Why would Mr. Peak from Santa Monica Ca, send a letter or for that matter, the edditor of the Osage News post his grievance after the fact the M.C recinded their lawsuit against the Nation? It is in my opinion holding those accountable does not mean your not representing the oath you take, are you kidding me? Problem all along was there was nothing there yet to sue the Nation about in the first place. To Mr. Peck we are the owners of the M.C not the Government , Mr. Peck we are Sovereign the Osage People, not the Government, somethjng to remember.
The Osage News appears to be end-running some agenda on this one for sure. They know that lawsuit was rescinded back in mid-November of last year because they did an article on it. This is a non-issue and they know it. Hopefully someone hasn't developed a disease of the mind over there at the ONN and forgotten what they've printed on the subject.
Where is our "Notes to the Nation," Kugee? We need a clarification about a lot of these issues and what is really happening as opposed to what is being falsely advertised by the Nation. Please get on the computer and let us know what's going on.
Meeting is today but it's not online for some reason at https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/multimedia/live-media Hopefully it will be on the MC web page later on at https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/who-we-are/minerals-council/meeting-information The Agenda is located at https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/news-events/news/minerals-council-meeting-information-7
Once again, that Jim Gray couldn't tell the truth if he had to! A quarter of the headrights are out to non-Osages, not the other way around as stated in the article in https://www.indianz.com/News/2018/01/11/osage-nations-reign-of-terror-gains-rene.asp If what he states were true, 3/4 of the HPP lawsuit settlement would have gone to non-Osage owners which didn't happen. Of that quarter, there was a time when the personal property headright of those Osages back then could be sold, exchanged or transferred in an estate to go to whomever they so chose without the interference of others or the Federal government. Not all those headrights owned today are inherited by non-Osages. The article quotation of Jim Gray is as false on it's face as it can possibly be. Every time the Osage Murders come up, Jim is there to grandstand. It's sickening. It's like he's the poster mouth for what went on back then which was long before he was even born. More families in the Osage were harmed by this abomination than just Jim Gray. You'd think he could step aside and let others come forward to share what happened to their families too.
Martin Scorcese who is the unofficial film "King of Mean" should get it right but he and DiCaprio had better do some serious fact checking before they start throwing around such false statements coming from that fatuous fibster, Jim Gray. What I'd like them to finish the film with is the ghastly injustice we have have had to suffer, bear up under and shoulder in so many encroachment ways (wind farm, lawsuits represented by Gentner Drummond, the business killing regulatory actions of the BIA) since his former highness, Jim Gray, spearheaded that tax lawsuit on behalf of one single solitary Osage employee that lost us our legal Reservation Status in Federal Court in Tulsa, backed up by the 10th Circuit in Denver and dropped from being heard as a legitimate case by the U.S. Supreme Court. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!
Well said. I could not agree more the politics needs to be expressed because it's been bitter for more than one reason. How abot go back to why this Government and how it wa created and how not everyone got a vote as said. They better get it right.
wind farms. Plural not just one and more on the way. Thanks to our MC who saved the day at the 11th Hour in Federal Court at the 10th Circuit Appeals Court in Denver, these two wind farms, now on the ground, are going to have to pay up. That ought to give any comers something to think about.
Reference: https://www.indianz.com/News/2017/09/18/osage-nation-secures-landmark-decision-i.asp https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2017/09/27/osage-nation-wins-wind-farm-fight/ https://www.facebook.com/Osage-County-Ok-Residents-Against-Wind-Farms-615440228541703/ https://www.indianz.com/News/2017/10/24/osage-nation-clears-another-hurdle-in-lo.asp I don't think Mustang Run, the second wind farm, is actually on the ground yet.
Just found out what happened to Santa last month when he flew over the Osage: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154781949899378&set=a.122284044377.100192.598814377&type=3&theater
Great read and very informative. It definitely is a Job seeker market, with big oil companies like exxon and chevron comming back to America. Wwhere do we fit in this great growth that is happening now underneath our feet?
The Special Session is about to start at https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/multimedia/live-media The Agenda is located at https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/who-we-are/congress-legislative-branch/sessions
THIS IS OF EXTREME IMPORTANCE TO THE FISCAL FUTURE AND FISCAL HEALTH OF THE OSAGE NATION!
It involves a some sort of banking tool that is a banking swap to manage our variable interest rate on the loan we now have for the construction of our new casino. It requires the waiver of Sovereignty, approval, and signing of an International Swaps and Derivatives Association Agreement of some kind but I don't know if we have access to the terms and conditions of the actual swap tool product language and fine print of that agreement or not. We should not go there if we don't know exactly what is involved in this agreement. Remember this is one of the same kinds of products that brought down the Wall Street Banks in 2007/2008 over that derivatives and credit swap catastrophe that took place that nearly brought down the U.S. economy and that of the entire world. Maria Whitehorn is the sponsor of this legislation, ONCR 18-01. I would recommend a call to her about this bill as soon as possible. I am calling her today. Her phone number and e-mail are located at https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/who-we-are/congress-legislative-branch/contact
The actual resolution, ONCR 18-01 does not give any hard information on how much this swap tool product will cost either and until we know what that will involved, we don't need to be spending money for that either. It appears to be like a kind of insurance policy tool that helps us manage our risk when the interest rate goes up on our loan but these kind of agreements are very complicated and should be carefully looked at at arms length before we get involved in anything as complicated as an investment and mortgage product like this one or anything involving real estate mortgage investment derivatives and or credit swaps.
This gives a primer on the subject but the last sentence of the article states, "The takeaway: a prudent borrower should do a cost/benefit analysis to determine that the possible savings in interest over the life of the loan outweigh the upfront expenses by a margin that satisfies the borrower.” See https://www.steeglaw.com/financing-interest-rate-swap-agreements/ It appears that perhaps the lender wants us to buy this swap interest rate hedging-of-risk management tool as a kind of insurance in order to secure his interest in the success of the payment of the loan. Does this involve, permit or enable the lender’s ability to sell this loan to another lender and have it packaged up as part of a real estate derivative investment security together with a tranche of other loans like it that could be sold to anyone anywhere in the world that is looking for this kind of investment product to buy? I have reason for large concern if this is indeed the case because we don’t want our lender to be a government or pension plan for a company located somewhere in outer Slovenia that in future may buy this security and then have no way to find out who the true owner of the mortgage actually is in the years to come. This is exactly what happened with these derivative products sold all over the world and now there are real estate properties all over the United States that are sitting empty because they went back to the bank in foreclosure and no one can find out who the actual bank or whoever actually now owns the actual mortgage that was sold, packaged up and is now listed hundreds deep in a tranche recorded in the fine print of some real estate derivative security the owner of which is now is the true owner of the property with no way to find them. Insane to the MAX but it's the truth of the matter all the same. Recommended reading on this subject is the book "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis.
Oh good! Trust Geoffrey to get us into a floating variable rate loan to finance the Bluestem Ranch and the Casino Expansion. Trust Maria Whitehorn to try and get us out of the fix we're in with a crazy loan like that. How much is this loan for? $160 Million? She's like the one they call on when they want to muck out the ignored elephant and its stall right inside the Chief's Office. Lands!
Derivatives provide to the investor a way to trandfer the risk. But what is in the package? What is the trade off and be weary where there is fish there are sharks.
You have got to listen to the second half of this Commerce Committee Meeting at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t96B1LPo_1g In it, the man giving the presentation makes the statement that our entire debt level is $175 million! This is broken up into the loan for the Bluestem Ranch at $67 Million, the Casino expansion in Tulsa at $58 Million and a line of credit for $50 million !!! !!! !!! We have just now started to dip into the line of credit with a draw from the bank of $5.6 million. I'm presuming this is from the line of credit.
What is Standingbear getting out of this and how many millions of dollars is being traded under the table to make him rich off the backs of the Osage people?
MC Meeting is live online at https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/multimedia/live-media Agenda is located at https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/news-events/news/minerals-council-meeting-information-8
Now have to have Federal records process imposed on our oil and gas records per the Superintendent. Listen to Galen Crum's remarks that we are still independent per our Osage CFR rules and not the current Federal documents process of the Bureau of Land Management. Tripping over this now, Galen? Weren't we going to go with BLM rules in the new CFRs that you, Andrew and Sonny Abbott cooked up with the BIA to the detriment of everyone involved? Ha!
Drilling will come to an end in 2020 62% Economic Limit due to no new drilling replacing plugged wells. BIA takes too long to get permits out and leases approved. Producers are leaving or left because of BIA. Nothing can be done to get BIA to get things going faster they are on lock down mode with drilling records etc. Compacting is out of the question cause then ON and non-shareholders can be involved and vote then-lose the trust. Chairman Waller is not himself he is taking all this very calmly very unusual for him. He has not ramped or raved about anything for a long time. What is going on? Something very fishy smelling going on...
Yes... More than fishy. They are planning to move away from the BIA and compact the Mineral Estate. I have the word on this from a source who works for the BIA and from a source who works for the Nation. It’s my personal belief that when the time is right, they're going to spring it on us. We've laid down and played dead for so much that's happened since 2006 when this Constitutional government took it all away from us, I think that they don't and won’t even care how we react on the BIA side or on the Nation side as well. Once we compact the BIA, and if there is still a trust account held with the Office of the Special Trustee (OST) that is under the umbrella of the Department of the Interior, money may still flow to the headright owners after the transition. Even if they do compact and funds still flow to the shareholders, what costs and fees will come out of the royalties in the current trust account after we compact still remains to be seen. The next step will be when the OST is repatriated back to the BIA. The Indian Committees in the U.S. Congress have been contemplating such a move for over a year. The Trump administration is in full-court press mode on this right now and for it to happen by the end of this year: https://www.indianz.com/News/2017/12/12/major-changes-in-store-as-trust-reform-o.asp
https://www.doi.gov/ost/
This may also involve a Tribal Energy Resource Agreement (TERA) https://teeic.indianaffairs.gov/abouttera/
Once they successfully get rid of the OST, who knows what will happen. Presumably, if the income from the mineral rights starts coming into the accounts of the Osage Nation Treasury, all will be lost, at least for those who live outside of Osage County is my speculation, if not lost altogether. I've heard a timeline of 4-5 years for the transition from the BIA to a compact. If the BIA is out, then what will become of the Federal Trust account now managed by the OST where money is now being deposited for quarterly payments? If the OST is no longer around in four or five years and those accounting responsibilities are returned to the BIA and they are no longer involved in any capacity where the current Osage Minerals estate is concerned, what will happen then? I don't care what the top people in the Executive Branch of the Osage Nation tell you, this plan is what's up on the drawing board right now.
What the tax position for the headright owner’s income will be for the shareholders and if Big Eagle VS United States (300F 2D 765) will still apply is another matter too if the BIA is out and the Nation takes over and the minerals income is transferred to the Osage Nation Treasury. It’s all up in the air right now but changes are being planned for now and very rapidly on the Federal side. Someone needs to step up and get the U.S. government to account for itself where getting rid of the OST is concerned. The U.S. Taxpayers including each and every Osage Nation member have paid a very pretty penny in the Cobell and Osage HPP lawsuits because of the substandard way the BIA handled the Trust accounts where they were in charge. If they behave in the next four to five years in the same manner as they have been behaving in what seems to me to be every business killing manner possible in the Osage, we will be lucky to collect any quarterly income at all once the BIA is back at the fiscal helm.
Comment period is over in only one month and now time's up?
"Tribal consultation sessions will be held by phone on Wednesday, December 13, 1:00 p.m.- 4:00 p.m. EST, and Thursday, December 14, 9:00 a.m.- 12:00 p.m. EST. Comments on this proposal must be received by January 15, 2018."
See the rest of the article at https://www.indianz.com/fr/2017/11/08/tribal_consultation_on_indian_10.asp
One solitary month? This looks like a classic Federal government Tribal end-run to me! Something this important should have a three to six month response time for comments on the proposal from all the Tribal communities. Certainly the Osage headright owners won’t be well served by it if the BIA is back in the fiscal catbird seat.
Isn't a move like this on the part of the Federal government (Executive Branch and the Department of the Interior) unethical in view of such a massive loss to the U.S. Treasury over those successful Indian lawsuits to even contemplate?
Jerold Gidner, is the OST's Principal Deputy Special Trustee. Looks like this is a guy who will go along with anything the DOI and the Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, wants him to:
https://www.doi.gov/ost/about_us/special-trustee
Does anyone in all this really care about the individual Indian Trust beneficiaries and what is best for them from the standpoint of the owed fiduciary obligation?
Clarification is needed here. The OST, according to the article, will continue remain intact when it's transferred over to the BIA but we all know that when a new sheriff is in town, so to say, changes are made to organizational structures. If this arrangement proves to be incompatible with the agenda of the BIA that will now be over the OST, whatever that may be, who knows what will happen. Once the transition takes place, will the BIA have the ability and authority to dismantle the OST and reorganize it according to its own bureaucratic dictates? Presumably that will be the case but who knows the answer to that question either. Once the Osage Nation has compacted the Mineral Estate in 4-5 years, will the OST still be in place and charged with Mineral Estate Trust account distribution under the authority of the BIA or will the minerals income flow into the Osage Nation Treasury per a compact agreement with some other trust fund arrangement similar to the public trust that Hepsi Barnett talked about during the time when she was involved with the Osage Government Reform Commisson (OGRC)?
Why weren't all these events being reported to us by the Osage Nation government in general and by the Chief in particular? Did they even respond to the Department of the Interior during the comment period and if so, what was their response? Did the Minerals Council respond? What was their response? Was the Osage News still focused on bragging rights and not paying enough attention to important external Federal matters that are certainly newsworthy to every single Osage headright owner? Why do we so often have to find out what's going on from e-mail and the internet instead of the Osage Nation government and the Osage News? Are they hiding things from us or just not paying attention? At least the MC puts out an informative newsletter on a quarterly basis or at least they did for a while there.
The Osage Agency Superintendent is supposed to receive requests for information direct from Chairman Waller that are then transferred to her. If a member of the MC wants information and they request it and give that request to Waller and don't get it, where is the communication breakdown happening? Is Waller not transferring those requests for information to the Superintendent or is the Superintendent not responding to those requests?
Oh wow, I find this peculiar. Because if anything the jig is up. All eight of our elected M.C seats are up. And I have been saying for quite sometime we have serious issues when it comes to communicating and voting on issues that directly affect our interest and you are just beginning to realuze this? Our quarterly newsletter is so sub par. There's nothing positive that you can relate to, other than everything is after the fact. Our Newspaper is biased or haven't you noticed? That being said, how can you hold those accountable and the only way is, vote them out and vote for change. Simple. Lord know we need change. My bet when this happens we will have a rockin mineral council.
I sure as hell am not voting them out because they came in on a Hail Mary pass after the Federal government dropped the ball at the Appellate Court level deciding not to go forward with an appeal against the ENEL, the owner of the wind farm in question. The 10th Circuit came down from on high as a result of the brilliant and timely work of our Minerals Council in going to court and the Justices decided in favor of the Osage Nation that the Minerals Estate has been disturbed and that we have the right to go back into Federal Court in Tulsa to seek damages from ENEL for not getting a permit from the BIA before they went ahead to put up those wind machines as fast as humanly possible like a sneaking group of squatters. I say, credit where credit is due and credit is due to the members of our Minerals Council who went to bat in Federal Court for us shareholders and won the legal day. Bash and trash is all you appear to know but that's good because we can use your ignorance to get the truth out to everyone who reads this blog.
Special Session is live again and the Commerce Committee is now live at https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/multimedia/live-media Interim Gaming Board member Julie Malone is speaking. Julie is a particular favorite of mine if that's allowable to write here. The concern is getting our security people armed in our Casinos by Osage Nation Statute. We no longer have a cross-deputization agreement so this is a sticky issue. There are also Federal considerations of some sort because the Casinos are on trust land.
Consider serving the Osage People and run for Congressional office: See Filing for Osage Congressional candidates starts Feb. 6 http://www.osagenews.org/en/article/2018/01/19/filing-osage-congressional-candidates-starts-feb-6/
FYI - if you haven't heard yet, this morning close to 9 a.m. Oklahoma time, there was an oil drilling fire, news says five are still missing, near Quinton, OK, Pittsburg County.
In reference to the bad status/report on Osage drilling in the last MC meeting, below is a sentence that is on the Osage Agency letterhead sent to annuitants when they (BIA) issued the first "Osage Minerals News" dated Oct. 15, 2010:
"The Osage Agency regulates and monitors over 4,000 active mineral leases..."
If drilling gets any lower, we may not need an oil business office.
Since 2008 we have seen a serious decrease in our revenue due to some very bad regs. There are a lot of factors here at play I surmise. Let me start by saying, the M.C are the drivers and the BIA has some how put the breaks on and the consequences are felt through and through, btw, the M.C are the drivers of our estate in other words, they have drop the ball in alot of ways. They exist because the 1906 says they must exist but we to have a right to know as well as they do what is transpiring on the mineral estate. Basically the over all health, the current status quo. Our money is not shareholders money because we all have a stake in the M.E. To treat is as so is a problematic, why because we have not been privileged to know only perpetuates no transparency to no communication. This has to change. Then you have the BIA, (Osage Agency) to this melting pot. The incompetence is a understatement. Since the HPP case was settled we were made a lot of promises, do you remember? How many engineers were to be hired to enhance our M.E and how many do we have? Then look at how the contracting our estate how in a lot of ways opened doors to corruption. Then you look at all the mom and pops who could not survive the economic downturn to politics, over regulations. I said a long time ago we have couch potatoes who are working from a arm chair, this is no way to run a huge estate like this. Now you are seeing a economy that is spourting like the sseds were planted yesterday, but where in this mix of seed are we? I said two years ago we were heading to a economic growth and that we need tomget on the same bag wagon. We thank the mom and pops but now if the BIA did not ruin I ur reputation, we want the big drillers to come, hello is anybody listening. Truth and facts here, all eight council memebers are up.
Pure fiction! What? Are you in mind of outlining to write a very short short story here? The 1906 Allotment Act and it's amendments provide that the Minerals Council has no real power by law and the current CFRs, because all oil and gas leases and other business conducted by the Minerals Council -- and let me highlight these next few words -- are subject to the regulation and approval of the BIA through the Superintendent of the Osage Agency who is the designated representative of the Secretary of the Interior who is the Trustee of the Osage Mineral Estate Trust. The members of the Minerals Council are in effect, powerless figureheads completely subject to the whims of the Bureau at this point and back in time from June of 1906. Where are you coming up with all this whooey? The current Osage Nation Minerals Council is a creation of the Osage Constitution in Article XV, Section 4:
"The Osage Minerals Council is recognized by the Osage Nation government as an independent agency within the Osage Nation established for the sole purpose of continuing its previous duties to administer and develop the Osage Mineral Estate in accordance with the Osage Allotment Act of June 28, 1906, as amended,..."
There has been no contracting, compacting or otherwise of the Osage Mineral Estate by anyone including the Osage Nation. That isn’t to say that this won’t happen in the near future but it hasn’t happened as of yet. The Osage Tribal Council, as so constituted by the 1906 Allotment Act and its amendments over the years, ended as a form of government in 2006 with the ratification of the Osage Nation Constitution. Where have you been?
Either you’re ignorant or spinning as big a yarn as has ever been posted here on this message board. Is this coming from ER? Because it sure reads like it.
To be honest I have to believe, the person above your post is hitting the nail on the head., All the while you put politics before the Headright owners. This is how they feel and you blow them out of the water with your vitriol. Simple there seats are up for re-election with the exception of one or two and maybe that, if that, need to go. And lets say the council has no real power they did before we became a Nation. There's a lot that could have been done. So you did not answer the above post. Where arevwe today, oil is at a all time high I believe the last time I looked it's ats at $65.00 a barrel. And if the M.C has no control and the responsibility falls back to the BIA where is our lawsuit to protect the interest again and as I recall as well the BIA after the HPP was settled we were promised that we would have more engineers and then again you cannot answer the above post. I like how people go back to the 1906 act and use it as some kind of strategy to further the growth of the M.E or the complete opposite however which way the mood swings. Enough of the excuses already now your beginning to sound like pig Pelosi.
