Guest Opinion. Conflicts between Cherokee Nation and state officers are inclined to make the most news, particularly throughout election years. However, the bigger actuality is that our tribe has a constructive relationship with a big majority of state and native leaders in Oklahoma. We know {that a} sturdy Cherokee Nation and a robust Oklahoma go hand in hand.
As the new state legislative session will get underway, our authorities relations group at Cherokee Nation is monitoring what occurs at the Legislature and advocating for payments that transfer us ahead. We are discovering win-win options for Cherokee individuals and the entire state.
One space of focus this 12 months is ensuring tribal views and experience are heard by state officers. Many state companies depend on advisory councils to usher in exterior views. Advisory councils are a discussion board for dialogue and studying on tips on how to greatest fulfill company missions. At least two payments this session would strengthen the tribal voice on some essential councils.
SB 267 by Sen. Ally Seifried, a Cherokee Nation citizen, would increase the State Health Department’s Advancement of Wellness Advisory Council. One of the main priorities of my administration has been public well being, by constructing behavioral well being and wellness facilities and mountain climbing trails, encouraging greatest practices to cease the unfold of sickness, and supporting proactive wellness efforts which might be the greatest protection towards public well being challenges like weight problems and diabetes.
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Oklahoma at the moment ranks forty first for weight problems and forty second for charges of diabetes, with estimated prices in the billions. Historically, Native Americans have skilled a few of the worst public well being outcomes, however tribes and concrete Indian clinics have developed quite a lot of experience taking up this problem.
SB 267 brings that experience into the room. The invoice provides three members to the Advancement of Wellness Advisory Council: a consultant of a tribal well being system, a consultant of Urban Indian Health Care, and an skilled on cardiovascular ailments like weight problems and diabetes. It will give the State Health Department entry to a few of the smartest minds in Oklahoma on these points.
Another invoice we’re supporting this session is SB 299, which renews and reforms the Oklahoma Advisory Council on Indian Education. SB 299 is authored by Sen. Roger Thompson and Sen. Dewayne Pemberton, additionally a Cherokee Nation citizen.
The OACIE is a crucial advisory physique that makes suggestions to the State Department of Education on tips on how to greatest assist Native American college students. The council is meant to be composed of 18 members, together with representatives from tribal governments, tribal schooling departments, statewide schooling organizations, the State Department of Education, Higher Education and Career Tech. Unfortunately, the OACIE at the moment has quite a few vacancies, which have been left open for greater than two years as a result of the Governor has uncared for to behave on nominations from tribal nations.
Leaving these positions vacant interferes with the council’s skill to meet its essential mission of supporting Native American college students and enhancing collaboration throughout schooling. SB 299 renews the OACIE, which at the moment sunsets in July of this 12 months, and creates a course of for legislative leaders to fill positions which have been left vacant by the Governor.
Cherokee Nation can even assist laws to guard the rights of Native college students to put on tribal regalia at highschool graduations, in addition to a invoice to supply Native historical past and tradition assist to public faculty lecturers. Throughout all of those discussions, Cherokee Nation will proceed to construct on good relationships with our mates in the Oklahoma State Legislature. I’m assured we are able to discover methods to advance our shared targets.
In the long term, I hope that each state chief in Oklahoma will come to grasp that tribes are sovereign, right here to remain, and invaluable allies after we are handled with respect. Cherokee Nation and different tribes are offering well being care, constructing roads, increasing rural broadband, rising the economic system, and telling the tales about Oklahoma and Indian Country that present the world what a particular place that is. Tribal nations create nice advantages for all of Oklahoma, and we are able to do much more by improved cooperation with the state. Recognized or not, we proceed to be the greatest pal that the state of Oklahoma has ever had.
Chuck Hoskin, Jr. is the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation.
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