Machine operator Dakota Fixin inspects masks Sept. 17 at the Cherokee Nation’s PPE manufacturing facility in Hulbert.
Face masks are produced Sept. 17 at the Cherokee Nation’s PPE manufacturing facility in Hulbert.
Machine operator Dakota Fixin inspects masks Sept. 17 at the Cherokee Nation’s PPE manufacturing facility in Hulbert.
Face masks are produced Sept. 17 at the Cherokee Nation’s PPE manufacturing facility in Hulbert.
Cherokee Nation leaders say return on mask-making investment is PPE security, jobs
HULBERT – Cherokee Nation leaders say the tribe’s fledgling face mask-making operations in Hulbert and Stilwell not only fill a community demand, but also offer much-needed employment for tribal citizens displaced by the pandemic.
“We want to put the Nation in a position where we have adequate supplies of PPE, specifically masks,” Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said. “We are still in the midst of fighting COVID, and we know that masking, in addition to vaccines, is the most important thing that we can do. There is a demand for that. So we have been able to meet the particular demand at the community level. We’ve seen schools struggling with how to protect kids and wanting to do the right thing. We’ve provided them with masks. We’ve done that for other places in the communities – churches, people that need the mask, our workforce.”
A year ago, using federal CARES Act funding, the tribe spent $9 million to build a 4,300-square-foot personal protective equipment, or PPE, facility in Hulbert and renovate a long-vacant Cherokee Nation Businesses building for a larger operation in Stilwell. In addition to PPE security, the sites have created jobs for those displaced by the pandemic or who are recovering from substance addiction, Hoskin said.
“It gives them an opportunity to get some skills and employment and move on to a life where they can be self-sufficient,” he said. “It’s another win. It’s another reason this was a great investment.”
Out of work during the pandemic, Dakota Fixin, 29, of Tahlequah, took advantage of a Career Services program that led him back into the workforce as a PPE machine operator.
“I had my own trash business,” he said, “and people would rather keep their $20 a month not knowing if they’re going to have a job or not rather than have us pick up their trash, which is fine. But we had to sell the business and I was out of work for about a year.”
Fixin now works with a handful of others at the Hulbert PPE operation.
“I’ve worked with machines a fair number of years and thought it would be a good place for me,” he said. “The benefits are good, the pay is pretty good. It’s a really good job and something I like to do on a day-to-day basis.”
There are 18-19 employees between the two locations with potential for more, Chief of Staff Todd Enlow said.
“If our production grows … we could go conceivably into three shifts and have upwards of 90 to 100 employees that would be staffed between those two different locations,” he said. “Our projection is that if we ran shifts at full capacity, we could produce anywhere around 200,000 masks per day.”
The PPE facilities are producing between 2,800-3,200 three-ply surgical masks and 1,600-1,800 of the heavier-duty N95 masks per hour.
“We also have acquired an N99 machine, which is one step above the N95,” Enlow said. “It filters out 99% of the particulate matter. We are working on getting that machine online right now.”
Masks produced by the tribe have ended up in the hands of students and others throughout the reservation. The CN has already donated to schools in Keys, Dahlonegah and Hubert, the latter of which recently received 16,200 masks.
“We’re working with Westville and we’ve got several other donations and stops scheduled over the next coming weeks where we’re actually hand delivering the masks into the individual school districts,” Enlow said.
The CN is pursuing certification from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that would allow the tribe’s masks to be used, for example, in surgical rooms.
“We hope that COVID-19 is not going to be here forever,” Enlow said. “So there is an application for us to provide not only the resources inside our health care facilities for regular doctors’ visits and our staff that are performing surgeries, but also every other health care system in our region, in the state. There’s also a possibility for us … to contract with the federal government of the United States of America. There’s lots of opportunities for us to not only continue sustaining the efforts to provide a safe environment in health care, but also for us to create jobs and then ultimately generate revenue that continues that cycle.”