The person who wrote above is wrong about who is ultimately responsible for what takes place with the Osage oil and gas business. It gets tiresome after a while to have to constantly correct all these ridiculous statements about how things are organized by those who don't spend a single second doing their homework to learn how things really work and yet come here and spew falsehoods right and left, painting the majority of our Minerals Council as the bad guys in the piece. This is so wrong. Listen to these listed meetings and you will understand the reality under which we, as shareholders, and the Minerals Council live and who really calls the shots: https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/who-we-are/minerals-council/meeting-information The Bureau has added staff but they have also forced a plethora of new regulations down the throat of the oil and gas men who are small producers which has put many of them out of business in the Osage. Read them and weep: https://www.bia.gov/regional-offices/eastern-oklahoma/osage-agency The oil and gas market dropping through the floor didn't help either. This is something everyone has been victimized by including the Members of the Minerals Council who also own headrights. Not good all the way around. The members of the Minerals Council, in the main, have had put forward a resolution of no-confidence in the current Osage Agency Supervisor. They have continued to fight for your rights in court even when the Bureau has fallen away. You still have beneficiary rights as a shareholder. Why aren’t you suing the Bureau for the financial losses they have caused you personally instead of painting the Minerals Council as the villains with as broad a brush as you can find. Tell us exactly what you want them to do to make you happy. Chances are they can’t do what you want them to do because they are not legally empowered to even do it. Try and be fair. That’s helpful. Confusing people with false information isn’t in any way.
You call the BIA and find out about the engineer/s who have been hired. Don't sit on your keester at the computer and expect the rest of us to do your homework for you. You find out and complain here if the new hire/s haven't been put on the payroll at the BIA since the HPP lawsuit. Then you will have something to gretch about when you get back here and post the information you have researched on your own. Sheesh!
Have all of you lost your heads really? Not everyone knows this and my bet, there's a lot that is amiss. But you would cut your nose to spite your face then face reality, excuses are like everyone has one because like I said once apon a time are we going to be in the court of opinion the reat of our lives and not grow this estate to it's potential? Sure we lost a lot of mom and pops, but there are companies that can and do understand the politics at the BIA or federal level and have the resources.
The problem here is what can the producers afford and how much business uncertainty can they withstand? The regulatory environment is unstable now and not knowing what's going to happen next and how much it's going to cost with the BIA seeming not to care much one way or the other and the Minerals Council not being legally capable of doing much if anything about it, is where we are right now it's a helluva bad fix to be in at present. I don't see much hope for the near future at present maybe things will open up again in six months to a year. I hope and pray it does for all our sakes.
Information on the Spring Meeting of the UOSC in California: https://www.facebook.com/OsageNews/photos/a.153834188010750.33094.134873493240153/1685749574819196/?type=3&theater
Why don't you try getting a petition up with signatures and or a letter or letters to the Senate committee on Indian affairs? They are the ones in control really. The BIA which has been contracted to the Osage Nation to run but ruled by the CFR's. The Osage Nation has turned the drilling of oil over to the state. The state and Nation are getting ready to put up 10 hydraulic fracturing rigs at equal distances to cover the whole of the Osage. In other words they are getting ready to suck this place dry. In doing this they will be poisoning the water sources of which their are 19. This is all in the report the Agency had done by Performance who will be in charge of the drilling out of these 19 water sources 6 are already deemed toxic as to not touch your skin. They have a superfund already implemented which is like Pritchard where the whole town was relocated and to this day the area is so toxic you can't get near it. Anyway Scott Pruitt is in on this along with the chief and superintendent. The price of oil which is extremely low now and for a reason so that the state and federal government can buy these oils low store them on our shores and then raise the price of oil and sell it to foreign countries or rather China. You would not have to depend on the headrights if the Nation were made to pay the per capita from the casinos like is specified in the IGRA. The senate committee on Indian affairs is the only entity that can put an end to the chiefs tyranny. Those letters either need to have as many signatures on them as possible in order to get their attention bc we elected a person to speak for us in the chief and the constitution needs to be amended in or to get this matter taken care of. But you cannot wait until they start drilling if they haven't already.
The Minerals Council is legally in place as on point for any minerals matter in the Osage. By virtue o two Federal Court opinions and the Osage Constitution as so outlined in Article XV. If the Chief is involved in such a maneuver, he’s in violation of Article X, Section 8.
Two, this plan probably also involves that totally bogus Osage Nation Energy Services, LLC., that is a cash drain if there ever was one, that’s supposed to stay out of minerals matters as well unless they go through the Mineral Council which I’ve not heard anything about. Another Sonny Abbott deal I’ll bet, together with Andrew Yates and those other follow alongs in the Minerals Council and we know who they are come election time.
I just spoke with another Osage about this comment and I agree with her that if all the women, who currently outnumber the Osage men, vote for Maria Whitehorn she'll win in the upcoming election. I am so sick and tired of the Chief interfering in everything right and left in mineral matters. Get him out of there in June and put in Maria so we can work with a shareholder constituent friendly Chief at the top to put an end to this sneaking around behind the backs of many of the minerals council members and the Osage Shareholders too !!! !!! !!!
Article in this weeks Bigheart Times is talking the demise of the Mineral Estate 2020. The BIA has run the Osage oil patch right into the ground with regulations the didn't really have to be put in place. Especially the EIS. The proposed CFRs were a shot to the heart of our oil and gas enterprise as well. I think it may be down to the beneficiaries who have lost income in all this mess and we do have standing because we have been harmed by all these unnecessary regulatory changes that we have been steamrolled over by in the last three years. The BIA Appeals Court can't say we don't have standing to sue because they can't take our legal property rights away from us and we do have legal rights as Osage Mineral Estate Trust Beneficiaries. One Federal Court Justice in Tulsa said we have legal rights and the Courts can't take them away.
We were going gangbusters (payment per headright at $10,000) and then the BIA worked with Team Osage on those CFRs that brought in all kinds of new regulations which would have killed off all the Mom and Pops if a stink to high heaven hadn't been raised all the way to the U.S. Congress and if we hadn't been able to turn them back. Then, to even the dismay of Galen Crum, the Bureau springs new EPA regulations because of what was widely believed at the time, to be a knee jerk reaction to the lawsuit of Martha Donelson that subsequently failed in Court. The BIA knew or should have known, from the heightened negative reaction brought about by the introduction of the proposed new CFRs, that adding these new EPA requirements with burdensome regulations for the small Mom and Pops and egregiously long delays before leases could be approved, all before the Donalson lawsuit had run its course in the Court system, would have to be significantly detrimental going forward. The Bureau does not have have a trust relationship with the EPA and never has. It does with the Osages both with the Osage Tribe, now Nation and the headright owners who are the trust beneficiaries that receive income from the production of oil and gas in Osage County. To persist in going ahead with the EPA requirements despite the fact the the BIA should have known that it would harm the beneficiaries is where it has done the headright owners significant financial harm. The oil and gas producers who generate the income for the trust beneficiaries found such actions on the part of the Bureau both "thoughtless and reckless." In the case of the coal industry, there has been a Federal Court opinion that the EPA cannot impose overweening business killing regulations on a particular industry without a cost-benefit analysis. “In a 5-to-4 decision, Michigan v. Environmental Protection Agency, the Supreme Court ruled that the agency had run afoul of the Clean Air Act by deciding to regulate the emissions without first undertaking a cost-benefit analysis to show the regulation to be “appropriate and necessary.” Quoted from the NYT. All along, it appeared to many that the regulatory actions of the BIA were more to the benefit of the Bureau than to the Osage trust beneficiaries.
At the time the new CFRs were sprung on the oil and gas producers with a 30 day compliance demand in a letter sent out by the Bureau to the producers, it was disclosed that an economic impact study had been completed by the BIA that indicated that no significant harm would be done to the Mineral Estate by the introduction of the new CFRs. How wrong they were back then and due to the public outcry from the Minerals Council, various oil and gas producers, headright owners, and letters from two members of the U.S. Congress which put the BIA on notice that they were not acting in proper accordance with their trust obligations to the Osages. Whether or not an economic impact study was completed with respect to the new EPA requirements is unknown at this time but I rather doubt it but if so, and if such a study put forth that there would be no significant negative economic impact, it has certainly been proven to be disastrously wrong as well.
According to the article in the Bigheart Times published last Thursday, a report has been prepared from the Department of the Interior's Division of Energy Minerals Development that puts forward information that "...the Osage Mineral Estate may reach its economic limit as soon as 2020 based on current activity levels." You think? And who is the Trustee of the Osage Mineral Estate with the owed fiduciary obligation to the beneficiaries? The Secretary of the Interior is the correct answer. The BIA is bureaucratically housed under the Department of the Interior, so who is ultimately responsible for this economic harm and devastation brought on by the regulations of the Bureau that has reduced our Mineral Estate production from boom to bust out in the oil field in a period of just two and a half years?
I mean a total of 18 wells approved by Superintendent Robin Phillips, drilled and completed in 2017?
A tale told of overweening regulations imposed by an institutional idiot, signifying everything? It appears that sovereignty is just another word for poverty. How does a government agency acting as a trustee get sued for millions and billions of dollars and lose the case, then after losing, turn right around and behave in a manner that is vastly more harmful and devastating to the very same trust beneficiaries? If this isn't as fundamentally wrong as it can possibly be, give me an example of another situation that is worse.
Ray McClain's web site, at http://www.osages-you-need-to-know.com is a great historical resource and archive of BIA Operations reports available for download that came direct from the Osage Agency Superintendent, Robin Phillips.
As an example, listed in the Operations Report ending and for the week of December 13, 2013, there were 15 approvals. This is almost more in one week than in the entire year of 2017. Read it and weep aloud. BTW, also read how incredibly dissatisfied those on Team Osage were at the time that production was booming. It's all there in black and white... Of that number associated with Team Osage still on the Minerals Council up for reelection are Andrew Yates and Galen Crum should they choose to run for office in the upcoming election in June.
You are so naive! In their heart of hearts, the USA stills sees Native Americans as a battle conquered people. To have to pay for past injustices here, there and everywhere just because they have tried and are trying to get us to a point where we are economically independent, then once the money starts rolling in, we use it for getting Judicial revenge instead of using the money to become self- sufficient, well... from their point of view, I'm sure it's insufferable. Do you really expect them to play nice and do right by us? It's a bitter brew and we need to see this for what really it is and act to protect ourselves and our future income from what they are doing now and what they plan to do in the next several years.
Poster @ 11:34 AM I believe the timeline is longer than 2 and half years. It's more like 6 years. BTW how is voting no confidence developing our estate working out? Not! The moment our permitting process came to a stand still we should have had the federal government back in court!
Agreed. Too many of the the Osages on that Rule Making Committee actually were foolish enough to believe that the BIA would move forward and correct the mistakes of the past. I never went quite that far. Once those BLM rules appeared, I knew better right then. Judging from how the USA treats foreign nationals off-shore who get in the way of their agenda or business interests, the only reason a perfunctory effort was likely made is because we all have dual citizenship and they can't take it too far. What I never anticipated is how vindictive they would actually be. I mean, 18 leases approved in one year? That's pretty ugly and as much as everyone would like to blame the Superintendent, I think we all know it's coming down from on high in Washington. D.C. My belief is they want to offload us at the first opportunity. Remember, the Superintendent said right from the beginning when the new EPA rules were introduced, that the BIA was going to introduce them because they had already been in the works and had been for some time. What better way to run the Mineral Estate right into the ground than with multiple regulations to satisfy one or more regulators that the small producers out in the oil field could never be able to keep up with or afford.
I agree with you. But our failure once again will be in the courts of opinion with so much evidence piling up against the agency once again. The meaning of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again. The upper echelon I would say when and we know how deep the politics can get, btw when the upper echelon who was Gina McCarthy at the at the EPA and her agenda did not help either. I would like to see the economic impact statement, my bet it's rife with many errors. Vindictive is a understatement and we should be making our statement loud and clearly and let the federal government know we will no longer play the fiddle and bring our war drums out in protest. There is huge discrimination going on but there is incompetence as well. This has hit so many in the pockets.
What's been going on between the Chief's office and Andrew Yates? I'm starting to hear that there may be something happening there that we might like to know about. Don't try and call Yates though. He's probably too busy with his other Osage Nation job to get back to you. Another double-dipper, that one.
Before that Chief can end our trust agreement unilaterally or even on an agreed upon basis with the Feds if that what he's trying to do, we need to vote as beneficiaries of this trust that has been in place for 112 years; the income of which as been to one degree or another, feeding our families, educating our children and providing us with some level of security be that great or small all that during that expanse of time. He tries to steamroll over all of us Osage Headright owners, without a vote of the Shareholders in a duly authorized election brought about and called for as a Special Election specifically for that purpose by the Osage Nation Congress, when we have a Federal Justice who is the Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma who says we have rights as beneficiaries of this Federal Trust, he will violate our rights to choose what we want him to do one way or the other and we will be in a position to sue him in Federal Court because this Trust is a Federal matter and we are the beneficiaries of a Federal Trust arrangement that is completely outside the purview and the auspices of the Osage Nation. I choose. He does not have the right to either represent me or choose for me in ending this mineral rights income trust without my say so. I do. I have that right and I won’t have him abrogate it to the Osage Nation, the BIA, or any part or segment of the Federal government, period. And Chief. I mean every single word of what I've written here on this page.
I played around with this app after downloading it from the Apple App Store. This is BRILLIANT! It's just simply wonderful and every Osage should have it. I am not kidding you. It looks beautiful and it performs in a fabulous way. It's the most perfect introduction and primer to the Osage alphabet and language words and phrases you could ever hope to have...in a word OUTSTANDING!
It works with both tablets and smart phones. WOW...is this thing great! Don't be intimidated. Work with the Osage letters and get them down phonetically first before you go to try and pronounce the language, otherwise it'll be a lot more difficult. You'll need to memorize the sound of the letters initially and then use the word and phrase spellings written in the Osage alphabet as you move through each page.
EPA shutdown order is challenged in Federal Court: http://www.osagenews.org/en/article/2018/01/25/three-osage-county-producers-challenge-epa-shutdown-order/
Stop. Please. The water is being ruined North of Pawhuska and all you can worry about is payment? This is issue is so much bigger than a loss in payment. You can't drink salt/brine water. The City of Pawhuska actually switched their source fof drinking water to avoid the brine coming down the watershed. The general public is not tolerating this kind of environmental pollution anymore.
And this us why the producrs who have evidence disputing said facts that were overlooked would go the length in court to lie? Keep drinking your bath water.
I believe the evidence was overlooked or not made evident during the decision process. Probably no accident there. And poster @ 9:38 Am you are right, the EPA has no jurisdiction. We are operating under the old CFR'S.
Heads UP! OSA to have Feb. meeting at Skiatook Osage Casino http://www.osagenews.org/en/article/2018/01/26/osage-shareholders-association-host-feb-18-meeting-skiatook-osage-casino/
HEADS UP 2: The Osage Minerals Council is having a Special Meeting this coming Monday in the regular Council Chambers. In Executive Session, the Agenda states that they will be discussing the Office of the Special Trustee. See https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/news-events/news/minerals-council-meeting-information-january-29th
OK...here it is! Listen to the Osage Minerals Council voting to send over some document on leasing options including compating/contracting to their attorney for review. I TOLD YOU SO! Listen in here https://osage-multimedia.s3.amazonaws.com/media/minerals/audio/FY2018/2018-0129_3OMC_Pt2.mp3
There is a Press Release forthcoming about the Article in the Bigheart Times that was published a week ago about the 2020 date in the headline and the Osage Mineral Estate.
The article states"...the 2011 settlement agreement of the Highest Posted Price case. According to terms of the settlement, the Nation agreed they could no longer sue for anything related to the mineral estate."
As I understand it, the agreement to was not sue the Federal government, not the Osage Nation! I take issue with this statement as written in the article. It’s misleading and should be subject to a correction or clarification by the editor. I thought the agreement was not to sue on any back payments or further settlement amount as it concerns the valid time period in the past associated with the HHP case. There is no legal way that the Federal government can’t be sued by the Osage Nation or the Minerals Council on trust related matters going forward from the time of the final settlement of the HPP case if the BIA continues to fail to live up to its trust duties, responsibilities and obligations in regard to the trust relationship. I for one, believe that such a provision in any lawsuit at the Federal level, with a Native American Tribe or Nation, is illegal on its face because it’s unenforceable.
I finally found the quotation I was looking for on the shareholders having legal rights where the HPP lawsuit is concerned:
"The individual Osage headright owners were not a party to the settlement agreement at issue. Indeed, the Court of Federal Claims denied them the opportunity to intervene in the case,” Frizzell wrote. “Because the Osage Nation lacks authority to waive the plaintiffs’ individual accounting rights, they are not bound by the tribe’s settlement agreement with the federal government.”
See page 3 --->>> http://s3.amazonaws.com/static.osagenews.org/cms_page_media/43/2016_01_January_web.pdf
What other legal rights belonging to the Osage headright owners does the Osage Nation lack the authority to waive as beneficiaries where our standing in court is involved? We may be the only ones now who can save the day and our future income as headright owners through an action in Federal Court. We have been harmed by what the BIA has done to our oil and gas production and the resultant loss of income, it seems, has happened for no other reason than the Bureau could do it and did do it despite millions of dollars paid by the American taxpayer and the apparent refusal to adopt and honor the fiduciary trust obligation owed to us as beneficiaries who they probably deeply resent in the first place.
When you hear about big lawsuits in the news usually the plaintiff only wins if they sign a legal document with a clause like: "you agree not to ever discuss this with the media or any others, privately or publicly." That is sorta to me like a bribe or hush money.
That was real low down to tell us we could have some money (pennies on the dollar) if we agreed to their settlement terms. Now, the defiance still continues. No matter the damage the Interior has caused to come about, they continue to defend their actions by stating "they are doing what we asked them to do in the lawsuit. We are continuing in the direction of defeat of our inheritance. Anymore harmful CFRs enough to our current drillers, we may wake up some morning and they all have left, and the Interior will say they were just doing their doing their job.
The next five years will pass, where will we be with quarterly payments, will there be Social Security checks or Medicare. Will the casinos still be in full swing? Will there have been another recession? You can surely believe there will be another big earthquake in OK. Have you heard about the nearly 8 point earthquake up in Alaska, and they put all of the west coast on alert?
We need leader ship like we use to have, when we respected and looked up to our Chiefs, when they cared for the Tribe, not material things. In the old days, it was a struggle to survive on a daily basis. We're still struggling but in a different way, the bureaucratic way and we're weakening and tomorrow looks bleak.
It's good to know that we have "individual accounting rights." It's good the Interior knows it too now. It took a district judge to undo what the W.H. got temporary away with.
Anyone heard what was brought up in the Dec. meeting between the MC and the W.H.? Like maybe, they asked for any request (info of some sort) and waiting to hear from that committee? Could the info from that meeting be so damaging if the Chief knew that we can't be informed.
BOONE'S BULLETIN 1-29-18 -- PART I Date: 2018-01-29 15:23 From: tom@cowboy.net
We recently returned to our office. We had been relocated to one of the new buildings, referred to as the Chinese Pagoda, because our space had experienced serious water damage due to a rainstorm. This new building is already falling apart. A soffit was falling down, a handicapped door was inoperable and the air conditioning is operated by a generator.
