Speaker 1: Hey, it's Rachel. It's been a while, but we have
Speaker 1: a quick update for you. Last month, I hopped on
Speaker 1: a plane from Houston to Tulsa and drove the hour
Speaker 1: north to Pohsca. It was my first time on the
Speaker 1: Osage Reservation in more than a year. I went back
Speaker 1: to cover an important development. In this story. We told
Speaker 1: you a lot about how US policies were to strip
Speaker 1: O Sage land and money away from families in the
Speaker 1: Osage Nation itself. We also told you about how Osage
Speaker 1: leaders are trying to buy some of that back, and
Speaker 1: last month, the Osage Nation did something big, bringing a
Speaker 1: part of this history full circle. Government officials and journalists
Speaker 1: were in town, including Alison Edrea, my reporting partner for
Speaker 1: this podcast. We all gathered in a big room at
Speaker 1: the new O Sage Casino in Pahsca. There was a
Speaker 1: podium at the front next to a table with some
Speaker 1: official documents on it. Chief Jeffrey's standing there can please
Speaker 1: come up. You might remember Chief standing there from earlier episodes.
Speaker 1: He's the elected leader of the Osage Nation and the
Speaker 1: person who made the call to go all in to
Speaker 1: win the more than forty thousand acres billionaire Ted Turner
Speaker 1: was selling. But that acquisition was just step one, because the.
Speaker 2: Title is going to be changed from Osage Nation to
Speaker 2: the United States of America in trust for the Osage Nation,
Speaker 2: that's what is on these states.
Speaker 1: This was step two, transferring the land to the federal government,
Speaker 1: so that the US would hold the title to the land,
Speaker 1: but on behalf of the Osage Nation. In other words,
Speaker 1: to establish that fiduciary duty, the highest responsibility in the
Speaker 1: US legal system, a way to protect the land from
Speaker 1: being sold or lost or stolen. This had been years
Speaker 1: in the making. The osh Nation had applied to have
Speaker 1: the land put in trust back in twenty sixteen, then
Speaker 1: withdrew that application, did a bunch of work, and resubmitted
Speaker 1: it in twenty twenty three. Putting land in trust, even
Speaker 1: a couple acres is a long bureaucratic process, so for
Speaker 1: a massive chunk like this ranch, at times it seemed
Speaker 1: like it might not even happen at all. You might
Speaker 1: remember that one issue was all the oil drilling that
Speaker 1: had taken place on the land. There was a concern
Speaker 1: that the BIA, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, might not
Speaker 1: accept the liability that came with that damage, even though
Speaker 1: it was the US that had overseen the oil production.
Speaker 1: Chief Standing Bear said he explained all this to Frank Lucas,
Speaker 1: the US Congressman from Oklahoma.
Speaker 2: We told him the situation and he goes, oh, let
Speaker 2: me get this straight. Bia. He's a big tallent. He goes,
Speaker 2: BIA says, he can't put it in trust, as all
Speaker 2: its environmental damage. But all's environmental damage happened when they
Speaker 2: were in charge and make sure everything was not damas. Yes, sir,
Speaker 2: and he goes, let them make sense. Then I go,
Speaker 2: that's what we think.
Speaker 1: So after Chief Standing Bear finished speaking, a new person
Speaker 1: came on stage, a regional director for the BIA ed
Speaker 1: E Streeter. They were in pretty close contact over the
Speaker 1: last several years working on this. There were a lot
Speaker 1: of technical details that needed to be hammered out, but
Speaker 1: he said it was the right thing for the government
Speaker 1: to do.
Speaker 3: Placing land and trust is critical to travel, sovereignty, self
Speaker 3: determination and preservation of the history and culture, economic development,
Speaker 3: and the well being and tribal citizens. The process also
Speaker 3: helped write the wrongs of past policies such as a
Speaker 3: lot men as Chief talked about, which removed me as
Speaker 3: the makers of lands for travel, ownership and federal protection.
Speaker 1: Federal policy any more than a century. After the nineteen
Speaker 1: oh six Act that divided up this land, the title
Speaker 1: to more than forty thousand acres was officially transferred from
Speaker 1: the o Sage Nation to the US government. It's trustee
Speaker 1: and perpetuity.
