TAHLEQUAH — The Cherokee Nation increased its operating budget by more than $4 million at its Tribal Council meeting on Monday.
The increase puts the Nation’s budget at $613.7 million and will help cover health costs, increase employment and assist with emergency housing, according to Cherokee Nation spokeswoman Julie Hubbard.
Roughly one-fourth of the $4.6 million increase will help to cover contract health costs for Cherokee Nation citizens who use Claremore Indian Hospital and are then referred to non-Cherokee Nation facilities for specialized care.
Increasing Cherokee Nation citizens’ access to quality health care is one of the Tribal Council’s top priorities, said Tribal Council Speaker Tina Glory-Jordan.
Nearly two-thirds of the operating budget increase will go toward grant matching funds for various Cherokee Nation departments.
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The Cherokee Day Training Program will receive $345,000 of the operating budget increase. The program will utilize the funds for transitional emergency housing and to further its purpose of providing temporary job opportunities and employment training.
Monday the Tribal Council also unanimously voted to request surplus bison from the Badlands in South Dakota through the InterTribal Buffalo Council, an organization with a membership that consists of dozens of tribes in 19 states. The Cherokee Nation is an InterTribal Buffalo Council member.
InterTribal Buffalo Council operations include coordinating the transfer of surplus buffalo from national parks to tribal lands and helping each tribal herd become a successful operation.
Earlier this year the Cherokee Nation was named one of the five finalists to receive surplus bison from Yellowstone National Park.
As of late July the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department did not yet have a timeline for making a final decision on which entities would receive bison, according to spokesman Ron Aasheim. Ranch staff where the bison are being held asked they be moved by mid-November, he said.
If proposals are accepted, the Cherokee Nation could receive 35 to 50 bison this fall that could be placed on tribal land in Delaware County.