLEQUAH — The Cherokee Nation Tribal Council Monday approved modifying the tribal budget and applying for three grants.

Councilor Jack Baker said the amendments will bring the budget to more than $629 million.

Items included in the amendments were grants for road work, finishing the new dental clinic at the Salina health facility, consumer loans and a tobacco prevention program. The grant applications improved include:

• Up to $300,000 to the Environmental Protection Agency.

• Another EPA grant for up to $100,000 for solid waste management, including dump sites and training.

• $1 million to the Department of the Interior for Phase Four of the hydroelectric project at the W.D. Mayo Lock and Dam in Sequoyah County, part of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System.

Councilor Cara Cowan Watts said the hydroelectric project has been ongoing since the administration of former Principal Chief Ross Swimmer. She said none of the three grants will require matching funds from the Cherokee Nation.

Councilors also approved a resolution honoring Ron Cooper, a Comanche, for his recent walk tracing the northern route of the Trail of Tears, from Tennessee to Oklahoma.

Councilor David Thornton said Cooper’s trip “reminds the Cherokee people that this part of our history should never be forgotten.”

Councilors passed resolutions authorizing changes needed to apply for Medicaid billing through the Oklahoma Health Care Authority; authorizing the principal chief to negotiate and execute a limited waiver of sovereign immunity for the Microsoft language localization project; and a legislative act repealing several provisions relating to gaming within the Cherokee Nation.

David Stewart, CEO of Cherokee Nation Entertainment, said casino operations at the Catoosa Hard Rock Casino took a hit in February, when a blizzard collapsed one casino area and shut down other parts of the casino for a week.

“We didn’t have that good a financial response for February, but we are having a good financial response for March and April,” he said. “Our companies are doing well financially.”

Employment at tribal casinos is 59 percent Cherokee and 70 percent native; however, Cherokee members in the households of some non-native employees brings the Cherokee benefit ratio higher.

During his state of the nation address, Principal Chief Chad Smith said tribal accomplishments during the past month included:

• Completing the dental clinic and expansion in Salina.

• The Cherokee Nation WIC program opening an education center for new mothers.

• EMS receiving another three-year accreditation, with a perfect score.

• Completing a public water system supplying the Leach School and people in the Leach area who had previously relied on wells. The 24 miles of line allowed service to the school, which was the last school in Delaware County using a well.

• Six Sequoyah Schools students being named Gates Millennium Scholars (see page 6B of today’s Daily Press).

Smith also passed around a rubbing he had made during a trip to Washington, D.C., last week of Cherokee citizen Brian Moss’ name on the 9/11 Memorial. Moss, who lived in Sperry, was one of the people killed during those attacks.

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