We had our regular bi-annual meeting with federal officials and attorneys. We've been having these meetings according to the Highest Posted Price lawsuit for several years. This was not our first meeting even though you may have read otherwise. These meetings are always closed meetings.
Galen Crum presented a resolution to change our election to have staggered terms like the Osage Nation (ON) Congress does. His resolution failed.
The Osage Minerals Council(OMC) pays the ON for indirect and space cost for a building the Osage Tribal Council built in 1977, long before the new government. Shouldn't the ON have paid space cost to the OMC. The amount we pay is $92,200 a year or about a tenth of our budget. After the ON Congress moved their offices downtown, they offered their vacated space to the OMC. This would be an additional space cost of $35,600 and year. ON Congress wanted to submit legislation to relieve the OMC of indirect and space cost. They wanted a resolution from the OMC before they proceeded. I presented a resolution supporting the ON Congress efforts. It passed unanimously.
The most controversial resolution passed was to have our attorney take action against the ON and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) pertaining to the conveyance of property at the time the Constitution was passed. The Pawhuska casino has been located on the Pawhuska Village property for years. Shouldn't that money have belonged to headright owner's. It passed by a vote of 4 yes, 3 no and 1 absent. Those voting yes were members Kathryn, Stephanie Erwin, Joe Cheshewalla and me. Those members voting no were Andrew Yates, Galen Crum and Everett Waller. Talee Redcorn was absent. This resolution was rescinded later by a vote of 5 yes to 3 no. Councilwoman Redcorn flipped her vote and voted to rescind the resolution. Others voting yes were Andrew Yates, Galen Crum, Everett Waller and Talee Redcorn. Those voting no were members Stephanie Erwin, Joe Cheshewalla and me. I believe this vote would have been different if we didn't have 2 members of the OMC, who are employed by the ON, Andrew Yates and Talee. Redcorn. In my opinion, Andrew Yates is in a conflict of interest. His job duties with the ON allow him the ability to shut an oil producer down but as a member of the OMC, he can vote on their business. This type of conflict of interest is covered in Article 10 Sect. 4 of the constitution that states: Tribal officials...shall abstain from...decision making where any conflicts are deemed to exist.
A California constituent asked me why I didn't attend the fall meeting in California. Unlike Congress, who gets their travel paid, members of the OMC have to travel to these types of meetings at our own expense. I usually do attend, but this fall it was a family member's death that kept me at home.
As of late, water has become an issue here when the ON Natural Resource Dept. issued a permit to the ON to drill a water well. According to the 1906 Act, the water is attached to the Osage Minerals Estate. However, the constitution states in Article 2 that the water belongs to the ON. In an article in "The Oklahoman" a letter from the State attorney's office says the tribe doesn't own the water. The ON has had several meetings about water but the OMC was never invited.
Our attorney, Fredericks, Peebles and Morgan has won 3 federal cases on behalf of the OMC. This firm is well worth the money.
I did receive my reimbursement for my official travel to D.C. Councilwoman Redcorn said she had to set a couple of my constituents straight by telling them that she didn't sign my paperwork because there were already two required signatures on it. What concerns me is that she couldn't identify that the second signature had no authority to sign anything. It also concerns me that her voting can be swayed by input from her nephew, Councilman Talee Redcorn.
In closing, the opinions stated herein are mine. The quickest way to reach me is by cell phone: 918-698-3314 or by email: cboone@osagenation-nsn.gov.
Bulletin, Part II -- WATER. It seems maybe the ON Natural Resource Dept. is doing the Chief's biding. The Chief is demonstrating a "double standard" -- he wants to come to the MC meetings with the Feds or send his representatives but doesn't want the MC in his matters whether it involves the ME business or not -- he's hiding his intentions -- this Chief wants to rule the whole Roman Empire and seems he'll stop at nothing to gain power or control.
Bulletin, Part I -- Pawhuska Village property -- "better late than never" or maybe not. What is the opinion of the Pawhuska village?
HPP meetings -- It's so disappointing to find out that the meetings have been already going on. I was so intrigued that they came and met with the MC over the Chief's objection. So, it wasn't so.
Rent -- I have to live off about $20,000 or less a year. Osage County is over 1 1/2 million acres and the MC is paying $92,200 a year rent. Who's paying? multiply that.
Conflict of Interest -- I respect each MC member. But, the ME is a business with many families depending on the quarterly payments to pay rent, bills, and put food on the table, and clothes on their children. It's definitely a conflict on decision making if a MC person is on the ON payroll also. It seems the Election Board should have the responsibility to screen candidates/applicants prior to being put on the ballot.
Staggered MC terms -- The ON Congress is "administrative." A whole completely different ballgame than the ME/MC. I don't see the reasoning why the MC should have staggering terms as congress? I see the problem though of coming new into the MC not knowing what's going on, what the routine is, or even what your job and duties are. I think candidates should know what their title and duty before they get on the ballot, or fix the ballot to have candidate names under "titles" applied for? Any time you apply for a job, you know the title and your job responsibilities. If a MC member shows/proves he/she is an asset to the ME, he/she will be re-elected, if not re-elected there's a reason why.
Meetings of the HPP is something other than what went on with that meeting where the Chief's representative was asked to leave the closed session. We don't know what happened at that meeting and so I called Cynthia about it and the good thing about her is that she knows how to keep her mouth shut. If it's Executive Session or a closed door meeting she always refuses to give way and share what's happening behind the scenes. I believe its called personal and professional integrity.
"The most controversial resolution passed was to have our attorney take action against the ON and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) pertaining to the conveyance of property at the time the Constitution was passed." This was an illegal taking and for the Osage Nation to turn around and charge us money for the space in which to work for the Osage Shareholders by our Minerals Council when those Casinos, generating millions, sit on land that we shareholders have no lease agreement of any kind on, bonuses paid, or on-going rent and other compensation coming in to us, well I say, why the hell does the Osage Nation think they can go back into Federal Court and expect those wind farms to have to pay for land that can't be drilled on with those wind machines sitting on it without an ongoing lease and compensation for the minerals they've taken and used when the Nation, especially when the Nation has been stealing from the headright owners and the Minerals Council who deserve a full and fair compensation and financial restitution since that illegal taking by the Constitutional government in 2006. Reorganization Act said the Osage Tribe could form a new government, not this Osage Nation that took over and appropriated everything in sight and then have the gall to charge us $92,200 a year! Get out of town Chief. By GOD! You better get this rectified before you walk into Federal Court on this wind farm deal, Chief because you have no ethical or moral ground high ground to stand on. Used to be that any money from that Mineral Council drawdown that wasn't spent in a given year was returned to the shareholders in our checks so you're not just charging the Minerals Council, you're charging all of us and I take large issue with that too. What's good for the goose is good for the gander!
Just so everyone, including the Chief, understands my thinking on the Chief working to act with the DOI, the BIA, the U.S. Congress, any part of the United States government or the State of Oklahoma to end our Osage Mineral Estate Trust in existence today, I'm repeating my comment above so it stands alone:
Before that Chief can end our trust agreement unilaterally or even on an agreed upon basis with the Feds if that what he's trying to do, we need to vote as beneficiaries of this trust that has been in place for 112 years; the income of which as been to one degree or another, feeding our families, educating our children and providing us with some level of security be that great or small all that during that expanse of time. He tries to steamroll over all of us Osage Headright owners, without a vote of the Shareholders in a duly authorized election brought about and called for as a Special Election specifically for that purpose by the Osage Nation Congress, when we have a Federal Justice who is the Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma who says we have rights as beneficiaries of this Federal Trust, he will violate our rights to choose what we want him to do one way or the other and we will be in a position to sue him in Federal Court because this Trust is a Federal matter and we are the beneficiaries of a Federal Trust arrangement that is completely outside the purview and the auspices of the Osage Nation. I choose. He does not have the right to either represent me or choose for me in ending this mineral rights income trust without my say so. I do. I have that right and I won’t have him abrogate it to the Osage Nation, the BIA, or any part or segment of the Federal government, period. And Chief. I mean every single word of what I've written here on this page.
I think we need to vote if and before the Nation takes over in any way, shape or form to compact the BIA or contract with the State of Oklahoma. Let me direct your attention to these economic events since the Nation took over ~~~
Osage, LLC., Catastrophe
Osage Nation Treasurer Debacle
Millions going out the door to hire in house-attorneys of one kind or another and then the Nation gets in a huff when the Minerals Council hires a good one who actually wins cases in court for us.
An attempt to "gift" the Minerals Council with a million dollars. If taken, what would have been expected in return?
Lawsuits one after the other being filed against our elected officials by the Executive Branch of the Osage Nation.
The loss of our entire Tribal reservation as a result a lawsuit that should never have been filed on behalf of only one Osage Tribal member.
Casinos built and rebuilt in too short a period of time costing millions. One of which is within blocks and so logistically close to as high if not the highest crime area in Tulsa.
$175,000,000 of debt we have taken on either being used or in a line of credit.
Gung Ho push to get buildings built on Campus with even more loans that are too flimsy in design and construction to stand up to the weather in Oklahoma.
Add your own instances because I'm hearing in the wind that there's another one right up ahead of us as a result of the manipulations and interference of our current Chief.
An Osage Supreme Court that insists on refusing to accept legal precedent of other courts which, as far as I know, is a very questionable legal precedent being set by the Supreme Court members of the very and way too legally "independent Osage Nation Tribal court."
Nepotism and cronyism abounding since the whole Constitutional government got off the ground.
Salaries and benefits for those getting a paycheck from the Osage Nation that looks more like a free-for-all than it does a reasonable and legitimate pay structure for those employed by our government.
Chiefs interfering in business matters where they don't belong manipulating business enterprise boards when they are prohibited from doing so by the Osage Constitution.
Anything I've forgotten? We should be able to get into court and prove that the Osage Nation isn't competent to handle our business affairs if they try and turn this Mineral Estate over to the Nation to run. If the BIA and the Secretary of the Interior, Mr. Zinke, allows and does this in view of what it knows or should know is not in the best interest of the Osage headright owners who are the trust beneficiaries, they are again violating their fiduciary obligation to us as individual shareholders with legal rights by placing us in the path of and with a business and management entity that has nothing but business failures other than gaming, a litigious record internally and externally and no trained, educated and experienced work force in place to handle the day-to-day business required for a successful and profitable business outcome in the oil and gas industry.
I have a cousin who went over to the Minerals Office and she said the girl there was knitting. Now I've heard the phrase, tend to your own knitting but this is a bit much.
To the poster at 10:28 am today. Something you might want to look into is the amount of money the immediate family of the Chief is drawing down from the Osage Nation today compared to what they wre getting before he became Chief. This information is accessible by the Osage public. The amount will be over a million dollars a year.
When people mention this he uses an old politician's trick of saying people are attacking his family. No, people are drawing attention to his abuse of power through manipulation of board appointees. Gray got a lot of criticism for nepotism. He was small potatoes compared to this Chief.
You can say that again and all the while decrying how much in salaries were being spent in other Osage Nation administrations before he was elected to serve as Chief. I also hear that the same is true of Raymond Redcorn. Apparently, they serve themselves first is more like it! The whole thing cries to heaven it's so gaping a sin against all of the Osage people. Thank you for adding your comment. You're right. This shouldn't be missed on the list.
The deflection astounds but It's not like the truth is not written in black and white for all to see. Does it remind me of a tale "Tne Emporer's new clothes". Denial is a long river.
OK...here it is! Listen to the Osage Minerals Council voting to send over some document on leasing options including compating/contracting to their attorney for review. I TOLD YOU SO! Listen in here https://osage-multimedia.s3.amazonaws.com/media/minerals/audio/FY2018/2018-0129_3OMC_Pt2.mp3
And the Chief wants to put these scaliwags in our oilfield when the State of Oklahoma wants us to use our gaming funds to pay for their overspending and budget shortfall? Get out of town Chief and anyone else who brings this state, or any other, to handle our oil and gas business when they can't even manage their own internal finances -- DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT! That gaming money by law belongs to Native Americans in general and the Osages in particular.
Heal holistically with marijuana? Now this is a new one on me. As a witness to the Hippy generation and what happened with drugs that began with marijuana, this idea may be a creative one but I know it just won't work. First declared candidate running for Osage Nation Congress: https://www.facebook.com/753839631471238/videos/vb.753839631471238/754136184774916/?type=2&theater
No one except the U.S. Congress can end the 1906 Act Trust. If we keep running to this Congress to whine about trivial crap that can be taken care of right here at home, they're gonna show us just how fast they can do it, too. Just because we voted for Trump doesn't mean he likes us. He hates all Indians. He also has the majority in the House and the Senate backing what ever he wants. STAY AWAY FROM THE U.S. CONGRESS AT ALL COSTS! Unless of course, you want to turn our mineral estate over to Gentner Drummond, et al. That would be the perfect sequel to the Irby case.
A compact with the State of OK isn't trivial crap. The Nation can't run a toy train without crashing it into the big rock candy mountain. Congress is part of the Federal entity that specifically sees to it that the fiduciary obligation of the Secretary of the Interior and the Bureau are managing things properly and that the BIA does the right thing with our Minerals Trust, not for the sake of the Osage Nation, because they don't get the money from the mineral rights; we do. The fiduciary obligation is owed to us as the beneficiaries of the Trust and the U.S. Congress can't just let the Bureau turn our mineral estate from which we derive income loose to the Nation that has proven time and again that it isn't are competent to run things out in the oil field. It would be like putting a bunch of three and four year olds in charge. They don't know how to do the job, they don't want to do the work and put in the hours that it takes to get the job done. The U.S. Congress has tools to determine if the Nation can take on such a responsibility with an outcome of success. It's called a Congressional hearing. If the Nation had to stand up to a stress test like that and review all of the substantial failures it's in the last 12 years, the U.S. Congress would have no choice but to find some other party who can take on such a responsibility successfully.
Trump does not hate all Indians lol now you are sounding like a true loser. If can back it up do so other wise snowflake,shutty up. Put your mputh where your money is just what I thought you cannot.
From reading articles on Indianz.com, the WH representatives have stated that soverign nations need to handle "their" own inter-tribal problems and that they don't want to get involved with such decisions.
Under the Chief's administration, spending has been out of control. That's an inter-tribal problem.
But the ME is Federal, it is under the control and total authority of the Congress. Any acts of altering the ME from the 1906 act is illegal and will be followed by legal actions. Judge Frizzell says we have "individual rights." Like the HPP, we had a vote in, we have the legal right to vote in any alteration to the ME like a compact, etc.
The BIA takes orders from the Dept. of the Interior and carrys them out. It seems Trump lets his departments run their own area, and then they send him things to sign. He just gets the finished time- consuming documents and "facts." Trump tried to stomp on Social Security, Medicare, hot meals on wheels for the elderly, and WIC, he lacks empathy, I don't think he dislikes Indians, he just doesn't care about any indigious people (race, creed, orgin), remember what he said about Africa people. He's fighting his own legal battles at the moment and the world is watching, and the plots thicken. All we need to consider with him is just "the end results" on legal documents.
Lets leave the rhetoric about President Trump to the fake news. Unless you have concrete evidence of which you do not. Now as far as the M.E is concerned it would be most beneficial to the Headright owners that if there are going to be changes how we do business we should be involved in these decisions that will affect us as well. Have a feeling if we are not included in the process laws suits will be coming.
The only fake here is Donald J. Trump who can't discipline himself to read so much as a one page Policy or National Security Briefing. Read "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House" by Michael Wolff. It's no wonder Melania Trump burst into tears once she found out that he had won the election. It's like a modern retelling of some of the highlights of the Scottish Play. Who has he murdered? The very dignity, stature and importance of the Office of the President of the United States of America. Now he wants to do away with the Dow Jones Industrial Average just because it's going through a market correction?
I've finally decided it's time for me to get involved and do what I can to serve the interests of all of the Osage Nation members no matter where they live throughout the country, to do what I can to restore the power and prestige of the Legislative Branch as the representative body of the Osage people with the ultimate control over how our money is spent on behalf of and on what is really needed for all the people who have an Osage Nation membership. Today I filed to run for the Osage Nation Congress:
From the very beginning when the new government started under Jim Gray as the then Chief, there was a contentious attitude on the part of the Executive Branch where the handing out of money in the Osage Nation Treasury is concerned toward the Legislative Branch. Lawsuits soon began flying from the Executive Branch toward the Osage Nation Congress if Gray didn't get exactly what he wanted and how much as if the guy had never had a rudimentary or even an elementary course in Civics as to how a co-equal Constitutional three part form of government actually works. The Chief is indeed the "Supreme" head of his branch of government and none other whether anyone would like to believe it's to the otherwise. Since that time, a number of other challenges to the authority of the Legislative Branch in the Osage Nation's court have taken place with Standing Bear as well. During Congressional Committee meetings, despite the fact that Raymond Redcorn was in Congress, I have listened to him as Asst. Chief threaten to sue the Congress if they made any changes to the budgets of the Executive Branch. Now, taking a look at the Osage Nation Constitution, that is the highest law of the land, it provides the Chief with a power known as "line item veto" for budgets only. By process of elimination, the only ones who can alter line items in budgets are the members of the Osage Nation Congress because we can't enter into the budgetary process as members of the Osage Nation. There is no provision as to a reason needed to make such changes to line items, only that they can be made or the Chief wouldn't have the power of line item veto in the first place. The only other option, as a result of recent Osage Nation court rulings, is to send the budgets back to the Executive Branch for revision once the Congressional Committees have chosen to do so. They don't have to appropriate every single dime available in the Osage Nation Treasury every six months despite whatever pressure by either the Judicial Branch or the Executive Branch. These two methods will go a long way towards rebuilding the power and prestige of the Legislative Branch of our new government.
The Osage Nation Congress has a choice not to appropriate funding in whole or in part if they are placed under pressure by any other branch of government. They need to exercise that choice now and into the future. If elected, I will work religiously to make that choice happen so that this out of control blind spending and excessive borrowing comes to an abrupt halt for items best left to the choices of future generations rather than just a choice to pay for crushing debt. Some members of Congress would like you to believe that we are a large to very large Tribal community. With only 20,000 to 21,000 members, we are hardly that and with the disproportionate spending on only 17% of that total number, things have to change for the betterment of all of us.
I'm talking about the power of the purse strings (to open or close) that belong to our Legislative Branch of government despite how many other branches have gained what I believe to be inappropriate and overweaning access to them in the Osage Nation government in recent years.
Thank you for explaining this clearly to all of us. And you are exactly right this does start at the congressional committee level where I believe language is needed when going to submit these requests for budgeting a financial impact statement explaining what, when where and how and the end run is needed, in other words, how can a congress member make a formidable decision in regards to the Budget. Do we even have a debt ceiling? I said the same thing awhile back, its like they have a blank check or a running credit card with no stops when it comes to how our money is being utilized and spent, especially when our money is to used to profit from? And your right again and I support you because you have the same mind set that, we have a constitution and its there to protect our interest and it is ok to turn down these branches unless a deal could be made to extend a olive branch to the Osage Constituency. We all know how many Osages live in and around the Osage County maybe 2000 if that. How much has our budgets have grown since 2006 and how are these budgets protecting the greater interest of the Osage constituency?
Just thought you should know -- In some instances, even when it's not a requirement for the Federal money that comes in, they use gaming and other Tribal income to match or add to the total amount of funding which is more money going to Osage County Osages alone and not being evenly or fairly divided among all of us Osage Nation members across the board.
Thanks Lou! Good to know payment is up. Are you still doing the newsletters for the OMC? We're hoping for an official update on what is happening with the Bureau and the OST.
Unfortunately, no, ma'am. I left in June, 2017, so I was responsible for four newsletters (Fall, 2016 through Summer, 2017 issues), and I pray everyone found them informative.
