Sovereign Voices

Oklahoma’s Native American nations are continuously remolding the cultural and economic landscape of our state through their innovation, resilience and tradition. From thriving business enterprises to groundbreaking work in everything from film to mental health to language preservation, Native tribes are leading Oklahoma boldly
into the future.

Media outlets were abuzz in June with stats from the latest Tribal Economic Impact Study. The numbers are well-known to Choctaw Chief Gary Batton, who is perpetually enthusiastic about tribal contributions to Oklahoma’s economy and infrastructure.

“The tribal nations of Oklahoma were responsible for an incredible economic impact of more than $23.4 billion in 2023 alone,” according to the report. Tribes based in Oklahoma employed more than 56,000 people in 2023, paying out wages and benefits totaling $3.3 billion.

The Choctaw Nation employs 13,500 workers, Batton says, totaling more than $1 billion in wages.

“We as the Choctaw Nation do not tax our people,” Batton says. “It’s important to generate revenue to deliver services to our people. The Choctaw Nation has grown by 600 employees over the past four years.”

More than 400 jobs were created by the 2024 opening of the Choctaw Landing Luxury Resort and Casino in Hochatown. But Batton is just as proud of the Nation’s smaller ventures such as the Three Rivers Meat Company in Smithville, a USDA meat processing and retail operation that opened last year and provided 24 jobs.  

“We raise our own beef as well,” Batton says. “If we can supply the meat processing plant with enough beef, we can put that in our grocery outlets and sell it, and maybe take that nationwide. We are working with local farmers and ranchers to grow the same quality of beef” to help supply Three Rivers Meat Company, he shares.

In February, the Chickasaw Nation opened the OKANA Resort and Indoor Waterpark on the grounds of the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City. The 100,000-square-feet indoor waterpark features rides, interactive water features, a heated pool and a lazy river.

The outdoor waterpark, which opened in May, offers resort guests The Lagoon beach experience, ziplines and a slide that drops into a deep pool, an inflatable obstacle course and a swim-up bar. Lodging options include junior suites, multi-room family suites and bunk suites, and restaurants range from Mexican to Asian to tribal cuisine. Both parks are open to the public with day passes. 

Tribes also support the economy by investing in infrastructure and bolstering education, Batton says. 

“We give to every fire department and every law enforcement agency across the Choctaw Nation,” he says. “We give to all of the 89 school districts in the area.”

Oklahoma tribes have invested millions in infrastructure projects, according to the economic impact study.

For example, the Chickasaw Nation spent $13.5 million to fund improvements to Interstate 35 at the Oklahoma/Texas border; the Cherokee Nation donated $12 million to improve Tulsa’s I-44 and 193rd Street interchange; and the Citizen Potawatomi Nation funded $8 million worth of improvements at Interstate 40 and State Highway 102 near Shawnee.

“We think like Cherokees, and if we are truly doing that, we are thinking about our neighbors,” says Cherokee Deputy Chief Bryan Warner. 

“If we don’t do that, we can’t heal a community. In the smaller communities, we see the needs for housing, and community buildings and sidewalks. We’ve got to make sure the lights are turned back on in those communities,” Warner says.

The Cherokee Nation employs 14,500 people between its business and governmental functions. 

Suite Shots Golf, which opened in April in the Riverwalk Crossings in Jenks, is a joint venture between the Muscogee Nation and the North Dakota-based golf entertainment company. Muscogee Nation press secretary Jason Salsman says the tribe’s Onefire Holding Company business arm has helped to totally revitalize the shopping center, which now includes Muscogee cultural identifiers in its décor.  

A March opening is planned for a new four-story, $85 million tribal headquarters and Muscogee citizen services building in Okmulgee, Salsman says. 

A conversation during a baseball game was a reminder to Cherokee Nation’s Warner of the importance of Cherokee Film. That’s the umbrella organization for the Cherokee Film Commission, Cherokee Film Incentive, Cherokee Film Studios and Cherokee Film Institute. 

