The Cherokee Nation is celebrating the four-year anniversary of the Wilma P. Mankiller and Charlie Soap Water Act including spending $23.8 million so far to date for water investments made in that time to increase water quality access for Cherokee Nation citizens across the reservation.
The Cherokee Nation has invested $8.3 million in the community and water district of Cherry Tree, located east of Muskogee. The community had been in need of repairs and maintenance to its water system that serves over 800 Cherokee homes.
The act has also utilized half a million to help elders or those low income with water utility bills, and $25,000 to help put in new water taps for homes under the new home construction program. In addition to these improvements, a water tower is being built in Nowata, and 120 Cherokee Nation citizens identified in a water survey last year through the tribe are being individually served with water upgrades.
The Cherokee Nation Wilma P. Mankiller and Charlie Soap Water Act is a legislative initiative to improve access to clean and safe water signed into law in April 2021 by Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. and Deputy Chief Bryan Warner.