I did. I really liked what you did with them Lou. Sorry you're not still getting them out to the Osage Shareholders. At times like this, with every rumor in the book flying around about what the Chief is doing in Washington and what the Minerals Council is doing behind closed doors and that article written of late in the Bigheart Times that got Osages so riled, I'm hoping at some point that the Osage News will step up and be giving us an update soon.
I'm so glad you're focussing on this issue because it's one of my main campaign issues. As far as I know, there is no debt ceiling either set or observed by any branch of the Osage Nation government. One of the current members of Congress has shared an important concern with me, with regard to loans and accumulated debt, about the appropriation limit set by the Constitution and not appropriating more than the projected income as required by the governing document. I believe this concern has to do with appropriating loan payments which exceed the spending already capped at the projected income level. Listen to the next regular session of Congress in March because this figure changes with regularity throughout the time the Congress meeting. It's almost like a moving target from start to finish. At one point in an earlier session, the claim was put forward with this statement, "Six million dollars was found!" Apparently it was just lying around in the Osage Nation Treasury somewhere as if that's in any way believable at all. It's become more like a shell game with the Congress decrying after nearly every session that they will get a handle on how much they really have to spend next time the Congress meets for a regular session. Were almost 12 years on from 2006 and still the game remains the same. I'm not sure they (the actual members of the Osage Nation Congress) know what they have to spend because it appears that manipulation is taking place by the Executive Branch which has some influence because it is established in the Executive Branch directly in the language of the Constitution. As soon as the Session begins, there has been a battle at times over the years going on with the Chiefs not allowing the Executive Branch departments to speak to the members of Congress directly, including the Treasury. At one point, at subpoenas went flying from the Congress to get the Treasurer to share requested information with them. The whole thing has gotten really so bad at times that it's a wonder that anything gets done in the budgeting and appropriation process. They have laws and plenty of them but they don't often have any penalties attached to them to enforce the law when violations of the law takes place.
See http://www.osagenews.org/en/article/2011/07/08/congress-issues-11-subpoenas-treasurer-and-accounting-workers/
It also sits in my memory that when John Jech was Treasurer, he was also subpoenaed by the Congress during the Jim Gray administration. There needs to be a uniform process that everyone will actually follow so that order will reign in the budgetary and appropriation process. There is so much acrimony at times between the branches during the appropriation process that it's stunning to witness. It's now to the point that certain members of the Congress feel that they have no choice but to go forward and appropriate whatever is asked for by the other two branches of government no matter how unwise, unfair or flatly insane! This isn't right and we have to take back the power inherent in our own branch of government and empower our own representatives and defend them by refusing to re-elect those in both the Executive and Judicial Branches who are causing such massive problems by destroying the harmony, spirit of cooperation and balance of power in the Osage Nation government.
Thank you to the above poster for re-posting my comment and thank you Osageblogger for responding I brought this issue up awhile back as well. Freewilly spending to no end. And it is massive to what end and how is our spending working for the constituency it is time to get all tnose incumbents out? I get the feeling that excuses for the reason to not say no in the first place is so they can stay seated at the table earning all the wnile spending as if it is like no tomorrow with no real caps. And then if they go over budget you throw more money at the problem. Excuse are bad bad and just bad its better to say we are working diligently to get control but there is no control to what end?
If we do not get our government under control in regards to spending habits and we know what needs to be done legislatively to hold those accountable we will shut this government down! There is no accountability going on.
There seems to be some confusion on the part of some current members of Congress as to what seats are open this election and who is an incumbent for reelection should they choose to run for office this June of 2018: Alice Buffalohead, incumbent Ron Shaw, seat recently vacated and open William “Kugee” Supernaw, incumbent James Norris, incumbent Otto Hamilton, running for Assistant Principal Chief, seat open Angela Pratt, incumbent
Six (now 7) Osage women are the first to file candidacy for Osage Congress so far See http://www.osagenews.org/en/article/2018/02/08/six-osage-women-are-first-file-candidacy-osage-congress-so-far/
Follow this at the Facebook page of the Osage Nation Election Office at https://www.facebook.com/OsageElections/
Hey! I thought you said this part is for Mineral business only. A lot of what you're posting now is Nation and election stuff not minerals. Rules are rules.
Not to miss! The Debates for the Chief and Assistant Principal Chief this weekend at the Skiatook, Osage Casino from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m CST. All Debates will be live streamed on the internet. See https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10156032071106678&set=gm.1588130414637384&type=3&theater
Judge does not recommend utility rate hike to subsidize western wind farm http://www.osagenews.org/en/article/2018/02/14/judge-does-not-recommend-utility-rate-hike-subsidize-western-wind-farm/
Two things I like about these documents that you can pull down from the internet which is (1) full and open disclosure on the part of the U.S. Government, Department of the Interior, that you simply can't get from the Osage Nation in the same above board manner. Clicking on the link below will take you to a departmental OST Budget Justification for FY2018 (this year) for roughly 6 million Native Americans in population. To obtain such a thing from the Osage Nation with only 21,000 members requires a FOYA (Freedom of Information Act) request from the Osage Congress or the Osage Nation Executive Branch, if you can even get the document/s from them at all! See this year's (2018) Federal Budget Justification of the Department of the Interior at https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/uploads/ost_fy_2018_budget_justifications_05-24-2017.pdf See also (2) the Proposed Budget in Brief (2019) of the Department of the Interior at https://edit.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/uploads/2019_highlights_book.pdf Full and open disclosure with regard to similar yearly budgetary documents of the Osage Nation as opposed to keeping them hidden is another thing that needs to be changed for the benefit of all Osage Nation members, including employment compensation packages that may include signing bonuses, yearly salary and benefits, additional perquisites like Osage Nation paid golf memberships, paid National affiliations or the like, and golden parachutes.
Including full and open disclosure of employment compensation packages that may include signing bonuses, yearly salary and benefits, additional perquisites like Osage Nation paid golf memberships, paid National affiliations or the like, and golden parachutes.
"...as required by the governing document." -- (Are you referring to the constitution?")
"They have laws and plenty of them but they don't often have any penalties attached to them to enforce the law when violations of the law takes place." -- (Is the "laws" in the constitution, if so, can't we add the penalties?)
"There needs to be a uniform process that everyone will actually follow so that order will reign in the budgetary and appropriation process." -- (Yes, I agree, that problem is right in our face. The military has a uniform process and if you fall out-of-order there are "penalites." If there was complete order in our government, we'd be a great Nation today.)
HIGHEST ALERT! Now is the time to ask certain people about their signing bonus, salary amount and benefits... Congresswoman Shannon Edwards is holding a Committee Meeting Hearing which is very unusual. It's a fact finding mission of some kind that should red flag our immediate attention! She has called a Congressional Health Committee Hearing for February 20, 2018. The purpose of the hearing is for members to ask questions of those "in the know", so I encourage you to participate. Please message her or any Congress member your questions and concerns. The hearing will be live steamed and taped:
The Hearing will be held at 1:00 p.m. at the Osage Nation Capitol Building, 100 West Main in Pawhuska.
The Hearing Notice is located at https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/who-we-are/congressional-legislative-branch/committee-information/health-social-services
I'm getting it but not sure why you aren't. Hopefully it will be posted at https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/who-we-are/minerals-council/meeting-information along with the audio recordings of the meeting today.
Thanks Lou! You are the man! So happy you're back in the saddle and can get things in order again. Absence does make the heart grow fonder. Funny that. Isn't it?
Yes. It's the governing document and yes we can add penalties by Legislative Statute. Actually, this is one of my missions should I be elected to Congress and this is to take apart the Osage Nation Code and add penalties to the law whenever and wherever it is needed.
"Of that $1.83 billion slated to be cut, $453 million would come from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, more than any other agency or service under the Department of Interior." If the OST becomes part of the BIA in October of this year, what will this mean to the OST with a loss of $453 million? See http://osagenews.org/en/article/2018/02/16/trump-administrations-2019-budget-proposes-steep-cuts-indian-country/
The Osage News Candidate Debates for Principal Chief and Assistant Chief are set to begin in a few minutes: See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w56qlDGkMjY
Has hired Vince Logan and Margo Gray? At what employment compensation that should be fully disclosed to the Osage people. Our money, our need to know and we need to know.
HA! We can't see those program plans or anything else you send over to the Congress, which you don't do very much of, Chief! You are as transparent to the Osage people as brick wall! Who are you kidding?
No loan for the Bluestem Ranch, Chief? WTH? Apparently your gaming CEO knows that you have one because he discussed this in the Commerce Committee with the members of the Congress several weeks ago!
Boards are appointed by experts? What? The Boards are appointed by the Chief and confirmed by the Congress of which you are a member and have been for the last four years, Mr. Hamilton.
Now we get the truth --->> Federal money coming in to the Osage Nation is $26 million! Do those who live outside the county get anywhere near that in benefits because our numbers on the outside help derive that 21,000 total membership and only 17% are able to use that Federal money.
Congratulate yourselves, Raymond? You paid three to four times what that Bluestem Ranch land was actually worth at the time it was purchased. The finest moment? Please!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not everyone qualifies for public assistance with federal monies. If you want to bitch about something that $26 million is for every low income Native, regardless of tribal affiliation, who qualifies. Several people have been on this board trying to explain this, yet a few just don't want to believe it. They would rather see the wedge driven deeper between the in state and out of state Osages. If all you can gripe about is you are not getting your fair share, then shame on you and whoever raised you to be that way. If you need some food stamps get them wherever you live now.
You just don't get it. If you receive $26 million in Federal benefits which are distributed only in Osage County and that dollar number is based, not on 2,500 Osages living in Osage County, but on 21,000 Osages living Nation wide and on top of that, you get another $35 million in Tribal income funds that are dollars spent only on Osages living in Osage County, that isn't fair to all of unless you start getting Federal money on the basis of only the 2,500 living in Osage County. You don't have the right to have the benefit of $61 million dollars spent on you and you alone year in and year out and have 87% of all of us go without. You're so blind to this clear and incontrovertible fact because you believe that you are entitled to have it all.
Confirmation right here: Chief says they have completed 98% of the 25 year strategic plan in his administration. We are only 12 years out and all of the decisions have already been made and the debt required to make them will leave little, if anything for current and future generations to do but shoulder the burden of crushing debt.
Chief said, "...all that's left is 10% not completed and that's the Minerals Council the minerals estate." The Strategic Plan (of the Osage membership throughout the USA) told you, first and foremost, that we want the Minerals Estate protected and left alone by the new Constitutional government. What strategic plan are you talking about, Chief? The Jim Gray plan?
Maria was very polite about it, but one important series of moments is when the Chief talked about all these "plans" and Maria stated that those plans weren't shared with the Congress because she hadn't seen any of them. This is proof of the disconnect with the Congress on the part of the Executive Branch. The ones in our government who are expected to appropriate funding are kept in the dark on the most important plans, both now and in the future, and yet the Executive Branch will not share them. This can be stopped by the Congress in tabling those spending bills or sending them back to the Executive Branch until they have all the pertinent information they need to do their job properly. If Justice punishes them for trying to do a proper job then further actions can and should be taken against Justice including Congressional Hearings of the members of the AG's Office, if necessary, or the members of the Judicial Branch who insist on stopping them from doing a proper job in the Congressional Appropriations process. Shannon Edwards is going to be using this very tool this Tuesday in the Congressional Health Committee Hearing on February 20, 2018.
Remember that appalling temper tantrum the Executive Branch, under the leadership of Chief StandingBear and Assistant Principal Chief Raymond Red Corn, had when the Congress wanted the program plans and budget justifications for the fiscal year budgeting for 2017? See Executive Branch delivers near-empty boxes to Congress in response to subpoena requests at http://www.osagenews.org/en/article/2016/10/20/executive-branch-delivers-near-empty-boxes-congress-response-subpoena-requests/ This childlike foolishness was not just an insult to the members of the Osage Nation Congress, it was a hideously ugly slap in the face to every single member of the Osage Nation represented by the members of the Legislative Branch as our representatives under the Osage Nation Constitution. This kind of behavior is as unprofessional as it gets, in my opinion. From my point of view, bullying the Congress in an attempt to humiliate them in public for doing their job is unethical and clearly within the realm of abusive conduct as so written in the Constitution under Section 3. The Conduct of Tribal Officials and Employees. I believe this may also a violation of the second sentence of this same Section: “Tribal officials and employees shall not hinder or obstruct the proper administration of the Osage Nation government in the administration of their duties.”
Anyone know why the audio of the last two Minerals Council Meetings hasn't been made available for on demand listening? https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/who-we-are/minerals-council/meeting-information Minutes haven't been updated since November 9, 2017. Big things seem to be happening right now and we need to know what's going on as it happens. I don't know what happened to the Press Release that was discussed some time ago that the Minerals Council was going to put out about the Bigheart Times Article with the headline that said that Osage Oil would end in 2020. Osage News isn't reporting on what's going on about that situation either. It's as if, at times, that there's a blackout where Minerals matters are concerned with the Osage News like they don't have a duty to report, which I believe they do. They keep up with the other three branches of government and their activities so why not a monthly column devoted to the activities of the Minerals Council without the usual slant that seems so often to happen when they do?
WONDERFUL! Was able to attend the OSA Meeting live online and it was brilliant! Well done Susan, very important presentation and the Chief was very helpful in being able to clarify our legal rights as members of the OSA and as individual Headright owners. Discussed taking Susan's presentation on how much we have lost through the years on natural gas to two of the named authorities that can do something about what has been going on with the Bureau and its failure, once again, of the trust responsibility and obligation to us as Shareholders in the last number of years since the HPP lawsuit was settled.
This was a great meeting and it looks like a lot will be happening with the OSA in the future. I encourage you to join as a shareholder especially since you now have the ability to participate anywhere in the USA. Terrific! I am so pleased.
I found out later on that one OSA member tuned in to hear the meeting from overseas. The great thing about the Zoom app for meetings is the fact that you can actually participate and interact live, not just listen in to what is happening during the meeting. The Nation should look into this app as a possibility for the membership to interact directly as well.
Specifically the Osage Nation Congress during Sessions and Committee Meetings could make use of this app for the membership located all over the world.
Osage Minerals Council filing period is March 1-10. Looks like they've done away with the qualification for having OMC Candidate’s petitions to file which requires 25 shareholder signatures to run. Some people aren't going to be happy about this I'll just bet... For information call Billie Ponca at (918) 287-5288. See https://www.facebook.com/OsageNews/posts/1712337598827060
I'm totally wrong on the independent candidate petition signatures. They are required and the candidates now have half the time to obtain those signatures than they did in the last election in 2014. I hope this will be contested on the part of the Osage shareholders because it looks like it's tightening up to give those who live in the immediate area a distinct advantage that isn't fair.
The changes in the filing periods are very questionable; not enough time for new candidates to file to run for the OMC. Seems like the current OMC is protecting their office.
They all have to file with the same reduced period of time as we do but the provision about not working for the Nation or being on a board now removed from the requirements is very questionable and self-serving. There are three or four of them who are sitting MC members currently who work for the Nation or sit on Boards. Serious conflict of interests there, you ask me.
Notice for today's OMC Meeting on the Live Media page of the web site: "Due to technical difficulties, the Minerals Council Meeting for February 22nd will not be livestreamed, but will be available on the website as soon as possible."
You have got to listen to this meeting. It's just utterly dismal especially the imposed regulations segment of the report and the information that can't be gotten from Robin Phillips, the Osage Superintendent without a FOYA and how important it is to have for business to move forward. I simply cannot see how the Bureau is not violating their fiduciary obligation owed to us, once again, and far worse than ever before. Abysmal!
What a coincidence that they are having technical difficulties on the day the Osage Shareholders Association is attending to discuss the irregularities of the OMC election process.
I expect confrontation an resistance from the OMC members between now and the election.
OMC Members are taking the heat right now with no thanks whatsoever in having saved the day with their "one minute before midnight" save on the wind farm lawsuit that the Feds walked away from at the last minute. A lot of this is political because there are a lot of people who want to get a job when we compact and a nice paycheck but giving the MC hell over what they can and can't and what they haven't done because they have no power to do so, has to be taken into consideration. There is very bad weather today in the Osage. The Nation's offices didn't even open until ten o'clock today. It's irritating, I know, but I don't think there is a conspiracy going on here.
Why would Mr. Peak from Santa Monica Ca, send a letter or for that matter, the edditor of the Osage News post his grievance after the fact the M.C recinded their lawsuit against the Nation? It is in my opinion holding those accountable does not mean your not representing the oath you take, are you kidding me? Problem all along was there was nothing there yet to sue the Nation about in the first place.
ReplyDeleteTo Mr. Peck we are the owners of the M.C not the Government , Mr. Peck we are Sovereign the Osage People, not the Government, somethjng to remember.
The Osage News appears to be end-running some agenda on this one for sure. They know that lawsuit was rescinded back in mid-November of last year because they did an article on it. This is a non-issue and they know it. Hopefully someone hasn't developed a disease of the mind over there at the ONN and forgotten what they've printed on the subject.
DeleteLol
DeleteWhere is our "Notes to the Nation," Kugee? We need a clarification about a lot of these issues and what is really happening as opposed to what is being falsely advertised by the Nation. Please get on the computer and let us know what's going on.
ReplyDeleteReview these items here --->>>
http://osageblog.blogspot.com/2017/10/osage-shareholder-matters-october-2017.html
Meeting is today but it's not online for some reason at https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/multimedia/live-media
ReplyDeleteHopefully it will be on the MC web page later on at
https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/who-we-are/minerals-council/meeting-information
The Agenda is located at https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/news-events/news/minerals-council-meeting-information-7
Once again, that Jim Gray couldn't tell the truth if he had to! A quarter of the headrights are out to non-Osages, not the other way around as stated in the article in https://www.indianz.com/News/2018/01/11/osage-nations-reign-of-terror-gains-rene.asp
ReplyDeleteIf what he states were true, 3/4 of the HPP lawsuit settlement would have gone to non-Osage owners which didn't happen. Of that quarter, there was a time when the personal property headright of those Osages back then could be sold, exchanged or transferred in an estate to go to whomever they so chose without the interference of others or the Federal government. Not all those headrights owned today are inherited by non-Osages. The article quotation of Jim Gray is as false on it's face as it can possibly be. Every time the Osage Murders come up, Jim is there to grandstand. It's sickening. It's like he's the poster mouth for what went on back then which was long before he was even born. More families in the Osage were harmed by this abomination than just Jim Gray. You'd think he could step aside and let others come forward to share what happened to their families too.
Martin Scorcese who is the unofficial film "King of Mean" should get it right but he and DiCaprio had better do some serious fact checking before they start throwing around such false statements coming from that fatuous fibster, Jim Gray. What I'd like them to finish the film with is the ghastly injustice we have have had to suffer, bear up under and shoulder in so many encroachment ways (wind farm, lawsuits represented by Gentner Drummond, the business killing regulatory actions of the BIA) since his former highness, Jim Gray, spearheaded that tax lawsuit on behalf of one single solitary Osage employee that lost us our legal Reservation Status in Federal Court in Tulsa, backed up by the 10th Circuit in Denver and dropped from being heard as a legitimate case by the U.S. Supreme Court. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!
Well said. I could not agree more the politics needs to be expressed because it's been bitter for more than one reason. How abot go back to why this Government and how it wa created and how not everyone got a vote as said. They better get it right.
Deletewind farms. Plural not just one and more on the way. Thanks to our MC who saved the day at the 11th Hour in Federal Court at the 10th Circuit Appeals Court in Denver, these two wind farms, now on the ground, are going to have to pay up. That ought to give any comers something to think about.
ReplyDeleteReference:
Deletehttps://www.indianz.com/News/2017/09/18/osage-nation-secures-landmark-decision-i.asp
https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2017/09/27/osage-nation-wins-wind-farm-fight/
https://www.facebook.com/Osage-County-Ok-Residents-Against-Wind-Farms-615440228541703/
https://www.indianz.com/News/2017/10/24/osage-nation-clears-another-hurdle-in-lo.asp
I don't think Mustang Run, the second wind farm, is actually on the ground yet.