“I was talking to an individual, a great person. I could tell he didn’t know anything about tribal nations, but he was curious,” Warner says. “Movies tend to depict everybody as being in a Plains tribe. I told him that each tribe has their own story of what has happened to them. We want to make sure we tell the right story.”

The Cherokee Film Commission scouts and promotes movie locations in Oklahoma and connects filmmakers to skilled Native talent and crews. The Cherokee Film Incentive incentivizes filming within the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation, offering up to 25% cash back for production expenditures in addition to the incentive programs offered by the state of Oklahoma. The state-of-the-art Cherokee Film Studios in Owasso offers soundstages and a studio space with editing and audio suites, hair and makeup suites and catering facilities. And the Cherokee Film Institute provides workshops and on-set training to build a skilled workforce for every level of the industry.

Cherokee Film, Warner says, “serves a purpose of messaging.”

Chickasaw Nation Productions resulted from Gov. Bill Anoatubby’s vision to use film production to preserve the stories of the Chickasaw people.

“The goal of Chickasaw Nation Productions is to educate audiences by producing feature films and documentaries with accurate, positive portrayals of Chickasaw people, history and culture,” according to its website. 

In November, Choctaw Nation’s Chief Batton took to social media with some news about the film industry. 

“I’m proud to announce that Brave will be the first-ever film to shoot on the Choctaw Nation Reservation,” Batton posted on Facebook. “This film represents a historic milestone for our tribe. It’s a powerful step forward in our efforts to defend sovereignty, ensuring our stories are told authentically by our own people.”

The nearly 1,000 students who are enrolled in the Bureau of Indian Education’s (BIE) tribally-run schools in Oklahoma “develop pride in their heritage, build leadership skills and deepen their connection to their communities and cultures,” according to a spokesperson for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

BIE directly operates Riverside Indian School, a fourth through 12th grade residential campus in Anadarko that serves Native students from across the country. In addition, BIE funds and supports four residential tribal schools: the Cherokee Nation’s Sequoyah High School in Tahlequah; Jones Academy (Choctaw Nation) in Hartshorne; Choctaw Children’s Village in Kingston; and Eufaula Dormitory (Creek Nation) in Eufaula. 

“While their respective tribal nations manage them, BIE provides support through funding, compliance monitoring and technical assistance,” the spokesperson says.

A $65 million building and renovation project underway at Sequoyah High School will include a performing arts center, a new academic building and remodeled dormitories, says Corey Bunch, chief of staff of the Cherokee Nation. Bunch expects the work to be complete by the end of 2026.

In addition to its musical endeavors, “in the last decade or so, we have developed a terrific drama program,” Bunch says. “We’ve been needing to give them a better place to perform.”

The 9th- through 12th-grade campus has an enrollment of 330, many of whom are commuter students from Tahlequah and surrounding counties, Bunch says. 

“We have a high expectation for our students,” Bunch says. “We want them to make a commitment to get the most out of their education and be prepared for the next level, for some form of higher education.”

Students with an interest in aviation have spent the past two years building an airplane in a hangar in Tahlequah. It’s a partnership with the Spartan School of Aeronautics in Tulsa and Tango Flight, a nonprofit designed to inspire the next generation of aviation workers.

Students built a two-seater, single engine plane that will be sold so a new kit can be purchased for the next class, Bunch says. He says he would also like to make flight lessons available to the students while they are building the planes.  

Native students benefit from attending schools that “honor and uplift their identities,” the BIE spokesperson says. The schools incorporate Native language instruction, tribal history and cultural practices into their curriculums, including traditional arts, storytelling, powwows and regalia-making.

BIE also supports cultural training in public schools.

“These initiatives provide funding and technical assistance to tribes and eligible institutions, including public schools with high Native enrollment, to promote Native language preservation, cultural education and student support services that reflect tribal values,” the spokesperson says.

A showpiece campus for the transfer of the Cherokee language from one generation to the next is taking shape in Tahlequah.

The Cherokee Language Immersion School will soon be expanded with a $30 million middle school where traditional culture will be infused into a modern-day curriculum that meets and even exceeds mandated federal education standards, says Howard Paden, executive director of the Department of Cherokee Language. The school is expected to open in the spring of 2026.

