1.	Provide honest leadership that respects the Constitution, the Laws and Administers an Open Government.
2.	Understand the needs of our people, encourage participation and engage Cherokee communities in their government.
3.	Provide job opportunities and expand our economies.
4.	Improve and protect essential services of the Government on behalf of Cherokee people.
5.	Preserve and promote the Culture, Heritage and Traditions.

Working from the document we developed in 2001, the Cherokee Nation's Declaration of Designed Purpose, we developed a mission statement. The Mission of the Cherokee Nation is "ga-du-gi": working together as individuals, families, and communities by promoting confidence, the tribal culture and an effective sovereign government.

The mission statement that we developed together helps focus the work of the Cherokee Nation. The end results have come to be known as the "Five Cs" of the Cherokee Nation.
Country - Community - Culture - Competence - Capacity

Country
Exercise Sovereignty

Tribal Government Foundation
Cherokee Nation Citizenship

We must exercise the rights and obligations of a sovereign nation.

More than 26,000 Cherokee car tags on the road today are the most apparent sign of our sovereignty. We established a Washington, D.C., Office that gives our Nation a voice on every issue that affects our sovereignty and rights. We successfully ended the 35-year-old Arkansas Riverbed and banks dispute. In settlement, tribes kept ownership of riverbed and banks and received $40 million. We will continue protecting our sovereignty and treaty rights. The Smith administration will continue to press forward for our treaty rights that include a Cherokee Nation Delegate to Congress, hunting and fishing rights and water rights.

Leadership we can be proud of ... Chief Smith worked hard in D.C. to successfully help bring $millions in additional health care funding to our people, resolved the Arkansas Riverbed and banks issue, and initiated the Land Reform Act.

Competence
Achieve Operational Performance

We must continuously improve the systems and processes through which we perform the work of a government. This administration corrected the financial problems of the past administration and received the first Government Officers Association Award for Excellence In Financial Reporting since 1995.

We will continue to improve the health, education and social services of the Cherokee Nation to help Cherokees help themselves. We have expanded health clinics at Muskogee and Salina and have established nurse practitioner clinics in Bartlesville and Vinita. We will strive for effectiveness and efficiency in doing our work for the Cherokee people.

Community
Encourage Tribal Members

Strong communities are the strength of the Cherokee Nation, which is why the Cherokee Nation has placed an emphasis on programs that are community based, have strong community input and address the specific needs of a community.

The Senior Housing complexes are just one example. Complexes being built by the Housing Authority of the Cherokee Nation are 40-unit apartment buildings that allow elderly Cherokees to live in dignity, even if they are on a limited income.

Career Services has placed an emphasis helping Cherokees find and train for jobs near their home communities, locating offices in Stilwell, Sallisaw, Jay and Pryor.

And, in an effort to better protect Cherokee communities, the Cherokee Nation Marshal Service has added additional staff, including two new female patrol officers.

Capacity
Build Cherokee Nation Employees

We have outstanding employees. We must continue to build the abilities and capacities of our employees. We have built work teams to improve operations and provided extensive in-house training programs. We must focus on more ways to assist Cherokee families who have experienced the devastation of drug and substance abuse, diabetes and other catastrophic illness. A healthy nation and people have the ability to achieve self-sufficiency.

Thanks to dedicated staff employees and the co-operation of city, county and state officials there are 1,000 new jobs since 1999. Those jobs have come through recruiting new business and expanding gaming operations. Cherokee Nation Enterprises revenues have doubled in the last year. There is much work ahead to reach our self-sufficiency goals.

Culture
Promote Our Language and Culture

We must use the knowledge and wisdom of our culture. To secure our future as a people and a great nation, we must know where we came from and where we are today in order to get where we are going tomorrow. Our greatest challenge is to preserve our language. We have offered Cherokee language classes to students, communities and employees, published documents in Cherokee and began a Cherokee emersion school. We must do much much more to save our language.

The Cherokee Nation has implemented a plan to reward employees who speak, read and write Cherokee. The Cherokee Nation Cultural Resource Center has developed a set of exams to test the literacy levels of employees who want to participate in the program. The more Cherokee language skills an employee has, the higher the incentive.

In the past year, hundreds of Cherokees improved their language skills as a part of this program.

We brought Cherokee history courses to the communities and have more than 2,000 graduates.

Attention and emphasis was placed on Cherokee Culture Camps, our Cherokee National Holiday and the National Cherokee Historical Society's Museum and Cultural Center. Over the last 3 years thousands of people have participated in events that educate, inform and share the Cherokee culture and language.