Midway through a discussion on economic development partnerships, Cherokee Nation Deputy Principal Chief Bryan Warner paused, asking the audience to applaud for the Tulsa Regional Chamber, which he called a key collaborator.

“They pull together people so much, so many times,” he said, “making sure that everybody’s at the table.”

Everybody certainly seemed to be at the table Tuesday. The Chamber convened about 800 businesspeople for its second annual State of the Tribal Nations event at the Renaissance Tulsa Hotel & Convention Center.

Representatives from the Cherokee, Muscogee and Osage nations shared their views during panels focused on tribal leadership, economic development partnerships, and arts and culture.

Presented by Aristocrat Gaming, Thompson Construction and Tinker Federal Credit Union, the event was designed to showcase the tribes’ significant contributions to Oklahoma’s economic prosperity.

A case in point is a recently released report showing that the Cherokee Nation’s annual economic impact to the area is about $3.1 billion.

“That number doesn’t happen by accident,” Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said. “…It happens because of a strategy that I think is the model of how governments ought to approach government, which is investing in people, investing in communities, trying to build a foundation for what really has proven to build a great society.”

Hoskin appeared on a tribal leadership panel that also featured Muscogee Nation Principal Chief David Hill and Osage Nation Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear.

Hill and Standing Bear touched on adhering to culture and protecting the needs of the tribe’s most vulnerable: children and the elderly.

The chiefs also talked about expanding healthcare. The Muscogee Nation is constructing a robotic surgery unit at Council Oak Comprehensive Healthcare in Tulsa and has proposed building new clinics in Holdenville and Sapulpa.

Among the Cherokee’s plans is a $85 million outpatient facility in Salina. The Nation also soon will graduate its second class at the Tahlequah-based Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine, the country’s only tribally affiliated medical school.

“OSU is the number one producer of Native doctors in this country,” Hoskin said. “And we are going to need every one of them, Native and non-Native.”

Jeremy Wright, chief operating officer of Osage, LLC, was part of the panel discussion on economic development partnerships.

He highlighted Skyway 36 Droneport and Technology Innovation Center, which he called the world’s state-of-the art drone testing facility. Located in the Osage Nation just three and a half miles north of downtown Tulsa, it can mimic monsoon conditions and place drones in temperatures as low as minus-40 degrees, he said.

“With the help of Tulsa Innovation Labs, we’re looking at a design that is 500 million dollars’ worth of facility just to take care of the people that are calling on our phone and knocking down our door because they want to be a part of it,” Wright said. “So, you can imagine what that does for the local economic growth…It’s really exciting for us.”

Increasing awareness for tribal art – as well as getting it in public places – was one of the themes of the arts and culture discussion.

“A lot of our tribal nations in Oklahoma and beyond have not always been the stewards of their own collections,” said Travis Owens, vice president of cultural tourism for the Cherokee Nation. “These collections have been housed in private institutions and institutions across the country. There has been a reclaiming of that.”