Speaker 2: So congratulations, you are own forty three thousand acres all
Speaker 2: forty two thousand sum of federal trust land and it
Speaker 2: is owned by Alden.
Speaker 1: After the event, Alison and I caught up outside with r. J. Walker,
Speaker 1: the assistant Principal Chief who drove the bid to Kansas
Speaker 1: with Raymond Redcorn, the bid that won the Osage Nation
Speaker 1: this land nine years ago.
Speaker 4: One of my biggest desires as an Osage as as
Speaker 4: an elected official, is to purchase our land back. And
Speaker 4: the simple reality is that they're not making any more land.
Speaker 4: And we sat in one little spot in this world,
Speaker 4: and it's the Osage Nation, the Osa Reservation, and we're
Speaker 4: taking it back little by little. In this case, it
Speaker 4: was a big bite.
Speaker 1: By all accounts, this was a celebration, but r J said,
Speaker 1: this relationship with the US government is still kind of
Speaker 1: tense at times. There's a lot of history here of
Speaker 1: how the US facilitated this landlass to begin with, how
Speaker 1: it breached its trust duty, something we covered extensively.
Speaker 4: It's just a little bit awkward to me to sign
Speaker 4: over something that is the Osage Nation and now it
Speaker 4: is owned by the United States of America.
Speaker 1: This came up a lot during my reporting for the
Speaker 1: first eight episodes of this podcast, how complicated the trust
Speaker 1: relationship is and how difficult it can be for the
Speaker 1: Osage Nation to put its faith in a government that
Speaker 1: has allowed and even facilitated some of the worst chapters
Speaker 1: in its long history. I think back to my conversation
Speaker 1: with Genie Dennison, the Osage citizen and associate professor of
Speaker 1: American Indian Studies at the University of Washington. She explained
Speaker 1: how the trust relationship was a tool away for the
Speaker 1: Osage Nation to use the US legal system to its
Speaker 1: advantage and keep the state out of the Osage Nation.
Speaker 4: This is a historic deal and its interest forever on
Speaker 4: behalf of the Osage Nation and the United States of
Speaker 4: America now has a responsibility that it is taken care
Speaker 4: of and we are taken care of and it can
Speaker 4: never be sold.
Speaker 1: As I was leaving Oklahoma, I was struck by how
Speaker 1: much had changed since I started reporting this story. During
Speaker 1: my first visit here, I'd met Jim Gray, the former chief,
Speaker 1: to ask him about head rights and how so many
Speaker 1: non Osages got them. I remember Jim telling me all
Speaker 1: about the territory the Osage once had centuries ago, how
Speaker 1: they bought all of what's now Osage County above the
Speaker 1: ground and below, and how the government carved it up
Speaker 1: into smaller chunks. On my way out of town, I
Speaker 1: met up with Jim again, this time at a diner.
Speaker 1: In a lot of ways, this was an effort that
Speaker 1: really started back in the early two thousands when Jim
Speaker 1: was chief and the Osage Nation reformed its entire government,
Speaker 1: setting itself up to do something huge like buy back
Speaker 1: tens of thousands of acres of land.
Speaker 5: We lost our land, a lot of it over the centuries,
Speaker 5: and this is an attempt to get some of it back,
Speaker 5: but not just get it back and stay under the
Speaker 5: jurisdiction of the state and the taxation policies of the state.
Speaker 5: This gives it back in the best way you can
Speaker 5: get it back. The United States government protected on your
Speaker 5: behalf from encouragion by local municipal government, or say government,
Speaker 5: that's as good as it gets in this business.
Speaker 1: Everyone I talked to this last trip said the same thing.
Speaker 1: Land prices are high. Putting assets back in trust is hard.
Speaker 1: But the Osage nation isn't done. Oce Age leaders want
Speaker 1: more land and they're working to put themselves in a
Speaker 1: financial position to buy it. Acquiring this land, putting it
Speaker 1: back into trust, It's far from the end. It's another beginning.
Speaker 1: This episode was reported and hosted by me Rachel Adams,
Speaker 1: heard with additional reporting from Alison Edita. It was produced
Speaker 1: by Victor Eveyas and edited by Margaret Sutherland and Jeff
Speaker 1: Grocottlomberg's head of podcasts is Sage Bowman. Additional thanks to
Speaker 1: Davis Land, Jackie Kestler, Ariel Brown, and Shane Brown.