TAHLEQUAH, Okla. — Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. and Deputy Chief Bryan Warner’s proposed legislation to replace the tribe’s language immersion state charter board and replace it with tribal government oversight, gained approval from a Council committee on Monday and now advances to full Council.
“In the Durbin Feeling Language Preservation Act the Council authorized me to discontinue the state public school charter which has been a plan under discussion for many years,” said Chief Hoskin. “We have taken that step and now, with legislation, can replace Oklahoma’s oversight of our language school with our own, a powerful act of tribal sovereignty and one more suited for the needs of our Second Language Cherokee Speakers.”
Cherokee Nation’s language immersion school began in 2001 a pioneering effort led by then Chief Chad Smith. Since 2011 the tribe has operated the school as an Oklahoma public school under the state’s charter school law, receiving state funding and falling under the Oklahoma State Board of Education with state-mandated curriculum and exams.
In late 2023, Chief Hoskin proposed amendments to the Durbin Feeling Language Preservation Act, the landmark 2019 law and the cornerstone of the Hoskin/Warner Administration’s language revitalization efforts. Those amendments, permanently reauthorizing the Act, was approved by the council in January 2024. The amended law called for a special report on the effectiveness of the immersion program and to identify opportunities to end the state charter. The amendments empowered Chief Hoskin to end the charter for curriculum better aligned to Cherokee culture and designed for Cherokee language learners with tribal oversight.
“We have valued our partnership with the state of Oklahoma in establishing and growing our Cherokee language immersion school,” said Deputy Chief Bryan Warner. “However, we have built up resources, capacity and experience to a point where it is time to close the public charter school chapter and open an ambitious new chapter of a completely independent immersion school.”
Under the Durbin Feeling Language Preservation Act, the tribe since 2019, has invested over $175 million in language preservation efforts. This includes construction of the Durbin Feeling Language Center in Tahlequah and expanding the adult Cherokee Language Master Apprentice Program, both conceived of and piloted during the administration of Chief Hoskin’s predecessor, Chief Bill John Baker.
The language law also expanded immersion education to other communities, established the Speaker Services program to help the remaining population of elder first-language fluent speakers improve their quality of life, fundsspeaker villages near the language center where Cherokee language and culture are experienced organically in a community setting with affordable housing and community space.
The law sets a budget floor of $18 million in annual operating dollars, but the tribe has increased it annually, funding the department’s current year at $28 million.
The Durbin Feeling Language Preservation Act also funded a new immersion middle school, a state of the art $30 million facility located on the Durbin Feeling Language campus, an area located west of the tribe’s main government complex.
The Durbin Feeling Act established the Language Department as a stand-alone executive director level department expanded staffing, programs and partnerships with third parties in the creative arts and information technology.
“The proposal to make our language immersion program independent of the state is a great opportunity for exercising our sovereignty over our most precious possession: our language,” said Cherokee Nation Language Department Executive Director Howard Paden. “But it also creates a special obligation to create our own legal mechanism for oversight, and I assure you the Cherokee Nation is up for the challenge.”
Hoskin and Warner’s proposal, which cleared the Council’s education committee on Monday, creates a new internal advisory board and requires the program to maintain accreditation from a qualified, third-party accrediting body.
The law, if approved at the Council’s rules committee and a special council meeting in late June, would establish a period of transition of the current state charter school board into a new internal oversight body, the Cherokee Nation Immersion Education Advisory Board.
The new board will include four appointees subject to Council confirmation and a fifth member selected by the four appointees, serving staggered terms. At least two members will be required to be fluent speakers and at least two will be required to have professional teaching or school administration experience.
The tribe currently has a provisional accreditation with the World Indigenous Languages Higher Education Consortium (WINHEC) which evaluates schools according to standards developed by and for Indigenous communities while it completes full accreditation. Chief Hoskin anticipates engaging WINHEC as the accreditor to meet the third-party oversight requirements of the legislation.
The legislation requires the Principal Chief to generate annual reports on the state of the language immersion program and makes the Principal Chief, the Deputy Chief and Speaker of the Council non-voting ex officio members of the new oversight board.
“Our proposal is not about severing ties with the state due to dissatisfaction with OSDE, because OSDE under its recently installed leadership is wonderful to work with,” said Chief Hoskin. “Our proposal is about reaching a new level of excellence in language immersion education, and we can only do that with this bold exercise of tribal sovereignty.”
Following unanimous approval by the Education committee on Monday, Speaker Johnny Jack Kidwell praised the collaboration between the Council and Administration across all language programs and services.
“This decision gives our Cherokee Immersion School team the ability to ensure our students are truly immersed in Cherokee culture, language and lifeways. This transition away from charter status will be integral in the protection and perpetuation of the Cherokee language for many years to come,” Speaker Kidwell said.
The tribe’s current charter expires June 30, 2026, and Hoskin advised OSDE this week that Cherokee Nation will not seek renewal.
Tribal officials say that the state funding provided by the charter will be replaced by other funds within the tribe’s budget.
Cherokee Nation’s Immersion School in Tahlequah has 142 students, with 12 participants in the tribe’s new baby immersion classroom.
The baby immersion through eighth grade immersion school, named ᏧᎾᏕᎶᏆᏍᏗ (tsunadeloquasdi), is located in the Durbin Feeling Language Center, located west of the tribe’s main complex in Tahlequah.
Opening in the fall is the tribe’s new immersion middle school, which will relocate fourth through eighth grade students, and is named ᏧᎾᏕᎶᏆᏍᏗ ᎦᎵᏉᎩ ᏂᏚᏳᎪᏛ Tsunadeloquasdi Galiquogi Niduyugodv “School of the Seven Directions” located west of the Durbin Feeling Language Center in Tahlequah.
A Cherokee Immersion school in the Greasy community of Adair County also has 12 students and another 12 in its baby immersion classroom.