Ann Dockins with nonprofit People’s Community, Inc., cuts a ribbon Aug. 26 to celebrate the installation of solar panels on the organization’s community building in Bowlin Springs, Oklahoma. She is surrounded by fellow organization members and tribal leaders including Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr., Deputy Chief Bryan Warner, CN Secretary of Natural Resources Christina Justice and CN Secretary of State Shella Bowlin.
Helen Rogers with People’s Community, Inc., helps serve food and drink Aug. 26 inside the nonprofit’s community building leased from the Cherokee Nation in Bowlin Springs, Oklahoma.
People’s Community Center is located in Bowlin Springs, Oklahoma, 13 miles east of Vinita.
Throughout the reservation, the Cherokee Nation supports community groups like People’s Community, Inc.
Ann Dockins with nonprofit People’s Community, Inc., cuts a ribbon Aug. 26 to celebrate the installation of solar panels on the organization’s community building in Bowlin Springs, Oklahoma. She is surrounded by fellow organization members and tribal leaders including Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr., Deputy Chief Bryan Warner, CN Secretary of Natural Resources Christina Justice and CN Secretary of State Shella Bowlin.
BOWLIN SPRINGS, Okla. – Solar panels installed atop a Cherokee Nation community center in the small community of Bowlin Springs, Oklahoma, will not only help reduce the tribe’s carbon footprint but lower electricity costs for a nonprofit group that calls the building home.
Members of People’s Community, Inc., joined tribal leaders Aug. 26 to celebrate the successful solar panel installation.
Helen Rogers with People’s Community, Inc., helps serve food and drink Aug. 26 inside the nonprofit’s community building leased from the Cherokee Nation in Bowlin Springs, Oklahoma.
“People should understand that community organizations operate on lean budgets,” Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said. “They do a great deal for culture, for historic preservation in many cases. They help lift up elders or people in need in the community, as is the case among other activities here at People’s Community in Bowlin Springs. If we can lower their energy bill, they can put more resources towards all of those things that they really are organizing for.”
The solar panel project was funded through the Housing, Jobs & Sustainable Communities Act signed into law by Hoskin in 2019.
“We like to celebrate these things because they are milestones,” he said. “They are what the law intended to do – lower energy costs, lower carbon footprint, help enable the community organizations who, in almost every case, are leasing buildings that the Cherokee Nation owns. But they’re leasing it for the long haul at really a nominal rate. We’re just asking them to get things done for the Cherokee people; tap into that spirit of gadugi.”
People’s Community Center is located in Bowlin Springs, Oklahoma, 13 miles east of Vinita.
People’s Community, Inc. joined the tribe’s Community & Cultural Outreach program in 2018. To help the nonprofit better serve the area, Cherokee Nation opened the $2 million Bowlin Springs community center in 2023 using funds from the Sustainable Communities Act. Today, the community center operates an elder nutrition program.
“The philosophy is anywhere Cherokees want to organize, work together and do something locally to make a difference, let’s get behind them with infrastructure, with a facility,” Hoskin said. “This is an amazing facility that gets used for the nutrition program among other things.”
CN Secretary of Natural Resources Christina Justice said the tribe has installed solar panels on 16 community buildings throughout the reservation.
Throughout the reservation, the Cherokee Nation supports community groups like People’s Community, Inc.
“In doing solar installs like this one, we’re reducing our carbon footprint,” she said. “That is beneficial to the community as a whole and the Nation as a whole. But these community buildings specifically, they operate on such a minimal budget, and they do so much good for our communities that every dollar counts. Any way we can reduce their energy bill just gives them more to provide services to our citizens.”
The Cherokee Nation’s Community & Cultural Outreach department facilitates partnerships in communities throughout the 7,000-square-mile reservation.
“CCO exists solely and primarily to make sure organizations just like People’s Community have resources they need,” Deputy Secretary of State Canaan Duncan said.
Bowlin Spring was founded in 1879 by Cherokee citizens, including those of Freedmen descent. Freedmen were former slaves set free by the Cherokee Nation in 1863. According to the Oklahoma Historical Society, in 1861 there were between 8,000-10,000 slaves throughout Indian Territory alone.
Of the Cherokee Nation’s 450,000-plus tribal citizens today, more than 15,000 are descendants of Cherokee Freedmen.
The Bowlin Springs community center is located at 428099 E. 270 Road, 10 miles north of Chelsea and 13 miles east of Vinita.
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