Just found out what happened to Santa last month when he flew over the Osage:
Deletehttps://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154781949899378&set=a.122284044377.100192.598814377&type=3&theater
Finally, someone is looking at this sensibly:
DeleteOklahoma doesn’t need or want the massive Wind Catcher project
http://www.tulsaworld.com/opinion/readersforum/cliff-branan-oklahoma-doesn-t-need-or-want-the-massive/article_fd45526e-7c75-5c96-b0ec-bcdf7e76a7df.html
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-oil-record-shale-analysis/u-s-oil-industry-set-to-break-record-upend-global-trade-idUSKBN1F50HV
ReplyDeleteGreat read and very informative. It definitely is a Job seeker market, with big oil companies like exxon and chevron comming back to America.
DeleteWwhere do we fit in this great growth that is happening now underneath our feet?
The Special Session is about to start at https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/multimedia/live-media
ReplyDeleteThe Agenda is located at https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/who-we-are/congress-legislative-branch/sessions
THIS IS OF EXTREME IMPORTANCE TO THE FISCAL FUTURE AND FISCAL HEALTH OF THE OSAGE NATION!
It involves a some sort of banking tool that is a banking swap to manage our variable interest rate on the loan we now have for the construction of our new casino. It requires the waiver of Sovereignty, approval, and signing of an International Swaps and Derivatives Association Agreement of some kind but I don't know if we have access to the terms and conditions of the actual swap tool product language and fine print of that agreement or not. We should not go there if we don't know exactly what is involved in this agreement. Remember this is one of the same kinds of products that brought down the Wall Street Banks in 2007/2008 over that derivatives and credit swap catastrophe that took place that nearly brought down the U.S. economy and that of the entire world. Maria Whitehorn is the sponsor of this legislation, ONCR 18-01. I would recommend a call to her about this bill as soon as possible. I am calling her today. Her phone number and e-mail are located at https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/who-we-are/congress-legislative-branch/contact
The actual resolution, ONCR 18-01 does not give any hard information on how much this swap tool product will cost either and until we know what that will involved, we don't need to be spending money for that either. It appears to be like a kind of insurance policy tool that helps us manage our risk when the interest rate goes up on our loan but these kind of agreements are very complicated and should be carefully looked at at arms length before we get involved in anything as complicated as an investment and mortgage product like this one or anything involving real estate mortgage investment derivatives and or credit swaps.
DeleteThe legislation can be found on this page at https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/who-we-are/congress-legislative-branch/legislation
DeleteSee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIwuT8TGEik&feature=youtu.be
DeleteThis gives a primer on the subject but the last sentence of the article states, "The takeaway: a prudent borrower should do a cost/benefit analysis to determine that the possible savings in interest over the life of the loan outweigh the upfront expenses by a margin that satisfies the borrower.” See https://www.steeglaw.com/financing-interest-rate-swap-agreements/
DeleteIt appears that perhaps the lender wants us to buy this swap interest rate hedging-of-risk management tool as a kind of insurance in order to secure his interest in the success of the payment of the loan. Does this involve, permit or enable the lender’s ability to sell this loan to another lender and have it packaged up as part of a real estate derivative investment security together with a tranche of other loans like it that could be sold to anyone anywhere in the world that is looking for this kind of investment product to buy? I have reason for large concern if this is indeed the case because we don’t want our lender to be a government or pension plan for a company located somewhere in outer Slovenia that in future may buy this security and then have no way to find out who the true owner of the mortgage actually is in the years to come. This is exactly what happened with these derivative products sold all over the world and now there are real estate properties all over the United States that are sitting empty because they went back to the bank in foreclosure and no one can find out who the actual bank or whoever actually now owns the actual mortgage that was sold, packaged up and is now listed hundreds deep in a tranche recorded in the fine print of some real estate derivative security the owner of which is now is the true owner of the property with no way to find them. Insane to the MAX but it's the truth of the matter all the same.
Recommended reading on this subject is the book "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis.
On careful reflection, we really need to read the fine print of what we are buying in this swap before we get involved with purchasing it.
DeleteOh good! Trust Geoffrey to get us into a floating variable rate loan to finance the Bluestem Ranch and the Casino Expansion. Trust Maria Whitehorn to try and get us out of the fix we're in with a crazy loan like that. How much is this loan for? $160 Million? She's like the one they call on when they want to muck out the ignored elephant and its stall right inside the Chief's Office. Lands!
DeleteUnreal. Put a stop to this immediately before it is to late.
DeleteDerivatives provide to the investor a way to trandfer the risk. But what is in the package? What is the trade off and be weary where there is fish there are sharks.
DeleteYou have got to listen to the second half of this Commerce Committee Meeting at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t96B1LPo_1g In it, the man giving the presentation makes the statement that our entire debt level is $175 million! This is broken up into the loan for the Bluestem Ranch at $67 Million, the Casino expansion in Tulsa at $58 Million and a line of credit for $50 million !!! !!! !!! We have just now started to dip into the line of credit with a draw from the bank of $5.6 million. I'm presuming this is from the line of credit.
Delete"Entering into this or that derivative product." ?!? So this IS about more than just a swap.
DeleteIn all this, does anyone know if we have a variable interest rate cap with the commercial loans we have and if so, what is it?
DeleteWhat is Standingbear getting out of this and how many millions of dollars is being traded under the table to make him rich off the backs of the Osage people?
DeleteMC Meeting is live online at https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/multimedia/live-media
ReplyDeleteAgenda is located at https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/news-events/news/minerals-council-meeting-information-8
Need to listen to this one. Report on how many wells were drilled in 2017 is pathetic. No, pitiful is more the word for it.
DeleteNow have to have Federal records process imposed on our oil and gas records per the Superintendent. Listen to Galen Crum's remarks that we are still independent per our Osage CFR rules and not the current Federal documents process of the Bureau of Land Management. Tripping over this now, Galen? Weren't we going to go with BLM rules in the new CFRs that you, Andrew and Sonny Abbott cooked up with the BIA to the detriment of everyone involved? Ha!
DeleteGalen is right. What the hell is going on with drilling?
DeleteDrilling will come to an end in 2020 62% Economic Limit due to no new drilling replacing plugged wells. BIA takes too long to get permits out and leases approved. Producers are leaving or left because of BIA. Nothing can be done to get BIA to get things going faster they are on lock down mode with drilling records etc. Compacting is out of the question cause then ON and non-shareholders can be involved and vote then-lose the trust. Chairman Waller is not himself he is taking all this very calmly very unusual for him. He has not ramped or raved about anything for a long time. What is going on? Something very fishy smelling going on...
DeleteYes... More than fishy. They are planning to move away from the BIA and compact the Mineral Estate. I have the word on this from a source who works for the BIA and from a source who works for the Nation. It’s my personal belief that when the time is right, they're going to spring it on us. We've laid down and played dead for so much that's happened since 2006 when this Constitutional government took it all away from us, I think that they don't and won’t even care how we react on the BIA side or on the Nation side as well. Once we compact the BIA, and if there is still a trust account held with the Office of the Special Trustee (OST) that is under the umbrella of the Department of the Interior, money may still flow to the headright owners after the transition. Even if they do compact and funds still flow to the shareholders, what costs and fees will come out of the royalties in the current trust account after we compact still remains to be seen. The next step will be when the OST is repatriated back to the BIA. The Indian Committees in the U.S. Congress have been contemplating such a move for over a year. The Trump administration is in full-court press mode on this right now and for it to happen by the end of this year:
Deletehttps://www.indianz.com/News/2017/12/12/major-changes-in-store-as-trust-reform-o.asp
https://www.doi.gov/ost/
This may also involve a Tribal Energy Resource Agreement (TERA)
https://teeic.indianaffairs.gov/abouttera/
Once they successfully get rid of the OST, who knows what will happen. Presumably, if the income from the mineral rights starts coming into the accounts of the Osage Nation Treasury, all will be lost, at least for those who live outside of Osage County is my speculation, if not lost altogether. I've heard a timeline of 4-5 years for the transition from the BIA to a compact. If the BIA is out, then what will become of the Federal Trust account now managed by the OST where money is now being deposited for quarterly payments? If the OST is no longer around in four or five years and those accounting responsibilities are returned to the BIA and they are no longer involved in any capacity where the current Osage Minerals estate is concerned, what will happen then? I don't care what the top people in the Executive Branch of the Osage Nation tell you, this plan is what's up on the drawing board right now.
What the tax position for the headright owner’s income will be for the shareholders and if Big Eagle VS United States (300F 2D 765) will still apply is another matter too if the BIA is out and the Nation takes over and the minerals income is transferred to the Osage Nation Treasury. It’s all up in the air right now but changes are being planned for now and very rapidly on the Federal side. Someone needs to step up and get the U.S. government to account for itself where getting rid of the OST is concerned. The U.S. Taxpayers including each and every Osage Nation member have paid a very pretty penny in the Cobell and Osage HPP lawsuits because of the substandard way the BIA handled the Trust accounts where they were in charge. If they behave in the next four to five years in the same manner as they have been behaving in what seems to me to be every business killing manner possible in the Osage, we will be lucky to collect any quarterly income at all once the BIA is back at the fiscal helm.
Comment period is over in only one month and now time's up?
Delete"Tribal consultation sessions will be held by phone on Wednesday, December 13, 1:00 p.m.- 4:00 p.m. EST, and Thursday, December 14, 9:00 a.m.- 12:00 p.m. EST. Comments on this proposal must be received by January 15, 2018."
See the rest of the article at https://www.indianz.com/fr/2017/11/08/tribal_consultation_on_indian_10.asp
One solitary month? This looks like a classic Federal government Tribal end-run to me! Something this important should have a three to six month response time for comments on the proposal from all the Tribal communities. Certainly the Osage headright owners won’t be well served by it if the BIA is back in the fiscal catbird seat.
Isn't a move like this on the part of the Federal government (Executive Branch and the Department of the Interior) unethical in view of such a massive loss to the U.S. Treasury over those successful Indian lawsuits to even contemplate?
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/11/08/2017-24319/tribal-consultation-on-indian-trust-asset-reform-act-itara-sec-304-transition-plan-for-the-office-of
Jerold Gidner, is the OST's Principal Deputy Special Trustee. Looks like this is a guy who will go along with anything the DOI and the Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, wants him to:
https://www.doi.gov/ost/about_us/special-trustee
Does anyone in all this really care about the individual Indian Trust beneficiaries and what is best for them from the standpoint of the owed fiduciary obligation?
Clarification is needed here. The OST, according to the article, will continue remain intact when it's transferred over to the BIA but we all know that when a new sheriff is in town, so to say, changes are made to organizational structures. If this arrangement proves to be incompatible with the agenda of the BIA that will now be over the OST, whatever that may be, who knows what will happen. Once the transition takes place, will the BIA have the ability and authority to dismantle the OST and reorganize it according to its own bureaucratic dictates? Presumably that will be the case but who knows the answer to that question either.
DeleteOnce the Osage Nation has compacted the Mineral Estate in 4-5 years, will the OST still be in place and charged with Mineral Estate Trust account distribution under the authority of the BIA or will the minerals income flow into the Osage Nation Treasury per a compact agreement with some other trust fund arrangement similar to the public trust that Hepsi Barnett talked about during the time when she was involved with the Osage Government Reform Commisson (OGRC)?
Why weren't all these events being reported to us by the Osage Nation government in general and by the Chief in particular? Did they even respond to the Department of the Interior during the comment period and if so, what was their response? Did the Minerals Council respond? What was their response? Was the Osage News still focused on bragging rights and not paying enough attention to important external Federal matters that are certainly newsworthy to every single Osage headright owner?
DeleteWhy do we so often have to find out what's going on from e-mail and the internet instead of the Osage Nation government and the Osage News? Are they hiding things from us or just not paying attention? At least the MC puts out an informative newsletter on a quarterly basis or at least they did for a while there.
The Osage Agency Superintendent is supposed to receive requests for information direct from Chairman Waller that are then transferred to her. If a member of the MC wants information and they request it and give that request to Waller and don't get it, where is the communication breakdown happening? Is Waller not transferring those requests for information to the Superintendent or is the Superintendent not responding to those requests?
DeleteOh wow, I find this peculiar. Because if anything the jig is up. All eight of our elected M.C seats are up. And I have been saying for quite sometime we have serious issues when it comes to communicating and voting on issues that directly affect our interest and you are just beginning to realuze this? Our quarterly newsletter is so sub par. There's nothing positive that you can relate to, other than everything is after the fact. Our Newspaper is biased or haven't you noticed?
DeleteThat being said, how can you hold those accountable and the only way is, vote them out and vote for change. Simple. Lord know we need change. My bet when this happens we will have a rockin mineral council.
I sure as hell am not voting them out because they came in on a Hail Mary pass after the Federal government dropped the ball at the Appellate Court level deciding not to go forward with an appeal against the ENEL, the owner of the wind farm in question. The 10th Circuit came down from on high as a result of the brilliant and timely work of our Minerals Council in going to court and the Justices decided in favor of the Osage Nation that the Minerals Estate has been disturbed and that we have the right to go back into Federal Court in Tulsa to seek damages from ENEL for not getting a permit from the BIA before they went ahead to put up those wind machines as fast as humanly possible like a sneaking group of squatters. I say, credit where credit is due and credit is due to the members of our Minerals Council who went to bat in Federal Court for us shareholders and won the legal day.
DeleteBash and trash is all you appear to know but that's good because we can use your ignorance to get the truth out to everyone who reads this blog.
I like the newsletter and wish they would keep publishing it.
DeleteSpecial Session is live again and the Commerce Committee is now live at https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/multimedia/live-media
ReplyDeleteInterim Gaming Board member Julie Malone is speaking. Julie is a particular favorite of mine if that's allowable to write here. The concern is getting our security people armed in our Casinos by Osage Nation Statute. We no longer have a cross-deputization agreement so this is a sticky issue. There are also Federal considerations of some sort because the Casinos are on trust land.
Consider serving the Osage People and run for Congressional office:
ReplyDeleteSee Filing for Osage Congressional candidates starts Feb. 6
http://www.osagenews.org/en/article/2018/01/19/filing-osage-congressional-candidates-starts-feb-6/
FYI - if you haven't heard yet, this morning close to 9 a.m. Oklahoma time, there was an oil drilling fire, news says five are still missing, near Quinton, OK, Pittsburg County.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear this happened. RIP
Deletehttp://www.fox23.com/news/quinton-oil-well-catches-fire/687576952
In reference to the bad status/report on Osage drilling in the last MC meeting, below is a sentence that is on the Osage Agency letterhead sent to annuitants when they (BIA) issued the first "Osage Minerals News" dated Oct. 15, 2010:
ReplyDelete"The Osage Agency regulates and monitors over 4,000 active mineral leases..."
If drilling gets any lower, we may not need an oil business office.
Since 2008 we have seen a serious decrease in our revenue due to some very bad regs.
DeleteThere are a lot of factors here at play I surmise.
Let me start by saying, the M.C are the drivers and the BIA has some how put the breaks on and the consequences are felt through and through, btw, the M.C are the drivers of our estate in other words, they have drop the ball in alot of ways.
They exist because the 1906 says they must exist but we to have a right to know as well as they do what is transpiring on the mineral estate. Basically the over all health, the current status quo.
Our money is not shareholders money because we all have a stake in the M.E.
To treat is as so is a problematic, why because we have not been privileged to know only perpetuates no transparency to no communication. This has to change.
Then you have the BIA, (Osage Agency) to this melting pot. The incompetence is a understatement.
Since the HPP case was settled we were made a lot of promises, do you remember? How many engineers were to be hired to enhance our M.E and how many do we have?
Then look at how the contracting our estate how in a lot of ways opened doors to corruption.
Then you look at all the mom and pops who could not survive the economic downturn to politics, over regulations.
I said a long time ago we have couch potatoes who are working from a arm chair, this is no way to run a huge estate like this.
Now you are seeing a economy that is spourting like the sseds were planted yesterday, but where in this mix of seed are we?
I said two years ago we were heading to a economic growth and that we need tomget on the same bag wagon.
We thank the mom and pops but now if the BIA did not ruin I ur reputation, we want the big drillers to come, hello is anybody listening.
Truth and facts here, all eight council memebers are up.
Pure fiction! What? Are you in mind of outlining to write a very short short story here?
DeleteThe 1906 Allotment Act and it's amendments provide that the Minerals Council has no real power by law and the current CFRs, because all oil and gas leases and other business conducted by the Minerals Council -- and let me highlight these next few words -- are subject to the regulation and approval of the BIA through the Superintendent of the Osage Agency who is the designated representative of the Secretary of the Interior who is the Trustee of the Osage Mineral Estate Trust. The members of the Minerals Council are in effect, powerless figureheads completely subject to the whims of the Bureau at this point and back in time from June of 1906. Where are you coming up with all this whooey?
The current Osage Nation Minerals Council is a creation of the Osage Constitution in Article XV, Section 4:
"The Osage Minerals Council is recognized by the Osage Nation government as an independent agency within the Osage Nation established for the sole purpose of continuing its previous duties to administer and develop the Osage Mineral Estate in accordance with the Osage Allotment Act of June 28, 1906, as amended,..."
There has been no contracting, compacting or otherwise of the Osage Mineral Estate by anyone including the Osage Nation. That isn’t to say that this won’t happen in the near future but it hasn’t happened as of yet. The Osage Tribal Council, as so constituted by the 1906 Allotment Act and its amendments over the years, ended as a form of government in 2006 with the ratification of the Osage Nation Constitution. Where have you been?
Either you’re ignorant or spinning as big a yarn as has ever been posted here on this message board. Is this coming from ER? Because it sure reads like it.
To be honest I have to believe, the person above your post is hitting the nail on the head.,
DeleteAll the while you put politics before the Headright owners. This is how they feel and you blow them out of the water with your vitriol.
Simple there seats are up for re-election with the exception of one or two and maybe that, if that,
need to go.
And lets say the council has no real power they did before we became a Nation.
There's a lot that could have been done.
So you did not answer the above post. Where arevwe today, oil is at a all time high I believe the last time I looked it's ats at $65.00 a barrel.
And if the M.C has no control and the responsibility falls back to the BIA where is our lawsuit to protect the interest again and as I recall as well the BIA after the HPP was settled we were promised that we would have more engineers and then again you cannot answer the above post.
I like how people go back to the 1906 act and use it as some kind of strategy to further the growth of the M.E or the complete opposite however which way the mood swings. Enough of the excuses already now your beginning to sound like pig Pelosi.
The person who wrote above is wrong about who is ultimately responsible for what takes place with the Osage oil and gas business. It gets tiresome after a while to have to constantly correct all these ridiculous statements about how things are organized by those who don't spend a single second doing their homework to learn how things really work and yet come here and spew falsehoods right and left, painting the majority of our Minerals Council as the bad guys in the piece. This is so wrong. Listen to these listed meetings and you will understand the reality under which we, as shareholders, and the Minerals Council live and who really calls the shots: https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/who-we-are/minerals-council/meeting-information
DeleteThe Bureau has added staff but they have also forced a plethora of new regulations down the throat of the oil and gas men who are small producers which has put many of them out of business in the Osage. Read them and weep: https://www.bia.gov/regional-offices/eastern-oklahoma/osage-agency The oil and gas market dropping through the floor didn't help either. This is something everyone has been victimized by including the Members of the Minerals Council who also own headrights. Not good all the way around. The members of the Minerals Council, in the main, have had put forward a resolution of no-confidence in the current Osage Agency Supervisor. They have continued to fight for your rights in court even when the Bureau has fallen away. You still have beneficiary rights as a shareholder. Why aren’t you suing the Bureau for the financial losses they have caused you personally instead of painting the Minerals Council as the villains with as broad a brush as you can find. Tell us exactly what you want them to do to make you happy. Chances are they can’t do what you want them to do because they are not legally empowered to even do it. Try and be fair. That’s helpful. Confusing people with false information isn’t in any way.
