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As Principal Chief, he has increased minimum wage at Cherokee Nation and Cherokee Nation Businesses and secured the largest language investment in the tribe’s history to expand Cherokee language education and preservation. Chief Hoskin also appointed the tribe’s first delegate to the U.S. Congress, doubled Cherokee Nation’s funding for career tech education, and established the Housing, Jobs and Sustainable Communities Act to repair hundreds of homes for Cherokees elders as well as public community buildings across the tribe’s 14-county jurisdiction.

Additionally, as Secretary of State, Hoskin worked to secure funding from the federal government to fund a billion-dollar joint venture investment in better health care for all Cherokees. He has also served as Cherokee Nation’s strongest advocate on sovereignty protection.

He formerly served as a member of the Council of the Cherokee Nation, representing District 11 for six years, and served his final two years as Deputy Speaker. On the council, he worked with his fellow council members to start building homes for Cherokees again, increased education funding and sponsored legislation to expand health care service through casino dollars.

Chief Hoskin has testified at the United Nations on behalf of the Cherokee Nation and serves on multiple boards and commissions, including the United States Health and Human Services Secretary’s Tribal Advisory Committee.

Chief Hoskin is from the Vinita community, where he lives with his family. He and the First Lady, January, are parents to two children, Triston and Jasmine. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma and the University of Oklahoma College of Law and is a member of the Cherokee Nation and Oklahoma Bar Associations.

He was honored by the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development in 2016 as one of the 40 Under 40 – a prestigious award that recognizes 40 emerging American Indians who have demonstrated leadership, initiative and dedication and made significant contributions in business and/or their community. In 2017, Deputy Chief Warner was appointed to the Tribal Advisory Committee for the Center for Disease Control. He has been credited with working with the Oklahoma Veterans Commission in helping bring the new Veterans Center to Sallisaw. While on the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council, he was an advocate for the Cherokee Nation Foster Care program and worked diligently to bring positive changes to his district.

Deputy Chief Warner grew up in Sallisaw where he spent much of his childhood at Blue Ribbon Downs, working with his family to train racehorses. He has a Bachelor of Science in biology and a master’s in education. In 2009, Warner started his journey at Carl Albert State College as a science instructor, teaching chemistry, biology, microbiology and botany. Warner eventually assumed the position of campus director at the Sallisaw campus in 2017 before being elected to serve full time as Deputy Chief.

He and his wife, Maco, make their home in Sallisaw. They have three boys: Kaden, Luke and Clayton. They are active members of the Sallisaw First United Methodist Church.

Joe was appointed by former Oklahoma Governor Keating to the Oklahoma Native Culture Board, where he served two terms. He has held an appointment to the Planning Committee of the National Indian Policy Center in Washington, D.C. He has served as Vice-President of the Cherokee Nation Higher Education Foundation, the only Cherokee Council Member to represent the tribe at the first White House Conference on Indian Education, a tribal delegate to the National Congress of American Indians, and a member of both the National Indian Education Association and the Oklahoma Association for Bilingual Education. Joe also co-founded the “Tsa-La-Gi” Trail of Tears Awards for Excellence in education.

Joe is a senior advisor at the Watts Partners, where he directs economic development projects for the firm with a special emphasis on Native American tribes. Joe is currently President of Native American Partners, LLC, a firm specializing in business development and financing hotels, retail and entertainment ventures for Native American tribes. Joe is also the Chairman of the National Native American Chamber of Commerce.

Joe remains active in the community; he is on the Board of Directors of the Native American Diabetes Association, and he has served as a Board Member for Cherokee County Little League Baseball as a local, state and national advocate for Drug Free Youth.

Joe is the father of three children, Joseph, Candice, and Julia.

At the center of the design is renowned Cherokee inventor Sequoyah inspired in the Southeastern Woodlands design. He holds a tablet of his signature, shown as he signed it in historical records. Surrounding him is the wording “Presented to George Gist by the General Council of the Cherokees for his ingenuity in the invention of the Cherokee Alphabet.” George Gist was Sequoyah’s English name and was inscribed on the medallion he was awarded in 1824 by tribal leaders and worn by Sequoyah throughout his life. The image of two pipes was engraved on the back of Sequoyah’s medal and are displayed in the design. Seven stars represent the seven clans with one black star representing all Cherokee speakers lost to COVID-19 and who passed in the last year.

Those images are encompassed by a turtle representing the voice of the people. At ceremonial dances, women wear turtle shell rattles on their legs. The rhythmic sounds of shells as the women dance is said to symbolize the turtles lifting up their voice in song. The 86 leaves around the turtle shell represent the 86 characters in the Cherokee syllabary. The turtle moves counter clockwise in the tradition of the Cherokee people and its head is representative of the Cherokee language being an integral part of our culture in the East and West still today. The Holiday art was designed by Cherokee speakers and artists Dan Mink and Roy Boney Jr.