- Details
- By Tribal Business News Staff
- Health Care
Cherokee Nation has opened a $30 million wellness center in Tahlequah, extending a multi-year investment in public health infrastructure funded through tribal health revenues and federal pandemic aid.
The 75,000-square-foot facility was financed through the tribe's Public Health and Wellness Fund Act of 2021, which directs 10% of annual third-party health insurance collections to physical fitness and wellness programs. The project also received funding from the American Rescue Plan Act.
The center replaces the Male Seminary Recreation Center, known as Markoma, which served more than 12,500 members and averaged about 9,300 gym visits, 840 child watch visits and 1,700 group exercise participants each month. Tribal officials said the larger facility is expected to accommodate additional demand.
The new center includes weight and cardio areas, six group exercise studios, two basketball courts, batting cages, a golf simulator, an indoor walking track, child watch services and locker rooms with saunas.
Membership is free for Cherokee Nation citizens, while noncitizens may join for $20 per month.
"This facility is about more than fitness, it is an investment in healthier families and stronger communities for generations to come," Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said in a statement.
The opening is part of a broader expansion of Cherokee Nation's wellness network. The tribe operates wellness centers in Stilwell, Salina, Kenwood and Marble City, and plans another at its Claremore health campus. Last month, Hoskin signed an executive order creating a task force to develop a 10-year strategy for expanding wellness infrastructure across the reservation.
The project also adds to a decade-long buildout of Cherokee Nation's health infrastructure. The tribe opened its $470 million replacement W.W. Hastings Hospital last month, and a University of Central Oklahoma economic analysis released last month found Cherokee Nation Health Services generated more than $2 billion in statewide economic output in fiscal year 2025, reflecting the growing economic role of tribally operated health systems alongside their healthcare mission.
