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