TAHLEQUAH, Okla — The Cherokee Nation hosted its annual State of the Nation in Tahlequah on August 30.
Cherokee tribal members from Oklahoma and across the country attended to learn what the Nation's leaders have been prioritizing.
This year's theme was "Gadugi" - a Cherokee word meaning "teamwork."
WATCH: Cherokee Nation hosts State of the Nation, prioritizing healthcare for the coming year
Emily Goeke came to Tahlequah from Aurora, Colorado, to attend. She said The Nation’s plans to preserve its language by teaching new speakers hit close to home for her.
“Every time I come to the Cherokee Nation, I feel like I’m home," she said. “My grandmother spoke the language, but she died before I was born and did not pass it on to her children because of the social stigma in the 50s and 60s against being identifiably native.”
Goeke isn’t the only Cherokee tribal member excited about revitalizing the culture.
Savannah Smith said preserving the nation's culture is essential and praised upcoming efforts by the Nation to do so, including the planned Heritage Center.
“I'm really excited about the Heritage Center," she said. "I live close to it and it's been shut down for several years, and so I'm really, really excited about that coming back and then them building that.”
Another hot topic this year had to do with health and wellness, with the Cherokee Nation investing in a $244 million revitalized Claremore emergency hospital building that is projected to be opened in 2027.
2 News has covered several new openings the Cherokee Nation has hosted, including its Salina Health Center.
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Principal Chief of the Nation Chuck Hoskin, Jr. said healthcare is a huge issue for everyone and he plans to make sure everyone has access to it.
There's just so much opportunity there,” he said. “What we say is, let's turn that problem into an opportunity to build more health care facilities, to hire more staff, to train up a generation to really be the nurses and doctors and health care professionals of tomorrow."
Deputy Chief Bryan Warner emphasized the importance of ensuring that tribal members have the necessary infrastructure to lead healthy lives.
“Building new health clinics, we're never going to do another one without putting in a Wellness Center," he said. "That's the whole idea, and that's really the approach, where people coming into that clinic, it's more like a child checkup when they were babies and so forth. And that's how we'll achieve these things. And expansion has to happen.”
Another need the nation wanted to emphasize was childcare.
Tralynna Scott said that being an economist for the nation helped her see just how rare it is to find an affordable, efficient daycare center, so she’s excited for the Nation's continued and planned initiatives in this area.
Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr. said if children don't have the proper care they need, it will cause a domino effect, impacting their whole families.
"We want to empower Cherokee parents, one of the ways to do that is to provide quality childcare," he said. "The deputy mentioned the Head Start program. We've expanded our child development centers. We've got more opportunities there too."
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“Not only is the Cherokee Nation building wellness centers, they've also partnered with the YMCA to offer some discounted memberships for Cherokee citizens," she said. "My family and I take advantage of that, and we love to go there and utilize those facilities.”
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