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Cherokee Nation integrates culture into new treatment center built with opioid settlement funds
The 45,000-square-foot center will offer 100 beds and no-cost care for tribal citizens while weaving Cherokee language and traditions into recovery.
- The Cherokee Nation plans to open a residential and intensive outpatient treatment center in Tahlequah, offering recovery services at no cost to tribal citizens. The 45,000-square-foot campus will have 100 inpatient beds.
- Funding for the facility comes from roughly $150 million the Cherokee Nation recovered through settlements with opioid manufacturers, following the tribe's 2017 action as the first of 575 federally recognized tribes to sue.
- Senior director Juli Skinner noted that culture is a "protective factor" in recovery. The campus will integrate centuries-old traditions including stickball and an on-campus garden to grow selu, or corn.
- In the 14 counties making up the Cherokee Nation, more than 1,000 people died between 2020 and 2024. The new center aims to address this crisis through a continuum of care options.
- Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. described the facility as an "existential effort" to preserve the tribe's lifeways, stating that investing in behavioral health is vital to the Cherokee Nation's future.
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Total News Sources27
Leaning Left5Leaning Right3Center16Last UpdatedBias Distribution67% Center
Bias Distribution
- 67% of the sources are Center
67% Center
L 21%
C 67%
12%
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