TAHLEQUAH, Okla. — Cherokee Nation is launching its new Public Health and Wellness Partners grant program, which beginning March 3 provides grants for eligible capital and operational projects impacting the Cherokee Nation Reservation.
Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. and Deputy Chief Bryan Warner signed off on the program Thursday, Feb. 27, making grants available to assist schools, local governments and non-profits with projects that can improve their local community’s public health, such as pilot wellness programs or capital projects to create or enhance access to physical activities.
“Organizations, schools and local governments across the region are uniquely positioned to help us improve wellness in our Cherokee communities,” said Chief Hoskin. “The Public Health and Wellness Partners grant program can help turn ideas for new wellness programs and infrastructure investment into reality in a way that benefits all of us.”
In 2021, Chief Hoskin, Deputy Chief Warner and the Council of the Cherokee Nation enacted the Public Health and Wellness Fund Act. The law, among other things, earmarks a small portion of the tribe’s third-party health revenue mostly for Cherokee Nation behavioral health and physical wellness programs.
PHWFA has been used for some of the tribe’s major health initiatives such as new wellness centers, as well as smaller projects such as walking trails. The tribe recently tapped the fund to subsidize gym memberships for Cherokee Nation citizens at participating non-profit gyms.
“This new pilot grant program could mean enhancements to local parks, improvements to water and sanitation systems, new food security programs, just to name a few ideas,” said Deputy Chief Bryan Warner. “Our new Public Health and Wellness Partners will bring us their ideas and we will do our best to fund as many of the most promising projects, where the need is the greatest, as possible.”
Eligible entities for the Public Health and Wellness Partners program include public schools, non-religious non-profit entities, and local governments. The entities may be based inside or outside the Cherokee Nation Reservation but must impact citizens and communities inside the reservation.
Non-profits in one excluded category, non-profits participating with Cherokee Nation’s Community and Cultural Outreach department, already have access to millions of dollars in Cherokee Nation funding annually including a pool of over $2 million annually for public health and wellness programs and capital projects.
The PHW Partners grant program will issue grants from an annual pool of $1 million. The program prioritizes capital projects but may help fund short-term operating expenses for new or pilot programs.
Cherokee Nation Deputy Secretary of State Canaan Duncan, who will help oversee the program, said applicants that demonstrate the greatest need, the greatest community support and the greatest degree of general public access will be the most successful.
“Obviously with a limited pool of funds entrusted to us by the Council and virtually unlimited opportunities to partner on great projects, we must prioritize, and we must be willing to learn as we go,” said Deputy Secretary Duncan. “Public Health and Wellness Grant application reviewers will be looking for projects or pilot programs which serve a wide population where the wellness gaps are the greatest and we will be thinking of ‘wellness’ in the broadest possible terms.”
The new PHW Partners program launch comes during a period of massive expansion of various other programs, services and capital projects supporting individual and community health and wellness. Those investments include a new Wilma P. Mankiller Cherokee Capitol Park, new wellness centers in Tahlequah, Salina and Stilwell, community centers with “wellness spaces” and gymnasiums in Kenwood and Marble City and the largest affordable housing investment in the tribe’s history.
PHW Partners program is a pilot effort for the tribe’s current fiscal year ending September 30, but tribal officials hope to continue the program in future years.
Eligible non-profits can seek more information by emailing