TAHLEQUAH – The Cherokee Phoenix has named the honorees of its 2026 Seven Feathers Awards, celebrating Cherokee Nation citizens who have and continue to make significant impacts in the areas of business, community, culture, education, health, language and service.
The newspaper established the awards in 2019. Honorees are recognized annually during a special gala. The 2026 Seven Feathers Awards Gala is Oct. 10 at 6 p.m. in the Chota Center of Cherokee Casino Tahlequah.
“The Cherokee Phoenix Seven Feathers Awards is definitely one of my favorite highlights each and every year,” Executive Editor Tyler Thomas said. “Although extremely challenging due to the quality of submissions and the caliber of nominees, I thoroughly enjoy learning about all the contributions and efforts made by Cherokee Nation citizens from around the country. Just as in previous years, I believe the 2026 honorees to be of the highest caliber and I look forward to celebrating them more at the 2026 gala.”
The 2026 Seven Feathers Awards honorees:
BUSINESS
Amanda Thompson
For business, the Seven Feathers recipient is Amanda Thompson, of Broken Arrow. Thompson is founder and CEO of Prime Craftsman Homes, a construction company she started after learning in 2023 that Cherokee Nation citizens faced a shortage of nearly 9,000 homes. A registered nurse at the time, she recognized how substandard housing can affect health, and she saw her eight children struggle to find safe, affordable places to live as they each moved out on their own.
Thompson was chosen as one of 10 women nationally, out of hundreds of applicants, for the Cherokee Women’s AccelerateHER program, a fellowship supported by the University of Tulsa, Cherokee Nation and the Ayana Foundation. She used seed funding from that program and a second mortgage on her house to leave nursing and start Prime Craftsman Homes. The company now has about 45 employees – many tribal citizens. Thompson has become known as a second-chance employer of the formerly incarcerated.
COMMUNITY
Marcella Morton
Marcella Morton, of Westville, is the Seven Feathers Award honoree for community.
Morton, 75, spent a career teaching in Indian Country, including years providing instruction in courses of Indian Studies. After an initial retirement, she worked with the American Indian Resource Center, counseling college-bound students living in Indian Country. Following her second retirement, she took a job teaching life skills through Echota Behavioral Health, where she led a running group for 15 years.
She has also taught and shared traditional sewing techniques through community workshops and showed after-school students in Stilwell how to make corn-bead necklaces.
Morton’s nomination describes someone who “rarely turns down the opportunity to teach anything” and called her “a force to be reckoned with.”
Contributing to her community, Morton volunteers monthly at the Westville community building, where she instructs elders in Cherokee cultural craft and its significance. She also volunteers at local festivals, where she distributes materials related to mental health.
CULTURE
Douglass Martin
The Seven Feathers award for culture goes to Douglass Martin, of Austin, Texas.
For four years, Martin has worked through the Central Texas Cherokee Township to build partnerships with organizations supporting the Cherokee Three Sisters Gardens and teaching the culture surrounding food sovereignty. He helped launch the ongoing gardens and arranged partnership with a seed bank to preserve seeds for future growing seasons.
Martin also gives cultural presentations on nixtamalization and demonstrates traditional games such as stickball, Cherokee marbles and the blowgun. He has taught Cherokee language classes – See, Say and Write – online in partnership with another Cherokee community organization. At libraries in Austin and San Marcos, he demonstrates Cherokee culture through finger weaving, corn-bead necklace making and cornhusk doll making, and he has given cultural presentations at the Bullock Museum.
Martin regularly visits the gardens he helped establish and spends time at the Native American Cultural Center to organize games for children.
EDUCATION
Michelle Smith
For education, the Cherokee Phoenix has chosen Michelle Smith, of Fresno, California, to receive the Seven Feathers recognition.
Smith holds a senior leadership position overseeing student services at Fresno City College, where she works to ensure students from underrepresented backgrounds have the support and resources needed for success. Her nomination form cites her focus of leadership on an idea of education as a path to identity, belonging and generational strength.
Smith has been a tireless advocate for the college’s Native American Studies degree program, pushing to ensure Native students see themselves represented in the curriculum, and that all students learn about Native history and contributions. She also serves on the advisory board for the college’s Restoring American Indian Nations program, which supports Native students and enhances cultural connections on campus and in the community.
Smith is a recipient of the Robert Brown Award, given in recognition of leadership and commitment to student success and educational equity.
HEALTH
Dakota St. Pierre
For health, the Cherokee Phoenix has named Dakota St. Pierre, of Stilwell, as the Seven Feathers honoree.
A graduate of Stilwell High School, St. Pierre attended the University of Oklahoma before completing medical school at OU, where he graduated in the top 15% of his class. He is now a reconstructive plastic surgeon and has entered his second year as a surgical resident at the University of Kentucky, where he was named resident of the month in a field of 600 residents during his first six months on staff. His nomination form states that he “continually gets great reviews from all his patients.” It further mentions St. Pierre’s work schedule of 60-80 hours a week leaving him little time, but that he squeezes in some volunteer work “any chance he gets.”
LANGUAGE
Cora Flute
The Seven Feathers winner for language is Cora Flute, of Greasy. Flute has been a cornerstone of the Cherokee Nation Language Department since its earliest days, when the program spanned a single master-apprentice classroom. In the subsequent years, she has handed forth her knowledge of the Cherokee language to a remarkable number of students, helping shape Cherokee language preservation into what it is today. Her nomination described a dedicated pioneer of the language program and credited her work as indispensable to its growth and success.
SERVICE
David Keith Hampton
David Keith Hampton, of Hulbert, is the recipient of the Seven Feathers award for service. Hampton’s interest in genealogy began at age 11 as he was growing up in Broken Arrow, and it bloomed into a lifelong commitment to documenting Cherokee family histories. He served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War as a Laotian language interpreter. He then earned his degree from the University of Oklahoma and worked as an accountant until 2011, when he retired and focused his attention on genealogy research.
Hampton has spent decades tracing Cherokee lineage that was scattered or lost after the Trail of Tears, drawing on sources such as the Guion Miller Roll, Dawes Commission records, the 1851 Siler Roll, the Old Settlers Roll and Trail of Tears removal records.
His nomination described him as someone who “wanted to resurrect the Cherokee lineage and culture, which had been lost to the winds of lost time.”