Copyright © 2000 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

TAHLEQUAH, OK - Labor Day weekend is the traditional weekend to celebrate homecoming in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma (CNO). Thousands of Cherokees are expected in Tahlequah as part of the 48th annual Cherokee National Holiday celebration. The CNO would like its members to take a moment to stop by one of its six information booths, to fill out an address update form and complete a brief opinion survey. The survey is a short form version of the face-to-face questionnaire that CNO employees have been collecting since the beginning of August. Opinions and data gathered through the survey will assist the Nation in program and service development decisions.

It is important for tribal members to fill out an address update form, which is attached to the survey, whether or not they think their information has been updated.

"Often tribal members erroneously believe that Cherokee Nation has their current address, because they have recently accessed services through a CNO program or health care clinic", said Lee Ann Dreadfulwater, a tribal planning analyst who is coordinating the survey effort. "However, because of confidentiality issues, many programs are not allowed to share names and addresses with other departments, including the Registration department."

"What we have discovered through our face-to-face survey, which utilizes tribal member’s names and addresses drawn randomly from the Registration database, is that much of the information we have is outdated", said Dreadfulwater. "Unless people let Registration know that they’ve had a change of address or that a loved one is deceased now, there is no way for Cherokee Nation to know where they are." Tribal members may miss out on important information that is periodically mailed out by the Nation, she noted, adding that Cherokee Nation also needs up-to-date information in order to provide statistical data to justify funding and funding requests.

Tribal members who complete both the address update and the survey will receive a Cherokee Nation gospel CD. There are a limited number of CD’s and they will be available on a first-come, first-served basis as an incentive for completing the form and survey. The information booths for the Cherokee National Holiday will operate various hours on Friday, September 1, and Saturday, September 2. Information booths may be found at the Cherokee Courthouse Square, outside the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma's Gift Shop, the Tahlequah Wal-Mart, the Cherokee Cultural (pow-wow) Grounds, the Cherokee Heritage Center and at Tahlequah Floats, located on corner of highways 10 and 62.