Cherokee Nation Holds Annual CCO Conference

CATOOSA, Okla. - Recently, the Cherokee Nation held its annual Community & Cultural Outreach Conference at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Tulsa, with nearly 900 attendees representing more than 75 CCO participating organizations from across the Cherokee Nation Reservation and the country.

Throughout the two-day conference, attendees enjoyed cultural and informative breakout sessions, presentations, keynote remarks from Cherokee Nation leadership, panels, networking opportunities, an awards banquet to recognize community groups and community organizers and more.

"Our history tells us that Cherokees have always organized at the grassroots level, before our government was nationalized in the 1800's, we operated exclusively in tight-knit communities, even with an estimated population of two million," said Chief Hoskin. "We ought to invest into the grassroots community efforts and not administer our government and culture from the top down. Organizing through CCO groups and providing a formal structure to historic lifeways tells the Cherokee government where we need to invest and share in the joy of being Cherokee."

Deputy Secretary of State Canaan Duncan provided keynote remarks on the first day of the conference:

"If we imagine what Cherokee communities may look like in the future everyone might have a different answer, but at the core of that is something we have always done, taking care of one another and holding responsibility to others," said Deputy Secretary of State Duncan. "Organizing communities isn't a new idea within the Cherokee Nation now or from our predecessors in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. For centuries we have been taught that every Cherokee has a place in Cherokee society. Community isn't a physical place, it's a collective that brings all of us together."

Community and Cultural Outreach's overall mission is to assist Cherokee community organizations' ability to increase their effectiveness, enhance essential services to those most in need, build upon the organizational capacity of each community, diversify resources and create collaborations to serve those in Cherokee communities. The program was designed to facilitate opportunities for partnerships and to provide educational and technical assistance, empowering communities to utilize their own abilities in securing and administering general and federal funding opportunities.

Sabrina McKinney, chairperson of the Cherokees of Northern Central Valley, based out of Sacramento, California, attended with fellow board members to bring fresh ideas and professional development to Cherokees in California.

"We attended some wonderful leadership capacity building sessions and cultural enrichment sessions, we want to bring back all of this information to our community," said Chairperson McKenny. "This is my fourth year visiting and we've learned so much like how to play traditional games and resources for scholarships and volunteer opportunities like Gadugi Corps. We want to bring a deeper connection to our culture, history, and government back home."

Steven Sands, president of the Neighborhood Association of Chewey, praised the tribe for continuing the annual conference.

"We've learned a lot of information on leadership, how to be a better leader," said President Sands. "And we are learning how to better fill out grants for our community of Chewy."

On the final night of the conference, Cherokee Nation honored several community groups and community organizations for their efforts as well.

The tribe continues to support participating organizations through Public Health and Wellness grants, cultural and language classes, community gardens, health events, walking trails, nutritional improvement, cooking classes and more. There are a number of other grants CCO organizations can also qualify for.

The CCO fiscal year budget has continued to grow exponentially to support these efforts. In the 2018 fiscal year the budget added up to around $2.7 million - the proposed 2027 fiscal year budget will be over $10 million.

Since 2019, under the Hoskin administration's Housing, Jobs and Sustainable Communities Act, Cherokee Nation has constructed 10 new community buildings, expanded or remodeled more than 20 others and has ongoing plans for more community center construction across the reservation.

Last year, the Cherokee Nation empaneled a task force on community organizing with Deputy Secretary of State Duncan at its head. This task force continues to identify and address various community needs.

The Hoskin administration has begun implementing some of the task force recommendations, including increasing grants, creating new grants and adding new field technical assistant staff members to assist at-large and on-reservation organizations.

Since the announcement of the nearly $1.3 million grant to install power generators in the tribe's community buildings, the tribe has installed 15 generators over the last year.

The tribe currently has 89 CCO participating organization in the reservation and at-large.

Learn more about Cherokee Nation's Community and Cultural Outreach by visiting https://www.facebook.com/CNCCO/. At-large citizens can find a list of Cherokee community groups across the county by visiting https://cherokeesatlarge.org.