"The members of the Minerals Council, in the main, have had put forward a resolution of no-confidence in the current Osage Agency Superintendent."
DeleteYou call the BIA and find out about the engineer/s who have been hired. Don't sit on your keester at the computer and expect the rest of us to do your homework for you. You find out and complain here if the new hire/s haven't been put on the payroll at the BIA since the HPP lawsuit. Then you will have something to gretch about when you get back here and post the information you have researched on your own. Sheesh!
DeleteHave all of you lost your heads really?
DeleteNot everyone knows this and my bet, there's a lot that is amiss. But you would cut your nose to spite your face then face reality, excuses are like everyone has one because like I said once apon a time are we going to be in the court of opinion the reat of our lives and not grow this estate to it's potential?
Sure we lost a lot of mom and pops, but there are companies that can and do understand the politics at the BIA or federal level and have the resources.
The problem here is what can the producers afford and how much business uncertainty can they withstand? The regulatory environment is unstable now and not knowing what's going to happen next and how much it's going to cost with the BIA seeming not to care much one way or the other and the Minerals Council not being legally capable of doing much if anything about it, is where we are right now it's a helluva bad fix to be in at present. I don't see much hope for the near future at present maybe things will open up again in six months to a year. I hope and pray it does for all our sakes.
DeleteThe incompetence is just amazing?
DeleteInformation on the Spring Meeting of the UOSC in California: https://www.facebook.com/OsageNews/photos/a.153834188010750.33094.134873493240153/1685749574819196/?type=3&theater
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you try getting a petition up with signatures and or a letter or letters to the Senate committee on Indian affairs? They are the ones in control really. The BIA which has been contracted to the Osage Nation to run but ruled by the CFR's. The Osage Nation has turned the drilling of oil over to the state. The state and Nation are getting ready to put up 10 hydraulic fracturing rigs at equal distances to cover the whole of the Osage. In other words they are getting ready to suck this place dry. In doing this they will be poisoning the water sources of which their are 19. This is all in the report the Agency had done by Performance who will be in charge of the drilling out of these 19 water sources 6 are already deemed toxic as to not touch your skin. They have a superfund already implemented which is like Pritchard where the whole town was relocated and to this day the area is so toxic you can't get near it. Anyway Scott Pruitt is in on this along with the chief and superintendent. The price of oil which is extremely low now and for a reason so that the state and federal government can buy these oils low store them on our shores and then raise the price of oil and sell it to foreign countries or rather China. You would not have to depend on the headrights if the Nation were made to pay the per capita from the casinos like is specified in the IGRA. The senate committee on Indian affairs is the only entity that can put an end to the chiefs tyranny. Those letters either need to have as many signatures on them as possible in order to get their attention bc we elected a person to speak for us in the chief and the constitution needs to be amended in or to get this matter taken care of. But you cannot wait until they start drilling if they haven't already.
ReplyDeleteTwo things way wrong with this plan:
DeleteThe Minerals Council is legally in place as on point for any minerals matter in the Osage. By virtue o two Federal Court opinions and the Osage Constitution as so outlined in Article XV. If the Chief is involved in such a maneuver, he’s in violation of Article X, Section 8.
Two, this plan probably also involves that totally bogus Osage Nation Energy Services, LLC., that is a cash drain if there ever was one, that’s supposed to stay out of minerals matters as well unless they go through the Mineral Council which I’ve not heard anything about. Another Sonny Abbott deal I’ll bet, together with Andrew Yates and those other follow alongs in the Minerals Council and we know who they are come election time.
I just spoke with another Osage about this comment and I agree with her that if all the women, who currently outnumber the Osage men, vote for Maria Whitehorn she'll win in the upcoming election. I am so sick and tired of the Chief interfering in everything right and left in mineral matters. Get him out of there in June and put in Maria so we can work with a shareholder constituent friendly Chief at the top to put an end to this sneaking around behind the backs of many of the minerals council members and the Osage Shareholders too !!! !!! !!!
DeleteArticle in this weeks Bigheart Times is talking the demise of the Mineral Estate 2020. The BIA has run the Osage oil patch right into the ground with regulations the didn't really have to be put in place. Especially the EIS. The proposed CFRs were a shot to the heart of our oil and gas enterprise as well. I think it may be down to the beneficiaries who have lost income in all this mess and we do have standing because we have been harmed by all these unnecessary regulatory changes that we have been steamrolled over by in the last three years. The BIA Appeals Court can't say we don't have standing to sue because they can't take our legal property rights away from us and we do have legal rights as Osage Mineral Estate Trust Beneficiaries. One Federal Court Justice in Tulsa said we have legal rights and the Courts can't take them away.
DeleteWe were going gangbusters (payment per headright at $10,000) and then the BIA worked with Team Osage on those CFRs that brought in all kinds of new regulations which would have killed off all the Mom and Pops if a stink to high heaven hadn't been raised all the way to the U.S. Congress and if we hadn't been able to turn them back. Then, to even the dismay of Galen Crum, the Bureau springs new EPA regulations because of what was widely believed at the time, to be a knee jerk reaction to the lawsuit of Martha Donelson that subsequently failed in Court. The BIA knew or should have known, from the heightened negative reaction brought about by the introduction of the proposed new CFRs, that adding these new EPA requirements with burdensome regulations for the small Mom and Pops and egregiously long delays before leases could be approved, all before the Donalson lawsuit had run its course in the Court system, would have to be significantly detrimental going forward. The Bureau does not have have a trust relationship with the EPA and never has. It does with the Osages both with the Osage Tribe, now Nation and the headright owners who are the trust beneficiaries that receive income from the production of oil and gas in Osage County. To persist in going ahead with the EPA requirements despite the fact the the BIA should have known that it would harm the beneficiaries is where it has done the headright owners significant financial harm. The oil and gas producers who generate the income for the trust beneficiaries found such actions on the part of the Bureau both "thoughtless and reckless." In the case of the coal industry, there has been a Federal Court opinion that the EPA cannot impose overweening business killing regulations on a particular industry without a cost-benefit analysis. “In a 5-to-4 decision, Michigan v. Environmental Protection Agency, the Supreme Court ruled that the agency had run afoul of the Clean Air Act by deciding to regulate the emissions without first undertaking a cost-benefit analysis to show the regulation to be “appropriate and necessary.” Quoted from the NYT. All along, it appeared to many that the regulatory actions of the BIA were more to the benefit of the Bureau than to the Osage trust beneficiaries.
Deletehttp://www.tulsaworld.com/newshomepage1/in-osage-county-oil-producers-blame-big-bad-government-for/article_eb88c5d6-c196-5579-b5c3-f90b44eac814.html
At the time the new CFRs were sprung on the oil and gas producers with a 30 day compliance demand in a letter sent out by the Bureau to the producers, it was disclosed that an economic impact study had been completed by the BIA that indicated that no significant harm would be done to the Mineral Estate by the introduction of the new CFRs. How wrong they were back then and due to the public outcry from the Minerals Council, various oil and gas producers, headright owners, and letters from two members of the U.S. Congress which put the BIA on notice that they were not acting in proper accordance with their trust obligations to the Osages. Whether or not an economic impact study was completed with respect to the new EPA requirements is unknown at this time but I rather doubt it but if so, and if such a study put forth that there would be no significant negative economic impact, it has certainly been proven to be disastrously wrong as well.
DeleteAccording to the article in the Bigheart Times published last Thursday, a report has been prepared from the Department of the Interior's Division of Energy Minerals Development that puts forward information that "...the Osage Mineral Estate may reach its economic limit as soon as 2020 based on current activity levels." You think? And who is the Trustee of the Osage Mineral Estate with the owed fiduciary obligation to the beneficiaries? The Secretary of the Interior is the correct answer. The BIA is bureaucratically housed under the Department of the Interior, so who is ultimately responsible for this economic harm and devastation brought on by the regulations of the Bureau that has reduced our Mineral Estate production from boom to bust out in the oil field in a period of just two and a half years?
I mean a total of 18 wells approved by Superintendent Robin Phillips, drilled and completed in 2017?
DeleteA tale told of overweening regulations imposed by an institutional idiot, signifying everything? It appears that sovereignty is just another word for poverty. How does a government agency acting as a trustee get sued for millions and billions of dollars and lose the case, then after losing, turn right around and behave in a manner that is vastly more harmful and devastating to the very same trust beneficiaries? If this isn't as fundamentally wrong as it can possibly be, give me an example of another situation that is worse.
https://stateimpact.npr.org/oklahoma/2015/02/03/litigation-and-low-prices-drill-oil-industry-in-osage-county/
http://kgou.org/post/osage-county-oil-drilling-halted-environmental-concerns
Ray McClain's web site, at http://www.osages-you-need-to-know.com is a great historical resource and archive of BIA Operations reports available for download that came direct from the Osage Agency Superintendent, Robin Phillips.
DeleteSee:
http://www.osages-you-need-to-know.com/2012.html
http://www.osages-you-need-to-know.com/2013.html
http://www.osages-you-need-to-know.com/2014.html
http://www.osages-you-need-to-know.com/default.html
As an example, listed in the Operations Report ending and for the week of December 13, 2013, there were 15 approvals. This is almost more in one week than in the entire year of 2017. Read it and weep aloud. BTW, also read how incredibly dissatisfied those on Team Osage were at the time that production was booming. It's all there in black and white...
Of that number associated with Team Osage still on the Minerals Council up for reelection are Andrew Yates and Galen Crum should they choose to run for office in the upcoming election in June.
ghastly
DeleteYou are so naive! In their heart of hearts, the USA stills sees Native Americans as a battle conquered people. To have to pay for past injustices here, there and everywhere just because they have tried and are trying to get us to a point where we are economically independent, then once the money starts rolling in, we use it for getting Judicial revenge instead of using the money to become self- sufficient, well... from their point of view, I'm sure it's insufferable. Do you really expect them to play nice and do right by us? It's a bitter brew and we need to see this for what really it is and act to protect ourselves and our future income from what they are doing now and what they plan to do in the next several years.
DeletePoster @ 11:34 AM
DeleteI believe the timeline is longer than 2 and half years.
It's more like 6 years.
BTW how is voting no confidence developing our estate working out?
Not!
The moment our permitting process came to a stand still we should have had the federal government back in court!
Agreed. Too many of the the Osages on that Rule Making Committee actually were foolish enough to believe that the BIA would move forward and correct the mistakes of the past. I never went quite that far. Once those BLM rules appeared, I knew better right then. Judging from how the USA treats foreign nationals off-shore who get in the way of their agenda or business interests, the only reason a perfunctory effort was likely made is because we all have dual citizenship and they can't take it too far. What I never anticipated is how vindictive they would actually be. I mean, 18 leases approved in one year? That's pretty ugly and as much as everyone would like to blame the Superintendent, I think we all know it's coming down from on high in Washington. D.C. My belief is they want to offload us at the first opportunity. Remember, the Superintendent said right from the beginning when the new EPA rules were introduced, that the BIA was going to introduce them because they had already been in the works and had been for some time. What better way to run the Mineral Estate right into the ground than with multiple regulations to satisfy one or more regulators that the small producers out in the oil field could never be able to keep up with or afford.
DeleteI agree with you. But our failure once again will be in the courts of opinion with so much evidence piling up against the agency once again.
DeleteThe meaning of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again.
The upper echelon I would say when and we know how deep the politics can get, btw when the upper echelon who was Gina McCarthy at the at the EPA and her agenda did not help either.
I would like to see the economic impact statement, my bet it's rife with many errors.
Vindictive is a understatement and we should be making our statement loud and clearly and let the federal government know we will no longer play the fiddle and bring our war drums out in protest.
There is huge discrimination going on but there is incompetence as well.
This has hit so many in the pockets.
That report, in view of the behavior of the BIA for the last four or five years, is certainly convenient, isn't it?
DeleteWhat's been going on between the Chief's office and Andrew Yates? I'm starting to hear that there may be something happening there that we might like to know about. Don't try and call Yates though. He's probably too busy with his other Osage Nation job to get back to you. Another double-dipper, that one.
DeleteBefore that Chief can end our trust agreement unilaterally or even on an agreed upon basis with the Feds if that what he's trying to do, we need to vote as beneficiaries of this trust that has been in place for 112 years; the income of which as been to one degree or another, feeding our families, educating our children and providing us with some level of security be that great or small all that during that expanse of time. He tries to steamroll over all of us Osage Headright owners, without a vote of the Shareholders in a duly authorized election brought about and called for as a Special Election specifically for that purpose by the Osage Nation Congress, when we have a Federal Justice who is the Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma who says we have rights as beneficiaries of this Federal Trust, he will violate our rights to choose what we want him to do one way or the other and we will be in a position to sue him in Federal Court because this Trust is a Federal matter and we are the beneficiaries of a Federal Trust arrangement that is completely outside the purview and the auspices of the Osage Nation. I choose. He does not have the right to either represent me or choose for me in ending this mineral rights income trust without my say so. I do. I have that right and I won’t have him abrogate it to the Osage Nation, the BIA, or any part or segment of the Federal government, period. And Chief. I mean every single word of what I've written here on this page.
DeleteThere’s an app for that...
ReplyDeleteExperts preserve Osage language through technology
https://www.nativeoklahoma.us/PDF/NOK-Feb2018.pdf
I played around with this app after downloading it from the Apple App Store. This is BRILLIANT! It's just simply wonderful and every Osage should have it. I am not kidding you. It looks beautiful and it performs in a fabulous way. It's the most perfect introduction and primer to the Osage alphabet and language words and phrases you could ever hope to have...in a word OUTSTANDING!
DeleteIt works with both tablets and smart phones. WOW...is this thing great! Don't be intimidated. Work with the Osage letters and get them down phonetically first before you go to try and pronounce the language, otherwise it'll be a lot more difficult. You'll need to memorize the sound of the letters initially and then use the word and phrase spellings written in the Osage alphabet as you move through each page.
DeleteEPA shutdown order is challenged in Federal Court:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.osagenews.org/en/article/2018/01/25/three-osage-county-producers-challenge-epa-shutdown-order/
That works out to about $141,000 a month we are losing in income on this EPA order and that's not chump change people!
DeleteNo its not. The fix is in and the jokes on us
DeleteStop. Please. The water is being ruined North of Pawhuska and all you can worry about is payment? This is issue is so much bigger than a loss in payment. You can't drink salt/brine water. The City of Pawhuska actually switched their source fof drinking water to avoid the brine coming down the watershed. The general public is not tolerating this kind of environmental pollution anymore.
DeleteAnd this us why the producrs who have evidence disputing said facts that were overlooked would go the length in court to lie? Keep drinking your bath water.
DeleteThere evidence must have not been worth a damn or they wouldn't have got shut down.
DeleteI didn't believe the EPA had or has any jurisdiction in Osage County. Did that new EIS open the door for them to enter in?
DeleteI believe the evidence was overlooked or not made evident during the decision process. Probably no accident there. And poster @ 9:38 Am you are right, the EPA has no jurisdiction. We are operating under the old CFR'S.
DeleteHeads UP! OSA to have Feb. meeting at Skiatook Osage Casino
ReplyDeletehttp://www.osagenews.org/en/article/2018/01/26/osage-shareholders-association-host-feb-18-meeting-skiatook-osage-casino/
HEADS UP 2: The Osage Minerals Council is having a Special Meeting this coming Monday in the regular Council Chambers. In Executive Session, the Agenda states that they will be discussing the Office of the Special Trustee. See https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/news-events/news/minerals-council-meeting-information-january-29th
ReplyDeleteAnybody know what happened?
DeleteOK...here it is! Listen to the Osage Minerals Council voting to send over some document on leasing options including compating/contracting to their attorney for review. I TOLD YOU SO!
DeleteListen in here https://osage-multimedia.s3.amazonaws.com/media/minerals/audio/FY2018/2018-0129_3OMC_Pt2.mp3
There is a Press Release forthcoming about the Article in the Bigheart Times that was published a week ago about the 2020 date in the headline and the Osage Mineral Estate.
DeleteThis is such a sidewind -- this time it's the Osage News. Once more!
ReplyDeleteOsage Minerals Council rescinds resolution to sue the Osage Nation
http://www.osagenews.org/en/article/2017/11/17/osage-minerals-council-rescinds-resolution-sue-osage-nation/
The article states"...the 2011 settlement agreement of the Highest Posted Price case. According to terms of the settlement, the Nation agreed they could no longer sue for anything related to the mineral estate."
As I understand it, the agreement to was not sue the Federal government, not the Osage Nation! I take issue with this statement as written in the article. It’s misleading and should be subject to a correction or clarification by the editor. I thought the agreement was not to sue on any back payments or further settlement amount as it concerns the valid time period in the past associated with the HHP case. There is no legal way that the Federal government can’t be sued by the Osage Nation or the Minerals Council on trust related matters going forward from the time of the final settlement of the HPP case if the BIA continues to fail to live up to its trust duties, responsibilities and obligations in regard to the trust relationship. I for one, believe that such a provision in any lawsuit at the Federal level, with a Native American Tribe or Nation, is illegal on its face because it’s unenforceable.
I finally found the quotation I was looking for on the shareholders having legal rights where the HPP lawsuit is concerned:
Delete"The individual Osage headright owners were not a party to the settlement agreement at issue. Indeed, the Court of Federal Claims denied them the opportunity to intervene in the case,” Frizzell wrote. “Because the Osage Nation lacks authority to waive the plaintiffs’ individual accounting rights, they are not bound by the tribe’s settlement agreement with the federal government.”
See page 3 --->>> http://s3.amazonaws.com/static.osagenews.org/cms_page_media/43/2016_01_January_web.pdf
What other legal rights belonging to the Osage headright owners does the Osage Nation lack the authority to waive as beneficiaries where our standing in court is involved? We may be the only ones now who can save the day and our future income as headright owners through an action in Federal Court. We have been harmed by what the BIA has done to our oil and gas production and the resultant loss of income, it seems, has happened for no other reason than the Bureau could do it and did do it despite millions of dollars paid by the American taxpayer and the apparent refusal to adopt and honor the fiduciary trust obligation owed to us as beneficiaries who they probably deeply resent in the first place.
When you hear about big lawsuits in the news usually the plaintiff only wins if they sign a legal document with a clause like: "you agree not to ever discuss this with the media or any others, privately or publicly." That is sorta to me like a bribe or hush money.
DeleteThat was real low down to tell us we could have some money (pennies on the dollar) if we agreed to their settlement terms. Now, the defiance still continues. No matter the damage the Interior has caused to come about, they continue to defend their actions by stating "they are doing what we asked them to do in the lawsuit. We are continuing in the direction of defeat of our inheritance. Anymore harmful CFRs enough to our current drillers, we may wake up some morning and they all have left, and the Interior will say they were just doing their doing their job.
The next five years will pass, where will we be with quarterly payments, will there be Social Security checks or Medicare. Will the casinos still be in full swing? Will there have been another recession? You can surely believe there will be another big earthquake in OK. Have you heard about the nearly 8 point earthquake up in Alaska, and they put all of the west coast on alert?
We need leader ship like we use to have, when we respected and looked up to our Chiefs, when they cared for the Tribe, not material things. In the old days, it was a struggle to survive on a daily basis. We're still struggling but in a different way, the bureaucratic way and we're weakening and tomorrow looks bleak.
It's good to know that we have "individual accounting rights." It's good the Interior knows it too now. It took a district judge to undo what the W.H. got temporary away with.
