"the People's Paths!" Cherokee News Path - Cherokee Nation Angel Tree

"Cherokee Nation employees gather to select angels from the Cherokee Nation Angel Tree located in the lobby of the Tribal Complex in Tahlequah. Additional trees are located throughout the Cherokee Nation."

TAHLEQUAH, OKLAHOMA – The Cherokee Nation is helping make Christmas a little brighter this year for hundreds of children across the tribe’s jurisdictional boundaries by again hosting the Cherokee Nation Angel Tree Project.

“Thanks to the generosity of our employees and our citizens, we have been able to assist thousands of children over the years with the Cherokee Nation Angel Tree Project,” said Chad Smith, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. “This is a program we have been proud to be a part of for over a decade. It’s a program that allows us to live the Cherokee way of ga-du-gi, or working together to help one another in our communities.”

The Angel Tree Project consists of paper angels decorating Christmas trees in the Cherokee Nation complex and in several of the tribe’s casinos. The needs of disadvantaged children are written on the angels. Community members are encouraged to select and angel and purchase gifts for the child, then return the gifts to the program office to be delivered to the children in the days preceding Christmas. Children served by the program include children of Native American decent and living in low income families throughout the Cherokee Nation, children in tribal custody, low income students at Sequoyah Schools, and children currently living at the Jack Brown House in Tahlequah and the Murrow Home in Muskogee.

“This program is a tremendous help to families who are unable to provide anything to their kids at Christmas,” said Shannon Chesser, program manager for the Angel Tree Project. “The families are very thankful for any assistance they receive.”

Chesser added that the thankfulness doesn’t stop with those who are receiving the gifts, but that those who take an angel and provide gifts for a child are also humbled by the experience.

“People who have no children and people who have large families have sponsored angels,” Chesser said. “They each show excitement and have said it makes them feel grateful for what they have even more.”

For those wishing to participate but cannot take an angel due to their own financial restraints can still assist with the project by donating their time to wrap gifts and accompany program workers to purchase gifts with the monetary donations received.

For more information on the Cherokee Nation Angel Tree Project, contact Chesser or Brandy Lemley, phone: 918-207-3888.