District 9, December 2021

Halito from District 9. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends. We recently opened our community center for meals, and it’s been great to see all the smiling faces and laughter from our elders. We look forward to all the activities once again and fellowship.

Our new Childcare Center opened in Durant and will accommodate 272 of our children in District 9. This provides a great service to our kids and has also created over 100 new jobs. We have also recently broken ground to expand our Durant Food Distribution Center. This will allow us to meet the needs of our tribal members in the area.

Tribal Council unanimously approved a council bill for the development of new housing in Calera, Oklahoma, with funding of up to $23,048,210. This will help our tribal members and associates with homes in our area.

The development will consist of the following:

• 54 Three-bedroom single-family homes
• 13 Four-bedroom single-family homes
• 57 Two-bedroom Townhomes
• 26 Duplexes (52 living units)

We currently have 10 LEAP homes under construction and 30 more that will start after the first of the year. I encourage anyone to apply at choctawnation.com/services/leap. This has been a great program to help with our housing needs. We will have eight Independent elderly units starting very soon as well.

The growth of the Nation continues, and I appreciate working with our Chief, Assistant Chief and Tribal Council. I would like to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and happy New Year.

God Bless.