Students will study the fine and performing arts, including learning how to rap in Cherokee. They will plant corn, singing the same song their ancestors did 6,000 years ago. Fresh water for ceremonies will be drawn from the aquifer below.  A life skills curriculum will teach traditional cooking and sewing. 

“We want our kids to be able to look up in the sky and know what stars are out, and be able to walk through the woods and look at the plants and know which way is north because moss is growing on that side of the tree,” Paden says. “We are in the middle of building a Cherokee renaissance. It’s about the past, the here-and-now and the future. We aren’t throwing technology out. We are going to make technology Cherokee.”

The tribe’s Durbin Feeling Language Center houses all language preservation programs including the immersion school, the master apprentice program for adults and the translation department. About 150 employees run 16 language programs.

Paden felt called as a child to learn Cherokee. His father took him to visit elders who were first-language speakers. He practiced with others during stomp dances. He says students now can learn in a month what it took him 20 years to pick up on his own.

The Nation is losing about 78 first-language speakers every year, but graduating only 24 from its apprenticeship program, he says. He’s reminded of that often, because a bell is rung in Tahlequah every time a Cherokee speaker dies. 

“Families might drive an hour and a half to stand outside and our whole group will mourn with them,” Paden says. “It happens every week, sometimes twice a week.”

Choctaw’s Chief Batton has a goal for all 13,500 employees of the Choctaw Nation to learn to speak at least a few words or phrases in Choctaw – ranging from ‘hello’ to ‘please,’ ‘thank you’ and ‘until we meet again.’ A few weeks ago, his heart melted as he maneuvered his vehicle alongside the drive-up window of a fast-food restaurant. “Halito,” the woman on duty said. That’s Choctaw for hello.

“For me, as a tribal leader, the most important thing is preservation of our culture and history,” Batton says. 

The tribe’s language preservation program includes paying apprentices to show up every day and study Choctaw. Typically, they become fluent in about four months.

“They tell us that when it clicks, it clicks,” he says. 

Services to people in need of mental health and substance abuse treatment are a priority with Oklahoma tribes, several of which are building or have opened specialized facilities.

The Cherokee Nation’s $25 million residential drug treatment center is scheduled to open by the end of the year in Tahlequah. The tribe created a $5 million endowment to get more workers certified in treating substance abuse disorders. 

The Choctaw Nation’s Chahta Himmitoa Aiahli Tohnochi (CHAT) program works to prevent youth delinquency by using counseling techniques that are trauma-focused and age-appropriate. Services are for students in kindergarten through high school. 

The Muscogee Nation’s Behavioral Health Facility in Okmulgee provides family counseling, mental health care and prevention and treatment services for substance abuse, trauma and suicidal ideation. Similar care is available at seven Indian Health Service clinics across the reservation, says Muscogee’s Salsman.

A Place for Healing, a Chickasaw facility in Paul’s Valley, is an adolescent transitional living center where young people ages 14-19 can focus on treatment and recovery in a tranquil setting. 

The Muscogee flag now flies over city hall in Macon, Ga., says Salsman. Street signs in downtown Macon are worded in both English and Muscogee.

Such partnerships are part of the tribe’s efforts to reconnect with its roots in the American Southeast and to educate the people now living there about the tribe’s history and culture, Salsman says. The Muscogee people are, after all, descendants of the mound builders who inhabited parts of Alabama, Georgia, Florida and South Carolina before forced removal to Oklahoma. 

A vital partnership now in the works would expand the Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park near Macon to national park and preserve status, to be co-managed by the tribe and the Department of Interior.

The effort is part of a global movement known as Land Back that seeks the return of homelands to indigenous people through ownership or co-stewardship. In the past decade, nearly 4,700 square miles were returned to tribes in 15 states through a federal program.

Featured photo credit: Cherokee Film does everything from scouting and promoting in-state movie locations to creating tax incentives for shooting within the Nation, offering soundstages and studio space, and hosting workshops to build a prepared, skilled workforce for every facet of the film and TV industry. Photo courtesy the Cherokee Nation