Anyone heard what was brought up in the Dec. meeting between the MC and the W.H.? Like maybe, they asked for any request (info of some sort) and waiting to hear from that committee? Could the info from that meeting be so damaging if the Chief knew that we can't be informed.
Something big is up, I'm telling you, and we need to pay attention like we never have before.
DeleteWell written. I could not agree more.
ReplyDeleteThis is what happens when you take on too much debt and the market takes a downturn:
ReplyDeletehttp://journalrecord.com/2018/01/30/chesapeake-lays-off-400/
BOONE'S BULLETIN 1-29-18 -- PART I
ReplyDeleteDate: 2018-01-29 15:23
From: tom@cowboy.net
We recently returned to our office. We had been relocated to one of the new buildings, referred to as the Chinese Pagoda, because our space had experienced serious water damage due to a rainstorm. This new building is already falling apart. A soffit was falling down, a handicapped door was inoperable and the air conditioning is operated by a generator.
We had our regular bi-annual meeting with federal officials and attorneys. We've been having these meetings according to the Highest Posted Price lawsuit for several years. This was not our first meeting even though you may have read otherwise. These meetings are always closed meetings.
Galen Crum presented a resolution to change our election to have staggered terms like the Osage Nation (ON) Congress does. His resolution failed.
The Osage Minerals Council(OMC) pays the ON for indirect and space cost for a building the Osage Tribal Council built in 1977, long before the new government. Shouldn't the ON have paid space cost to the OMC. The amount we pay is $92,200 a year or about a tenth of our budget. After the ON Congress moved their offices downtown, they offered their vacated space to the OMC. This would be an additional space cost of $35,600 and year. ON Congress wanted to submit legislation to relieve the OMC of indirect and space cost. They wanted a resolution from the OMC before they proceeded. I presented a resolution supporting the ON Congress efforts. It passed unanimously.
The most controversial resolution passed was to have our attorney take action against the ON and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) pertaining to the conveyance of property at the time the Constitution was passed. The Pawhuska casino has been located on the Pawhuska Village property for years. Shouldn't that money have belonged to headright owner's. It passed by a vote of 4 yes, 3 no and 1 absent. Those voting yes were members Kathryn, Stephanie Erwin, Joe Cheshewalla and me. Those members voting no were Andrew Yates, Galen Crum and Everett Waller. Talee Redcorn was absent. This resolution was rescinded later by a vote of 5 yes to 3 no. Councilwoman Redcorn flipped her vote and voted to rescind the resolution. Others voting yes were Andrew Yates, Galen Crum, Everett Waller and Talee Redcorn. Those voting no were members Stephanie Erwin, Joe Cheshewalla and me. I believe this vote would have been different if we didn't have 2 members of the OMC, who are employed by the ON, Andrew Yates and Talee. Redcorn. In my opinion, Andrew Yates is in a conflict of interest. His job duties with the ON allow him the ability to shut an oil producer down but as a member of the OMC, he can vote on their business. This type of conflict of interest is covered in Article 10 Sect. 4 of the constitution that states: Tribal officials...shall abstain from...decision making where any conflicts are deemed to exist.
Part II
DeleteA California constituent asked me why I didn't attend the fall meeting in California. Unlike Congress, who gets their travel paid, members of the OMC have to travel to these types of meetings at our own expense. I usually do attend, but this fall it was a family member's death that kept me at home.
As of late, water has become an issue here when the ON Natural Resource Dept. issued a permit to the ON to drill a water well. According to the 1906 Act, the water is attached to the Osage Minerals Estate. However, the constitution states in Article 2 that the water belongs to the ON. In an article in "The Oklahoman" a letter from the State attorney's office says the tribe doesn't own the water. The ON has had several meetings about water but the OMC was never invited.
Our attorney, Fredericks, Peebles and Morgan has won 3 federal cases on behalf of the OMC. This firm is well worth the money.
I did receive my reimbursement for my official travel to D.C. Councilwoman Redcorn said she had to set a couple of my constituents straight by telling them that she didn't sign my paperwork because there were already two required signatures on it. What concerns me is that she couldn't identify that the second signature had no authority to sign anything. It also concerns me that her voting can be swayed by input from her nephew, Councilman Talee Redcorn.
In closing, the opinions stated herein are mine. The quickest way to reach me is by cell phone: 918-698-3314 or by email: cboone@osagenation-nsn.gov.
Sincerely,
Cynthia Boone, Osage Minerals Council
Bulletin, Part II -- WATER. It seems maybe the ON Natural Resource Dept. is doing the Chief's biding. The Chief is demonstrating a "double standard" -- he wants to come to the MC meetings with the Feds or send his representatives but doesn't want the MC in his matters whether it involves the ME business or not -- he's hiding his intentions -- this Chief wants to rule the whole Roman Empire and seems he'll stop at nothing to gain power or control.
DeleteBulletin, Part I --
DeletePawhuska Village property -- "better late than never" or maybe not. What is the opinion of the Pawhuska village?
HPP meetings -- It's so disappointing to find out that the meetings have been already going on. I was so intrigued that they came and met with the MC over the Chief's objection. So, it wasn't so.
Rent -- I have to live off about $20,000 or less a year. Osage County is over 1 1/2 million acres and the MC is paying $92,200 a year rent. Who's paying? multiply that.
Conflict of Interest -- I respect each MC member. But, the ME is a business with many families depending on the quarterly payments to pay rent, bills, and put food on the table, and clothes on their children. It's definitely a conflict on decision making if a MC person is on the ON payroll also. It seems the Election Board should have the responsibility to screen candidates/applicants prior to being put on the ballot.
Staggered MC terms -- The ON Congress is "administrative." A whole completely different ballgame than the ME/MC. I don't see the reasoning why the MC should have staggering terms as congress? I see the problem though of coming new into the MC not knowing what's going on, what the routine is, or even what your job and duties are. I think candidates should know what their title and duty before they get on the ballot, or fix the ballot to have candidate names under "titles" applied for? Any time you apply for a job, you know the title and your job responsibilities. If a MC member shows/proves he/she is an asset to the ME, he/she will be re-elected, if not re-elected there's a reason why.
Let me understand this. Chief wants water because it's a mineral but he doesn't want the Minerals Council to have anything to do with it? That's rich.
DeleteMeetings of the HPP is something other than what went on with that meeting where the Chief's representative was asked to leave the closed session. We don't know what happened at that meeting and so I called Cynthia about it and the good thing about her is that she knows how to keep her mouth shut. If it's Executive Session or a closed door meeting she always refuses to give way and share what's happening behind the scenes. I believe its called personal and professional integrity.
Delete"The most controversial resolution passed was to have our attorney take action against the ON and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) pertaining to the conveyance of property at the time the Constitution was passed."
DeleteThis was an illegal taking and for the Osage Nation to turn around and charge us money for the space in which to work for the Osage Shareholders by our Minerals Council when those Casinos, generating millions, sit on land that we shareholders have no lease agreement of any kind on, bonuses paid, or on-going rent and other compensation coming in to us, well I say, why the hell does the Osage Nation think they can go back into Federal Court and expect those wind farms to have to pay for land that can't be drilled on with those wind machines sitting on it without an ongoing lease and compensation for the minerals they've taken and used when the Nation, especially when the Nation has been stealing from the headright owners and the Minerals Council who deserve a full and fair compensation and financial restitution since that illegal taking by the Constitutional government in 2006. Reorganization Act said the Osage Tribe could form a new government, not this Osage Nation that took over and appropriated everything in sight and then have the gall to charge us $92,200 a year! Get out of town Chief. By GOD! You better get this rectified before you walk into Federal Court on this wind farm deal, Chief because you have no ethical or moral ground high ground to stand on. Used to be that any money from that Mineral Council drawdown that wasn't spent in a given year was returned to the shareholders in our checks so you're not just charging the Minerals Council, you're charging all of us and I take large issue with that too. What's good for the goose is good for the gander!
sater is not a Mineral, but Ice is, because water is not solid.
DeleteJust so everyone, including the Chief, understands my thinking on the Chief working to act with the DOI, the BIA, the U.S. Congress, any part of the United States government or the State of Oklahoma to end our Osage Mineral Estate Trust in existence today, I'm repeating my comment above so it stands alone:
ReplyDeleteBefore that Chief can end our trust agreement unilaterally or even on an agreed upon basis with the Feds if that what he's trying to do, we need to vote as beneficiaries of this trust that has been in place for 112 years; the income of which as been to one degree or another, feeding our families, educating our children and providing us with some level of security be that great or small all that during that expanse of time. He tries to steamroll over all of us Osage Headright owners, without a vote of the Shareholders in a duly authorized election brought about and called for as a Special Election specifically for that purpose by the Osage Nation Congress, when we have a Federal Justice who is the Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma who says we have rights as beneficiaries of this Federal Trust, he will violate our rights to choose what we want him to do one way or the other and we will be in a position to sue him in Federal Court because this Trust is a Federal matter and we are the beneficiaries of a Federal Trust arrangement that is completely outside the purview and the auspices of the Osage Nation. I choose. He does not have the right to either represent me or choose for me in ending this mineral rights income trust without my say so. I do. I have that right and I won’t have him abrogate it to the Osage Nation, the BIA, or any part or segment of the Federal government, period. And Chief. I mean every single word of what I've written here on this page.
I think we need to vote if and before the Nation takes over in any way, shape or form to compact the BIA or contract with the State of Oklahoma. Let me direct your attention to these economic events since the Nation took over ~~~
DeleteOsage, LLC., Catastrophe
Osage Nation Treasurer Debacle
Millions going out the door to hire in house-attorneys of one kind or another and then the Nation gets in a huff when the Minerals Council hires a good one who actually wins cases in court for us.
An attempt to "gift" the Minerals Council with a million dollars. If taken, what would have been expected in return?
Lawsuits one after the other being filed against our elected officials by the Executive Branch of the Osage Nation.
The loss of our entire Tribal reservation as a result a lawsuit that should never have been filed on behalf of only one Osage Tribal member.
Casinos built and rebuilt in too short a period of time costing millions. One of which is within blocks and so logistically close to as high if not the highest crime area in Tulsa.
$175,000,000 of debt we have taken on either being used or in a line of credit.
Gung Ho push to get buildings built on Campus with even more loans that are too flimsy in design and construction to stand up to the weather in Oklahoma.
Add your own instances because I'm hearing in the wind that there's another one right up ahead of us as a result of the manipulations and interference of our current Chief.
An Osage Supreme Court that insists on refusing to accept legal precedent of other courts which, as far as I know, is a very questionable legal precedent being set by the Supreme Court members of the very and way too legally "independent Osage Nation Tribal court."
Nepotism and cronyism abounding since the whole Constitutional government got off the ground.
Salaries and benefits for those getting a paycheck from the Osage Nation that looks more like a free-for-all than it does a reasonable and legitimate pay structure for those employed by our government.
Chiefs interfering in business matters where they don't belong manipulating business enterprise boards when they are prohibited from doing so by the Osage Constitution.
Anything I've forgotten? We should be able to get into court and prove that the Osage Nation isn't competent to handle our business affairs if they try and turn this Mineral Estate over to the Nation to run. If the BIA and the Secretary of the Interior, Mr. Zinke, allows and does this in view of what it knows or should know is not in the best interest of the Osage headright owners who are the trust beneficiaries, they are again violating their fiduciary obligation to us as individual shareholders with legal rights by placing us in the path of and with a business and management entity that has nothing but business failures other than gaming, a litigious record internally and externally and no trained, educated and experienced work force in place to handle the day-to-day business required for a successful and profitable business outcome in the oil and gas industry.
I have a cousin who went over to the Minerals Office and she said the girl there was knitting. Now I've heard the phrase, tend to your own knitting but this is a bit much.
DeleteTo the poster at 10:28 am today. Something you might want to look into is the amount of money the immediate family of the Chief is drawing down from the Osage Nation today compared to what they wre getting before he became Chief. This information is accessible by the Osage public. The amount will be over a million dollars a year.
DeleteWhen people mention this he uses an old politician's trick of saying people are attacking his family. No, people are drawing attention to his abuse of power through manipulation of board appointees. Gray got a lot of criticism for nepotism. He was small potatoes compared to this Chief.
You can say that again and all the while decrying how much in salaries were being spent in other Osage Nation administrations before he was elected to serve as Chief. I also hear that the same is true of Raymond Redcorn. Apparently, they serve themselves first is more like it! The whole thing cries to heaven it's so gaping a sin against all of the Osage people. Thank you for adding your comment. You're right. This shouldn't be missed on the list.
DeleteThe deflection astounds but It's not like the truth is not written in black and white for all to see.
DeleteDoes it remind me of a tale "Tne Emporer's new clothes".
Denial is a long river.
This would fall in the lines of a vote with The U.S. Congress since our Trust is in their hands and equally a vote with the Headright owners as well.
DeleteThe perfect visual representation of the Osage Nation to the left and the poor downtrodden Osage headright owners to the right:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/Saint.Louis.Art.Museum/photos/a.112832058794989.18382.108727392538789/112832062128322/?type=3&theater
OK...here it is! Listen to the Osage Minerals Council voting to send over some document on leasing options including compating/contracting to their attorney for review. I TOLD YOU SO!
ReplyDeleteListen in here https://osage-multimedia.s3.amazonaws.com/media/minerals/audio/FY2018/2018-0129_3OMC_Pt2.mp3
And the Chief wants to put these scaliwags in our oilfield when the State of Oklahoma wants us to use our gaming funds to pay for their overspending and budget shortfall? Get out of town Chief and anyone else who brings this state, or any other, to handle our oil and gas business when they can't even manage their own internal finances -- DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT! That gaming money by law belongs to Native Americans in general and the Osages in particular.
ReplyDeletehttp://osagenews.org/en/article/2018/01/31/state-lawmakers-consider-bills-directly-affecting-indian-country/
Heal holistically with marijuana? Now this is a new one on me. As a witness to the Hippy generation and what happened with drugs that began with marijuana, this idea may be a creative one but I know it just won't work.
ReplyDeleteFirst declared candidate running for Osage Nation Congress:
https://www.facebook.com/753839631471238/videos/vb.753839631471238/754136184774916/?type=2&theater
No one except the U.S. Congress can end the 1906 Act Trust. If we keep running to this Congress to whine about trivial crap that can be taken care of right here at home, they're gonna show us just how fast they can do it, too. Just because we voted for Trump doesn't mean he likes us. He hates all Indians. He also has the majority in the House and the Senate backing what ever he wants. STAY AWAY FROM THE U.S. CONGRESS AT ALL COSTS! Unless of course, you want to turn our mineral estate over to Gentner Drummond, et al. That would be the perfect sequel to the Irby case.
DeleteA compact with the State of OK isn't trivial crap. The Nation can't run a toy train without crashing it into the big rock candy mountain. Congress is part of the Federal entity that specifically sees to it that the fiduciary obligation of the Secretary of the Interior and the Bureau are managing things properly and that the BIA does the right thing with our Minerals Trust, not for the sake of the Osage Nation, because they don't get the money from the mineral rights; we do. The fiduciary obligation is owed to us as the beneficiaries of the Trust and the U.S. Congress can't just let the Bureau turn our mineral estate from which we derive income loose to the Nation that has proven time and again that it isn't are competent to run things out in the oil field. It would be like putting a bunch of three and four year olds in charge. They don't know how to do the job, they don't want to do the work and put in the hours that it takes to get the job done. The U.S. Congress has tools to determine if the Nation can take on such a responsibility with an outcome of success. It's called a Congressional hearing. If the Nation had to stand up to a stress test like that and review all of the substantial failures it's in the last 12 years, the U.S. Congress would have no choice but to find some other party who can take on such a responsibility successfully.
DeleteTrump does not hate all Indians lol now you are sounding like a true loser. If can back it up do so other wise snowflake,shutty up. Put your mputh where your money is just what I thought you cannot.
DeleteFrom reading articles on Indianz.com, the WH representatives have stated that soverign nations need to handle "their" own inter-tribal problems and that they don't want to get involved with such decisions.
ReplyDeleteUnder the Chief's administration, spending has been out of control. That's an inter-tribal problem.
But the ME is Federal, it is under the control and total authority of the Congress. Any acts of altering the ME from the 1906 act is illegal and will be followed by legal actions. Judge Frizzell says we have "individual rights." Like the HPP, we had a vote in, we have the legal right to vote in any alteration to the ME like a compact, etc.
The BIA takes orders from the Dept. of the Interior and carrys them out. It seems Trump lets his departments run their own area, and then they send him things to sign. He just gets the finished time- consuming documents and "facts." Trump tried to stomp on Social Security, Medicare, hot meals on wheels for the elderly, and WIC, he lacks empathy, I don't think he dislikes Indians, he just doesn't care about any indigious people (race, creed, orgin), remember what he said about Africa people. He's fighting his own legal battles at the moment and the world is watching, and the plots thicken. All we need to consider with him is just "the end results" on legal documents.
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Maduro-Proposes-OPEC-Cryptocurrency.html
DeleteLets leave the rhetoric about President Trump to the fake news. Unless you have concrete evidence of which you do not. Now as far as the M.E is concerned it would be most beneficial to the Headright owners that if there are going to be changes how we do business we should be involved in these decisions that will affect us as well. Have a feeling if we are not included in the process laws suits will be coming.
DeleteThe only fake here is Donald J. Trump who can't discipline himself to read so much as a one page Policy or National Security Briefing. Read "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House" by Michael Wolff. It's no wonder Melania Trump burst into tears once she found out that he had won the election. It's like a modern retelling of some of the highlights of the Scottish Play. Who has he murdered? The very dignity, stature and importance of the Office of the President of the United States of America. Now he wants to do away with the Dow Jones Industrial Average just because it's going through a market correction?
Deletehttps://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/trump-considering-firing-dow-jones-industrial-average
And replace it with what? A Russian market duplicate? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Why would I want to read Garage such as "Fire and Fury"? Says a lot about you.
DeleteI've finally decided it's time for me to get involved and do what I can to serve the interests of all of the Osage Nation members no matter where they live throughout the country, to do what I can to restore the power and prestige of the Legislative Branch as the representative body of the Osage people with the ultimate control over how our money is spent on behalf of and on what is really needed for all the people who have an Osage Nation membership. Today I filed to run for the Osage Nation Congress:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/OsageNews/photos/a.153834188010750.33094.134873493240153/1698461666881320/?type=3&theater
Others running who have filed today are located at https://www.facebook.com/OsageNews/
From the very beginning when the new government started under Jim Gray as the then Chief, there was a contentious attitude on the part of the Executive Branch where the handing out of money in the Osage Nation Treasury is concerned toward the Legislative Branch. Lawsuits soon began flying from the Executive Branch toward the Osage Nation Congress if Gray didn't get exactly what he wanted and how much as if the guy had never had a rudimentary or even an elementary course in Civics as to how a co-equal Constitutional three part form of government actually works. The Chief is indeed the "Supreme" head of his branch of government and none other whether anyone would like to believe it's to the otherwise.
DeleteSince that time, a number of other challenges to the authority of the Legislative Branch in the Osage Nation's court have taken place with Standing Bear as well. During Congressional Committee meetings, despite the fact that Raymond Redcorn was in Congress, I have listened to him as Asst. Chief threaten to sue the Congress if they made any changes to the budgets of the Executive Branch.
Now, taking a look at the Osage Nation Constitution, that is the highest law of the land, it provides the Chief with a power known as "line item veto" for budgets only. By process of elimination, the only ones who can alter line items in budgets are the members of the Osage Nation Congress because we can't enter into the budgetary process as members of the Osage Nation. There is no provision as to a reason needed to make such changes to line items, only that they can be made or the Chief wouldn't have the power of line item veto in the first place. The only other option, as a result of recent Osage Nation court rulings, is to send the budgets back to the Executive Branch for revision once the Congressional Committees have chosen to do so. They don't have to appropriate every single dime available in the Osage Nation Treasury every six months despite whatever pressure by either the Judicial Branch or the Executive Branch. These two methods will go a long way towards rebuilding the power and prestige of the Legislative Branch of our new government.
