With evangelical zeal, Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. delivered perhaps the most pointed message of the Tulsa Regional Chamber’s State of the Tribal Nations.
The subject: safeguarding Medicaid expansion.
“Rural health care and all of Oklahoma health care will suffer if that is taken out of the constitution,” Hoskin told an audience of about 800 on Thursday at the Renaissance Tulsa Hotel & Convention Center. “It is a matter of not only principle for the Cherokee Nation. It is a matter of the fiscal health of the Cherokee Nation. But it’s really a matter of the fiscal health of this whole state.”
Oklahoma lawmakers are seeking to move voter-approved Medicaid expansion (SQ 802) from the state constitution to statute, aiming for legislative control over costs. Passed in 2020, expansion covers more than 200,000 low-income adults.
“If people in this room are listening and are interested in economic development in this state, making sure people have a baseline to succeed in their lives, which we all have an interest in, you’ve got to be protecting Medicaid expansion because if it is tinkered with, this state will not achieve what it can achieve economically,” said Hoskin, drawing applause.
Hoskin participated in a panel discussion with Muscogee Nation Principal Chief David Hill and Osage Nation Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear. Fielding questions from moderator Mike Neal, president and CEO of the Chamber, the leaders outlined their tribes’ recent contributions to the state and their tribes in areas such as economic development, healthcare and communication infrastructure.
The Cherokee Nation is building a $400 million health care campus in Claremore and completing a second sound stage at the Cherokee film campus in Owasso. It also is partnering with the University of Oklahoma to invest $30 million to transform a Tahlequah hospital into a nursing school.
“The tribes represented here and others across the state are contributing billions of dollars to the economy in terms of health care,” Hoskin said.
Hill complemented his tribe’s collaboration with the City of Tulsa and Mayor Monroe Nichols, who he said has worked closely with the Muscogee Nation on public safety, jurisdictional cooperation and infrastructure development. The Nation is partnering with the city on the Riverline Development, which is aimed at improving housing and retail at 81st Street South and Riverside.
The tribe also is stressing the importance of maintaining its Native speakers.
“Once you lose your language, you lose the identity of who you are,” Hill said.
The Osage Nation is cleaning up 11,000 oil wells orphaned during the tribe’s energy heyday and investing $100 million into broadband infrastructure.
“That’s a game-changer to have internet at the 1.5 million-acre reservation,” Standing Bear said.
The Osage Nation Principal Chief spoke proudly of recently putting the late Ted Turner’s 43,000-acre Blue Stem Ranch, which the tribe purchased 10 years ago, into a federal trust, cementing the Nation’s sovereignty over the territory.
“The Bureau of Indian Affairs told us that was the second-largest Native trust acquisition in the history of the Bureau of Indian Affairs,” Standing Bear said.
The Chamber event’s second panel discussion, moderated by Amanda Swope, the City of Tulsa's director of tribal policy and partnerships, focused on
tribal partnerships and featured Jennifer Hankins, managing director of Tulsa Innovation Labs; Tim Harjo, the Muscogee Nation’s Secretary of Commerce; and Matt Hulver, vice president for research and partnerships.
The Osage Nation is collaborating with Tulsa Innovation Labs (TIL) to
establish northeastern Oklahoma as a global hub for autonomous systems, focusing on drone technology and workforce development. Alongside Osage LLC, TIL developed Skyway Range, a testing and flight corridor in Tulsa for drones and uncrewed autonomous systems.
“It is the nation’s most ambitious vision for beyond-visual-line-of-site drone testing and drone innovation,” Hankins said. “It absolutely also is one of the well-funded, most well-known projects in the country for these things. As the chief (Standing Bear) was saying, we are getting nationally recognized not only for the vision but also for the work that the teams on the ground are putting forward.”
The OU-Cherokee Nation nursing school project in Tahlequah is an opportunity to build sustainable, self-sufficient health care workforce while bolstering local education and employment.
“These partnerships start with trust,” Hulver said. “It starts as a university valuing the sovereignty of the tribe. It’s really meeting the Cherokee Nations and the tribal nations where they are.”
What sets all these partnerships apart are the tribal citizens, who have met hardship with grit and grace over generations, Harjo said.
“The tribes are resilient,” he said. “They have experienced quite a bit over the last few hundred years. They’ve been through a lot, and they are still here. And they are not going anywhere.
“…These three tribes in this region have proven themselves capable of learning, growing and still being able to help their communities. Going forward, that kind of puts the impetus on everyone else to get with the program. Let’s work together and make it a better community for everyone.”
