TAHLEQUAH, Okla. — Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. signed legislation Thursday that will give a $2,000 COVID relief payment to all 392,832 Cherokee Nation citizens.
The payments come from $1.8 billion provided to the tribe as part of an investment in Indian Country through President Biden's American Rescue Plan Act, which sets aside $20 billion for tribal governments.
“The Cherokee people are still hurting from the impact of COVID-19, health care and the economy and I appreciate those Council member leaders who came to us and said we should do a lump sum payment to extend our citizens relief,” Chief Hoskin said. “In this resolution, we will appropriate funds out of the $1.8 billion to cover the individual assistance payments to citizens and adopt a broad spending framework with categories as a place to start which can be modified as we move forward.
The Cherokee Nation will begin launching applications for its Respond, Recover and Rebuild COVID-19 assistance through the tribe’s online Gadugi Portal. Applications for direct assistance are expected to be online in June. Pre-registering for the portal does not enroll citizens in the relief program, but citizens are encouraged to pre-register for the Gadugi Portal now to ease the application process later.
Along with the payments to every Cherokee citizen, Chief Hoskin and Deputy Chief Bryan Warner’s spending plan includes mental health and wellness initiatives to help citizens recover from the impacts of the global pandemic, assistance for Cherokee-owned small businesses.
More information about the $1.8 billion provided to the Cherokee Nation can be found here.
