Cherokee Nation Chief Signs Legislation Adding $1 Million to Preservation Fund
Cherokee Historic Registry Act SOUTH COFFEYVILLE, OK – Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. signed new legislation that will commit $1 million to a new fund to preserve the tribe’s historic sites and authorize official biographies of past leaders.
The “Cherokee Nation Historic Places Preservation Fund Act,” which passed the Council of the Cherokee Nation this week expands on Chief Hoskin and Deputy Chief Brian Warner’s landmark “Cherokee Nation Historic Registry Act of 2019,” which empowered the tribe’s Secretary of Natural Resources to designate historic sites across the 7,000 square-mile Cherokee Nation Reservation.
The new law creates a Historic Places Preservation Fund and transfers $1 million of existing cultural review revenue to the new fund. The fund will receive annual proceeds of agriculture and business leases of up to $1 million per year after the initial funding. The new fund will also receive 50 percent of fines collected for violations of the Historic Registry Act and be eligible for special council appropriations.
“The Historic Registry Act of 2019 made the designation and protection of Cherokee Nation historic sites a high priority for our tribal Nation,” said Chief Hoskin. “Our new legislation creates a dedicated funding stream so that we can preserve these sites for generations to come.”
Since the original law’s enactment in December 2019, Secretary of Natural Resources Chad Harsha has placed 15 sites on the tribe’s historic registry through the law’s administrative process.
A 16 th site, Little Flock Baptist Church in Nowata County, was added to the tribe’s historic registry […]