CHAIRPERSON MESSAGE: November 2025
ᎣᏏᏲ ᏂᎦᏛ osiyo nigad! (hello, everyone!)
We had a wonderful membership meeting last month filed with joy and good will. We enjoyed visiting with everyone, making corn husk dolls, and eating tasty food!
We’re planning an exciting year ahead for the community with a couple unique events. More information to come soon! We’re looking forward to spending time with each other in community, as always.
Mark your calendars for our 2026 dates:
Our largest event, not to be missed: Annual Meeting and Chief's Picnic on April 26
May 30 - Special Event, to be announced
July - Annual Campout, to be announced
September - Special Event, to be announced
October 17 - Membership Gathering and Potluck
We’re working to schedule another language class or two next year as well!
I’m reflecting on the power of heritage, community, and gratitude this month.
ᏧᎾᏓᎴᏅᎢ tsu-na-da-le-nv-i (heritage) is deeply important to us as Cherokees every day. This month is a special reminder to us all to celebrate our heritage and show that our Nation is thriving, contributing, and carrying our traditions forward for generations to come.
With that in mind, we walked as a group in the Native American Heritage Month Parade to represent Cherokee Nation and our community. We had an impressively large turnout. Our hearts were filled with joy and pride to be Cherokee. ᏩᏙ Wado to all who came out. Please come join us next year for this powerful event. This year’s was on Saturday, November 8 and we expect next year’s to be similar. We will share the date when it is confirmed.
We are grateful for community, service, and generosity. We raised funds and used grant money to assist community members impacted by the federal government shutdown and delay of SNAP benefits. ᏩᏙ Wado to all who helped in this effort. These funds were distributed on November 8.
With Veteran’s Day this month, we want to share a heartfelt ᏩᏙ wado to all who have served. I often hear that Native Nations have the highest service rate compared to other communities and it does not surprise me. If you have served, please know we are grateful. You may also entitled to a Medal of Patriotism, a Brick at the Warrior Memorial in Tahlequah, and more.
We share a recipe for Three Sisters Pozole using our heirloom seeds this year’s garden. You might have tasted it at our October meeting, made from heirloom corn, beans, and pumpkin from my garden.
We started a Book Club! Come visit with us virtually on Sunday, December 7th. The theme for the year will be “enhancing our cultural understanding through storytelling”. If you missed the first meetings, not to worry. You can hop on at any point! The book we have picked to start us out is Cherokee Earth Dwellers, by Christopher B. Teuton and Hastings Shade.
At our October Membership Meeting, we elected two new board members and reelected two more.
We are so grateful to those willing to volunteer their valuable time and energy giving back to our community! Our board members dedicate countless hours to our community, being compensated only with the joy and fulfilment that comes by serving in the spirit of gadugi.
Do you have a question about the language? Joe Fourkiller with Cherokee Nation Gadugi Corps is available to help our community with words, phrases, and spelling! Reach out to Joe with language questions. And feel free to share what you learn with the rest of us! Contact: Joe Fourkiller at Josephc-fourkiller@cherokee.org; 918-871-9248-cell; 918-453-5000 Ext
As a reminder, the CNCV has a resource webpage for you with many informative links for citizenship, language, culture, history, health, education, veterans, and more. Let us know if you'd like to see something specifically there.
We’re looking forward to visiting together at these events throughout the year and enjoying community, culture, history, and language with you!
ᏙᏓᏓᎪᎲᎢ dodadagohvi (‘til we meet again),
-- Sabrina McKinney
