The Chickasaw Nation-Purpose Area 3

The Chickasaw Nation

Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS) Purpose Area (PA) 3

Application Cover Page – Abstract

            The Chickasaw Nation (CN) is a federally recognized First American tribe located in south-central Oklahoma. The CN defines a treaty territory as being a reservation, which has not been disestablished and refers to Native Americans as First Americans. Presently, there are over 73,000 enrolled Chickasaw citizens and 58 percent reside in Oklahoma. The CN’s treaty territory includes 7,648 square miles that encompass all or part of 13 Oklahoma counties including: Bryan, Carter, Coal, Garvin, Grady, Jefferson, Johnston, Love, Marshall, McClain, Murray, Pontotoc and Stephens. The CN is seeking funding for the Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS) in Purpose Area (PA) 3 by proposing the Chokma Pilachi Project, meaning “to send along in a good way” in the Chickasaw language. The Chokma Pilachi Project will provide forensic competency evaluations to all First American criminal defendants and outpatient competency restoration services to defendants opined incompetent that reside within the CN’s treaty territory. Implementation of project deliverables will lead to specific outcomes that support the CN in becoming a self-supporting and self-sustaining tribal government. The four core functions of the Chokma Pilachi Project are to 1) plan for project activities and service implementation, 2) organize project personnel and service delivery, 3) provide forensic mental health services and outpatient competency restoration and 4) evaluate the effectiveness of the program through a focus on continuous quality improvement and communication feedback loops.