TAHLEQUAH, Okla. (AP) — Nearly 1,800 Cherokee Nation employees will get a pay raise this year and the minimum wage will increase to $11 for tribal employees, a tribal official said.

Principal Chief-elect Chuck Hoskin Jr. announced the raises to more than 100 employees during a town hall at the W.W. Hastings health facility in Tahlequah on Wednesday.

The tribe's minimum hourly wage will increase from $9.50 to $11 when Hoskin signs the executive order in October.

"It's fiscally responsible," he said. "It keeps us sustainable because we want to be sustainable for the Cherokee people. It's the rig...