The Cherokee Nation has approved its fiscal 2017 budget, which will be the largest in the tribe's history.
The Cherokee Nation Tribal Council on Monday approved the $934.2 million budget for the coming fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. That number includes funding from a combination of grants, compacts, contracts, dividends, taxes and revenue from tribal businesses, including casinos.
The tribe says the budget is $167.2 million higher than the previous year's budget. It includes the construction budget for a new, 450,000-square-foot facility at Cherokee Nation W.W. Hastings Hospital in Tahlequah.
Also Monday, the tribe approved a resolution in support of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's protest of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota.