Cherokee Nation leaders have proposed building a $10 million outpatient substance-use disorder treatment facility in Stilwell, a 10,000-square-foot center that would rise at 82102 Highway 59 and be paid for entirely through the tribe's opioid settlement funds. Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. and Deputy Chief Bryan Warner put forward the project as the latest piece of a multi-year push to expand addiction treatment and recovery access across the reservation.
The Stilwell facility would draw its money from the tribe's Behavioral Health Capital Fund, which according to KOKI FOX 23 was established specifically to support behavioral health and addiction-treatment construction projects. Hoskin said the tribe secured nearly $100 million in opioid settlement funds back in 2022 to fund addiction treatment and healing, a figure that traces to legislation he, Warner and the Tribal Council passed that year amending the Public Health and Wellness Fund Act. Those 2022 amendments created the capital fund itself and directed most of the tribe's opioid settlement proceeds toward behavioral health and drug treatment construction, according to the same report.
Hoskin described the Stilwell project simply as another piece of the tribe's broader plan, the station reported. That plan has already produced visible results elsewhere on the reservation. The Hoskin-Warner administration began construction on an inpatient addiction treatment center in Tahlequah as well as outpatient recovery centers in Tahlequah and Vinita, with those projects scheduled for completion in 2027, per KOKI FOX 23's reporting.
How the Money Keeps Growing
The Cherokee Nation didn't stop amending its funding mechanism after 2022. The tribe updated the Public Health and Wellness Fund Act again in 2023 and 2026, adding more opioid settlement dollars to the capital fund, and the resulting legislation now directs millions of dollars annually toward health and career-services programs for people overcoming addiction, according to KOKI FOX 23's account. The tribe has leaned on this well before the Stilwell proposal; separate Cherokee Nation government reporting from anadisgoi.com describes Hoskin and Warner signing legislation investing $23 million in additional substance-use treatment and recovery centers, with the Tribal Council approving that measure on Jan. 12 and the chiefs signing it into law on Jan. 14.
That $23 million package included an $18 million outpatient facility built alongside an inpatient facility on the Tahlequah campus, with the tribe expecting to complete both by 2027, the government news site reported. It also set aside $5 million for a new facility in Vinita. Those commitments came on top of a $41 million inpatient facility for adults that broke ground southwest of Tahlequah in 2024 and was still under construction as of the anadisgoi.com report. The Tahlequah campus itself is planned as a 45,000-square-foot complex with 100 inpatient beds and an outpatient hub for follow-up support, according to the Cherokee Phoenix, and designs call for incorporating Cherokee traditions like the game of stickball and an on-campus garden for growing selu, or corn.
Settlement Money Rooted in a 2017 Lawsuit
The opioid settlement dollars funding all of this trace back to 2017, when the Cherokee Nation became the first tribal nation to pursue litigation against the opioid industry, according to KOKI FOX 23. That litigation ultimately secured key settlement agreements the tribe has since poured into construction. The Los Angeles Times has separately reported that opioid-manufacturer settlements brought the tribe roughly $150 million, though the available reporting does not reconcile how that figure relates to the nearly $100 million Hoskin cited as reserved in 2022.
The stakes behind the spending are stark. The Los Angeles Times has reported that more than 1,000 people died in the 14 counties that make up Cherokee Nation between 2020 and 2024, and that Cherokee Nation senior behavioral health director Juli Skinner said there are typically 50 to 70 tribal citizens who need to be connected to residential treatment each month. Those numbers echo an earlier accounting from ICT News, which reported that Cherokee Nation logged 18 deaths, 79 non-fatal drug overdoses and 576 treatment admissions within the tribe's reservation boundaries during 2020 alone. The Guardian has described the tribe's broader response as a $100 million strategy to reduce opioid overdoses on the reservation, funded in part by that 2017 lawsuit.
Reaching Remote Corners of the Reservation
Not every part of the tribe's response involves brick-and-mortar buildings. The Cherokee Nation launched a mobile harm-reduction unit in September 2023 to bring supplies to remote areas of the reservation, with Vinita serving as its first distribution site, according to The Guardian's reporting. That same account described the unit making twice-weekly trips from Tahlequah to Vinita, a town of 5,000 people roughly 70 miles away, carrying supplies along rural Oklahoma roads.
For the Stilwell project to move forward, Deputy Chief Warner has said the facility would bring treatment services under the direct management of the Cherokee Nation health system, telling KOKI FOX 23 that people with substance use disorder deserve compassionate and comprehensive care. He added that new facilities built this way put patients at the center of care delivered under direct health-system management. But the project still needs sign-off: the Tribal Council must approve the proposal before construction and procurement teams can begin awarding contracts, and a bid solicitation tied to the project is scheduled to run from Oct. 22 through Nov. 17 on cherokeebids.org, per the station's report.
The resolution is scheduled to go before committee meetings this Monday, Nov. 9, and if it clears committee, it would advance to the full Tribal Council for consideration that same evening, according to KOKI FOX 23.
