Sequoyah County is one of the counties in the tribe's 14-county jurisdiction to receive funds - receiving the largest piece of the tribe's $250,000 donation.
Departments in the county who received extra funding included Blackgum, Brent, Brushy, Central, Gans, Gore, Lee Creek, Liberty, Maple, Marble City, McKey, Muldrow, Nicut, Redland, Rocky Point, Roland, Rural Fire Protection District 1, Vian and West Tenkiller.
Before the presentation of the checks, Greg Walters, with the Nicut Volunteer Fire Department board, attributed the tribe's donation to the work of Tribal Councilor David W. Thornton, who represents Sequoyah County.
Walters said county firefighters met with Thornton in September to talk about the needs of rural fire departments, one of which was dwindling state funding for rural fire departments. Walters said the firefighters asked Thornton for the tribe's help, and through Thornton's hard work, the funding was approved.
"That little meeting turned out good for us," Walters said.
Ernie Moore, rural fire coordinator with the Eastern Oklahoma Development District (EODD), helped Cherokee Nation distribute the checks Thursday. EODD partnered with Cherokee Nation to handle the paperwork involved in the donation.
Moore said the counties received the money because of the efforts of Thornton and because the tribe saw the need after the difficult fire season the fire departments have encountered.
"Rural volunteer fire departments responded admirably to the call," Moore said, noting how the season has been expensive with the cost of fuel and equipment.
When the efforts began to get funding from the tribe for fire departments, Thornton said, "We didn't know there was going to be a drought."
Thornton said what he did know was that fire departments had been cut off from some federal funding.
"Everything fell into place," Thornton said.
Thornton said the tribe not only gave the money because firefighters fight fires, but because they are the first to go out into communities when there are wrecks or other incidents.
While Thornton told the group of firefighters that he couldn't promise them any funding next year, he guaranteed that he would try.
