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Anchor: Antonia Gonzales
The Cherokee Nation and the U.S. Mint celebrated the release of the Wilma Mankiller quarter Monday in Tahlequah, OK.
The quarter is one of five designs in the American Women Quarters Program. The program is highlighting the accomplishments and contributions of trailblazing American women, including in areas of civil rights and government.
Chief Mankiller was the first woman elected principal chief of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. During the event, current principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, Chuck Hoskin Jr., talked about Chief Mankiller’s legacy.
He says she helped lead the way in work to improve health care, address racial justice, and advocate for women’s rights.
“If Chief Mankiller’s legacy was summed up simply by what she did, my friends it would be enormous, but her legacy grows because her work continues to make an impact and I see it every single day. She keeps changing the world every time our tribe helps an elder, every time neighbors join together to make their Cherokee community a safer and better place to live, every time a kid applies to college or starts learning the Cherokee language.”
T.V. Johnson with the U.S. Mint told the crowd the work they do at the Mint is connecting America through coins. He says the Cherokee Nation has been featured on dollar coins, but not on a quarter.
“This will be the first time a Cherokee member will be featured on a quarter. A coin that changes hands over and over again prompting anyone who sees it, not in the know, to say who is this? And, perhaps inspire a little girl or boy to become inspired about Wilma Mankiller and her remarkable perseverance contributed so much to the Cherokee people and people worldwide.”
The coin’s design depicts Mankiller looking to the future, wrapped in a shawl and the seven-pointed star of the Cherokee Nation. The inscriptions are in English and in the Cherokee syllabary.
The release of the Mankiller quarter is the third coin in the program.
Before U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg tested positive for COVID, he was scheduled to travel to the Cherokee Nation on Tuesday. Instead, Deputy Secretary of Transportation Polly Trottenberg will go in his place.
The tribe and federal agency are signing a compact and funding agreement to plan and oversee road construction and transit projects without having to seek federal permission and oversight.
While the deputy secretary takes the planned tour a road project and discusses electric vehicle initiatives undertaken by the tribe, Sec. Buttigieg is working remotely per CDC guidelines while he self-isolates and recovers from his mild symptoms.
Montana tribes later this year will receive the first round of federal funding for water and sewer projects on tribal land. Montana Public Radio’s Aaron Bolton reports, the money comes from Congress’ bipartisan infrastructure bill passed last year.
Montana tribes will receive just shy of $2 million this year for construction of new wells and lift stations as well as other improvements for tribal water and sewer systems.
Projects on the Crow Agency, Blackfeet, Flathead, Fort Belknap, and Northern Cheyenne reservations will be funded this year.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, tribes across the nation will receive a total of $3.5 billion dollars for water and sewer projects by 2025.
Outdated water and sewer infrastructure has hampered the Blackfeet Nation in particular. The tribe has been unable to build a new drug treatment center and other sorely needed services because Browning’s water and sewer system is maxed out. The tribe isn’t receiving federal dollars to update that system during this first wave of funding.
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