The Osage Nation Congress has a choice not to appropriate funding in whole or in part if they are placed under pressure by any other branch of government. They need to exercise that choice now and into the future. If elected, I will work religiously to make that choice happen so that this out of control blind spending and excessive borrowing comes to an abrupt halt for items best left to the choices of future generations rather than just a choice to pay for crushing debt. Some members of Congress would like you to believe that we are a large to very large Tribal community. With only 20,000 to 21,000 members, we are hardly that and with the disproportionate spending on only 17% of that total number, things have to change for the betterment of all of us.
DeleteI'm talking about the power of the purse strings (to open or close) that belong to our Legislative Branch of government despite how many other branches have gained what I believe to be inappropriate and overweaning access to them in the Osage Nation government in recent years.
DeleteThank you for explaining this clearly to all of us. And you are exactly right this does start at the congressional committee level where I believe language is needed when going to submit these requests for budgeting a financial impact statement explaining what, when where and how and the end run is needed, in other words, how can a congress member make a formidable decision in regards to the Budget. Do we even have a debt ceiling? I said the same thing awhile back, its like they have a blank check or a running credit card with no stops when it comes to how our money is being utilized and spent, especially when our money is to used to profit from? And your right again and I support you because you have the same mind set that, we have a constitution and its there to protect our interest and it is ok to turn down these branches unless a deal could be made to extend a olive branch to the Osage Constituency. We all know how many Osages live in and around the Osage County maybe 2000 if that.
DeleteHow much has our budgets have grown since 2006 and how are these budgets protecting the greater interest of the Osage constituency?
Just thought you should know -- In some instances, even when it's not a requirement for the Federal money that comes in, they use gaming and other Tribal income to match or add to the total amount of funding which is more money going to Osage County Osages alone and not being evenly or fairly divided among all of us Osage Nation members across the board.
DeleteMarch payment is $4,035, up $300 from December (per Osage Minerals Council website).
ReplyDeleteThanks Lou! Good to know payment is up. Are you still doing the newsletters for the OMC? We're hoping for an official update on what is happening with the Bureau and the OST.
DeleteUnfortunately, no, ma'am. I left in June, 2017, so I was responsible for four newsletters (Fall, 2016 through Summer, 2017 issues), and I pray everyone found them informative.
DeleteI did. I really liked what you did with them Lou. Sorry you're not still getting them out to the Osage Shareholders. At times like this, with every rumor in the book flying around about what the Chief is doing in Washington and what the Minerals Council is doing behind closed doors and that article written of late in the Bigheart Times that got Osages so riled, I'm hoping at some point that the Osage News will step up and be giving us an update soon.
Delete"Do we even have a debt ceiling?" - Outstanding question!
ReplyDeleteDo we????? And if we do, it hasn't meant much has it?
I'm so glad you're focussing on this issue because it's one of my main campaign issues. As far as I know, there is no debt ceiling either set or observed by any branch of the Osage Nation government. One of the current members of Congress has shared an important concern with me, with regard to loans and accumulated debt, about the appropriation limit set by the Constitution and not appropriating more than the projected income as required by the governing document. I believe this concern has to do with appropriating loan payments which exceed the spending already capped at the projected income level. Listen to the next regular session of Congress in March because this figure changes with regularity throughout the time the Congress meeting. It's almost like a moving target from start to finish. At one point in an earlier session, the claim was put forward with this statement, "Six million dollars was found!" Apparently it was just lying around in the Osage Nation Treasury somewhere as if that's in any way believable at all. It's become more like a shell game with the Congress decrying after nearly every session that they will get a handle on how much they really have to spend next time the Congress meets for a regular session. Were almost 12 years on from 2006 and still the game remains the same. I'm not sure they (the actual members of the Osage Nation Congress) know what they have to spend because it appears that manipulation is taking place by the Executive Branch which has some influence because it is established in the Executive Branch directly in the language of the Constitution. As soon as the Session begins, there has been a battle at times over the years going on with the Chiefs not allowing the Executive Branch departments to speak to the members of Congress directly, including the Treasury. At one point, at subpoenas went flying from the Congress to get the Treasurer to share requested information with them. The whole thing has gotten really so bad at times that it's a wonder that anything gets done in the budgeting and appropriation process. They have laws and plenty of them but they don't often have any penalties attached to them to enforce the law when violations of the law takes place.
DeleteSee http://www.osagenews.org/en/article/2011/07/08/congress-issues-11-subpoenas-treasurer-and-accounting-workers/
It also sits in my memory that when John Jech was Treasurer, he was also subpoenaed by the Congress during the Jim Gray administration.
There needs to be a uniform process that everyone will actually follow so that order will reign in the budgetary and appropriation process. There is so much acrimony at times between the branches during the appropriation process that it's stunning to witness. It's now to the point that certain members of the Congress feel that they have no choice but to go forward and appropriate whatever is asked for by the other two branches of government no matter how unwise, unfair or flatly insane! This isn't right and we have to take back the power inherent in our own branch of government and empower our own representatives and defend them by refusing to re-elect those in both the Executive and Judicial Branches who are causing such massive problems by destroying the harmony, spirit of cooperation and balance of power in the Osage Nation government.
Thank you to the above poster for re-posting my comment and thank you Osageblogger for responding I brought this issue up awhile back as well. Freewilly spending to no end. And it is massive to what end and how is our spending working for the constituency it is time to get all tnose incumbents out? I get the feeling that excuses for the reason to not say no in the first place is so they can stay seated at the table earning all the wnile spending as if it is like no tomorrow with no real caps. And then if they go over budget you throw more money at the problem. Excuse are bad bad and just bad its better to say we are working diligently to get control but there is no control to what end?
DeleteIf we do not get our government under control in regards to spending habits and we know what needs to be done legislatively to hold those accountable we will shut this government down! There is no accountability going on.
DeleteThere seems to be some confusion on the part of some current members of Congress as to what seats are open this election and who is an incumbent for reelection should they choose to run for office this June of 2018:
ReplyDeleteAlice Buffalohead, incumbent
Ron Shaw, seat recently vacated and open
William “Kugee” Supernaw, incumbent
James Norris, incumbent
Otto Hamilton, running for Assistant Principal Chief, seat open
Angela Pratt, incumbent
Six (now 7) Osage women are the first to file candidacy for Osage Congress so far
ReplyDeleteSee http://www.osagenews.org/en/article/2018/02/08/six-osage-women-are-first-file-candidacy-osage-congress-so-far/
Follow this at the Facebook page of the Osage Nation Election Office at https://www.facebook.com/OsageElections/
Michael Kidder is #8 to file to run for Congress.
DeleteHey! I thought you said this part is for Mineral business only. A lot of what you're posting now is Nation and election stuff not minerals. Rules are rules.
ReplyDeleteIt was for minerals business until Ms. Osage Blogger decided to run for Congress.
DeleteI stand corrected. Minerals business only from now on!
DeleteNot to miss! The Debates for the Chief and Assistant Principal Chief this weekend at the Skiatook, Osage Casino from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m CST. All Debates will be live streamed on the internet. See https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10156032071106678&set=gm.1588130414637384&type=3&theater
ReplyDeleteJudge does not recommend utility rate hike to subsidize western wind farm
ReplyDeletehttp://www.osagenews.org/en/article/2018/02/14/judge-does-not-recommend-utility-rate-hike-subsidize-western-wind-farm/
FYI:
ReplyDeleteThe Bigheart Times has been sold -->>
https://www.facebook.com/Bigheart-Times-130472647019594/
More on the OST back with the BIA -->>
ReplyDeletehttps://www.doi.gov/ost
https://www.doi.gov/ost/itara-consultation-2017-18
Two things I like about these documents that you can pull down from the internet which is (1) full and open disclosure on the part of the U.S. Government, Department of the Interior, that you simply can't get from the Osage Nation in the same above board manner. Clicking on the link below will take you to a departmental OST Budget Justification for FY2018 (this year) for roughly 6 million Native Americans in population. To obtain such a thing from the Osage Nation with only 21,000 members requires a FOYA (Freedom of Information Act) request from the Osage Congress or the Osage Nation Executive Branch, if you can even get the document/s from them at all!
DeleteSee this year's (2018) Federal Budget Justification of the Department of the Interior at https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/uploads/ost_fy_2018_budget_justifications_05-24-2017.pdf
See also (2) the Proposed Budget in Brief (2019) of the Department of the Interior at https://edit.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/uploads/2019_highlights_book.pdf
Full and open disclosure with regard to similar yearly budgetary documents of the Osage Nation as opposed to keeping them hidden is another thing that needs to be changed for the benefit of all Osage Nation members, including employment compensation packages that may include signing bonuses, yearly salary and benefits, additional perquisites like Osage Nation paid golf memberships, paid National affiliations or the like, and golden parachutes.
Including full and open disclosure of employment compensation packages that may include signing bonuses, yearly salary and benefits, additional perquisites like Osage Nation paid golf memberships, paid National affiliations or the like, and golden parachutes.
Delete"...as required by the governing document." -- (Are you referring to the constitution?")
ReplyDelete"They have laws and plenty of them but they don't often have any penalties attached to them to enforce the law when violations of the law takes place." -- (Is the "laws" in the constitution, if so, can't we add the penalties?)
"There needs to be a uniform process that everyone will actually follow so that order will reign in the budgetary and appropriation process." -- (Yes, I agree, that problem is right in our face. The military has a uniform process and if you fall out-of-order there are "penalites." If there was complete order in our government, we'd be a great Nation today.)
Better late than never -->>
ReplyDeleteSubmit your questions for the Candidates in the Debates tomorrow:
osagenews@osagenation-nsn.gov.
HIGHEST ALERT!
ReplyDeleteNow is the time to ask certain people about their signing bonus, salary amount and benefits...
Congresswoman Shannon Edwards is holding a Committee Meeting Hearing which is very unusual. It's a fact finding mission of some kind that should red flag our immediate attention!
She has called a Congressional Health Committee Hearing for February 20, 2018. The purpose of the hearing is for members to ask questions of those "in the know", so I encourage you to participate. Please message her or any Congress member your questions and concerns. The hearing will be live steamed and taped:
Shannon Edwards
sedwards@osagecongress-nsn.gov
Office: 918.287.5627
Cell: 405.850.6377
The Hearing will be held at 1:00 p.m. at the Osage Nation Capitol Building, 100 West Main in Pawhuska.
The Hearing Notice is located at https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/who-we-are/congressional-legislative-branch/committee-information/health-social-services
OMC Meeting is live now at https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/multimedia/live-media
ReplyDeleteMeeting Agenda is not available at this time.
Meeting has gone off air for some reason.
DeleteThe Agenda is located at https://s3.amazonaws.com/osagenation-nsn.gov/files/departments/Minerals/2018-0216_3OMC_Agenda-rev2.pdf
DeleteIt won't come up. Error to page shows up.
DeleteI'm getting it but not sure why you aren't. Hopefully it will be posted at https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/who-we-are/minerals-council/meeting-information along with the audio recordings of the meeting today.
DeleteThanks
Delete...and February 16th's OMC meeting audio has just posted a few moments ago at their website.
DeleteThanks Lou! You are the man! So happy you're back in the saddle and can get things in order again. Absence does make the heart grow fonder. Funny that. Isn't it?
DeleteYes. It's the governing document and yes we can add penalties by Legislative Statute. Actually, this is one of my missions should I be elected to Congress and this is to take apart the Osage Nation Code and add penalties to the law whenever and wherever it is needed.
ReplyDelete"Of that $1.83 billion slated to be cut, $453 million would come from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, more than any other agency or service under the Department of Interior." If the OST becomes part of the BIA in October of this year, what will this mean to the OST with a loss of $453 million?
ReplyDeleteSee http://osagenews.org/en/article/2018/02/16/trump-administrations-2019-budget-proposes-steep-cuts-indian-country/
The Osage News Candidate Debates for Principal Chief and Assistant Chief are set to begin in a few minutes:
ReplyDeleteSee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w56qlDGkMjY
On live now!
DeleteIn and out with streaming so try https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/multimedia/live-media
DeleteBad reception again...
DeleteAnyone else having problems too?
DeleteWhy does the live feed always go down when Maria is speaking? This is strange...
DeleteDown again on Maria's question.
DeleteHas hired Vince Logan and Margo Gray? At what employment compensation that should be fully disclosed to the Osage people. Our money, our need to know and we need to know.
DeleteLouder please!
DeleteHA! We can't see those program plans or anything else you send over to the Congress, which you don't do very much of, Chief! You are as transparent to the Osage people as brick wall! Who are you kidding?
DeleteNo loan for the Bluestem Ranch, Chief? WTH? Apparently your gaming CEO knows that you have one because he discussed this in the Commerce Committee with the members of the Congress several weeks ago!
DeleteBoards are appointed by experts? What? The Boards are appointed by the Chief and confirmed by the Congress of which you are a member and have been for the last four years, Mr. Hamilton.
DeleteDon't have the numbers from the Osage,LLC or Tallgrass? How long will it take. It's been 9-10 years so far, Raymond.
DeleteNow we get the truth --->> Federal money coming in to the Osage Nation is $26 million! Do those who live outside the county get anywhere near that in benefits because our numbers on the outside help derive that 21,000 total membership and only 17% are able to use that Federal money.
DeleteCongratulate yourselves, Raymond? You paid three to four times what that Bluestem Ranch land was actually worth at the time it was purchased. The finest moment? Please!!!!!!!!!!!!
DeleteReactions?
DeleteNot everyone qualifies for public assistance with federal monies. If you want to bitch about something that $26 million is for every low income Native, regardless of tribal affiliation, who qualifies. Several people have been on this board trying to explain this, yet a few just don't want to believe it. They would rather see the wedge driven deeper between the in state and out of state Osages. If all you can gripe about is you are not getting your fair share, then shame on you and whoever raised you to be that way. If you need some food stamps get them wherever you live now.
DeleteYou just don't get it. If you receive $26 million in Federal benefits which are distributed only in Osage County and that dollar number is based, not on 2,500 Osages living in Osage County, but on 21,000 Osages living Nation wide and on top of that, you get another $35 million in Tribal income funds that are dollars spent only on Osages living in Osage County, that isn't fair to all of unless you start getting Federal money on the basis of only the 2,500 living in Osage County. You don't have the right to have the benefit of $61 million dollars spent on you and you alone year in and year out and have 87% of all of us go without. You're so blind to this clear and incontrovertible fact because you believe that you are entitled to have it all.
DeleteConfirmation right here: Chief says they have completed 98% of the 25 year strategic plan in his administration. We are only 12 years out and all of the decisions have already been made and the debt required to make them will leave little, if anything for current and future generations to do but shoulder the burden of crushing debt.
DeleteChief said, "...all that's left is 10% not completed and that's the Minerals Council the minerals estate." The Strategic Plan (of the Osage membership throughout the USA) told you, first and foremost, that we want the Minerals Estate protected and left alone by the new Constitutional government. What strategic plan are you talking about, Chief? The Jim Gray plan?
DeleteMaria was very polite about it, but one important series of moments is when the Chief talked about all these "plans" and Maria stated that those plans weren't shared with the Congress because she hadn't seen any of them. This is proof of the disconnect with the Congress on the part of the Executive Branch. The ones in our government who are expected to appropriate funding are kept in the dark on the most important plans, both now and in the future, and yet the Executive Branch will not share them. This can be stopped by the Congress in tabling those spending bills or sending them back to the Executive Branch until they have all the pertinent information they need to do their job properly. If Justice punishes them for trying to do a proper job then further actions can and should be taken against Justice including Congressional Hearings of the members of the AG's Office, if necessary, or the members of the Judicial Branch who insist on stopping them from doing a proper job in the Congressional Appropriations process. Shannon Edwards is going to be using this very tool this Tuesday in the Congressional Health Committee Hearing on February 20, 2018.
DeleteRemember that appalling temper tantrum the Executive Branch, under the leadership of Chief StandingBear and Assistant Principal Chief Raymond Red Corn, had when the Congress wanted the program plans and budget justifications for the fiscal year budgeting for 2017?
DeleteSee Executive Branch delivers near-empty boxes to Congress in response to subpoena requests at
http://www.osagenews.org/en/article/2016/10/20/executive-branch-delivers-near-empty-boxes-congress-response-subpoena-requests/
This childlike foolishness was not just an insult to the members of the Osage Nation Congress, it was a hideously ugly slap in the face to every single member of the Osage Nation represented by the members of the Legislative Branch as our representatives under the Osage Nation Constitution. This kind of behavior is as unprofessional as it gets, in my opinion. From my point of view, bullying the Congress in an attempt to humiliate them in public for doing their job is unethical and clearly within the realm of abusive conduct as so written in the Constitution under Section 3. The Conduct of Tribal Officials and Employees. I believe this may also a violation of the second sentence of this same Section: “Tribal officials and employees shall not hinder or obstruct the proper administration of the Osage Nation government in the administration of their duties.”
Anyone know why the audio of the last two Minerals Council Meetings hasn't been made available for on demand listening? https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/who-we-are/minerals-council/meeting-information
ReplyDeleteMinutes haven't been updated since November 9, 2017. Big things seem to be happening right now and we need to know what's going on as it happens. I don't know what happened to the Press Release that was discussed some time ago that the Minerals Council was going to put out about the Bigheart Times Article with the headline that said that Osage Oil would end in 2020. Osage News isn't reporting on what's going on about that situation either. It's as if, at times, that there's a blackout where Minerals matters are concerned with the Osage News like they don't have a duty to report, which I believe they do. They keep up with the other three branches of government and their activities so why not a monthly column devoted to the activities of the Minerals Council without the usual slant that seems so often to happen when they do?
WONDERFUL! Was able to attend the OSA Meeting live online and it was brilliant! Well done Susan, very important presentation and the Chief was very helpful in being able to clarify our legal rights as members of the OSA and as individual Headright owners. Discussed taking Susan's presentation on how much we have lost through the years on natural gas to two of the named authorities that can do something about what has been going on with the Bureau and its failure, once again, of the trust responsibility and obligation to us as Shareholders in the last number of years since the HPP lawsuit was settled.
ReplyDeleteThis was a great meeting and it looks like a lot will be happening with the OSA in the future. I encourage you to join as a shareholder especially since you now have the ability to participate anywhere in the USA. Terrific! I am so pleased.
DeleteI found out later on that one OSA member tuned in to hear the meeting from overseas. The great thing about the Zoom app for meetings is the fact that you can actually participate and interact live, not just listen in to what is happening during the meeting. The Nation should look into this app as a possibility for the membership to interact directly as well.
DeleteSpecifically the Osage Nation Congress during Sessions and Committee Meetings could make use of this app for the membership located all over the world.
DeleteOsage Minerals Council filing period is March 1-10. Looks like they've done away with the qualification for having OMC Candidate’s petitions to file which requires 25 shareholder signatures to run. Some people aren't going to be happy about this I'll just bet...
ReplyDeleteFor information call Billie Ponca at (918) 287-5288.
See https://www.facebook.com/OsageNews/posts/1712337598827060
I'm totally wrong on the independent candidate petition signatures. They are required and the candidates now have half the time to obtain those signatures than they did in the last election in 2014. I hope this will be contested on the part of the Osage shareholders because it looks like it's tightening up to give those who live in the immediate area a distinct advantage that isn't fair.
DeleteIt is not fair. Watch out, this is a slippery slope to take.
DeleteThe changes in the filing periods are very questionable; not enough time for new candidates to file to run for the OMC. Seems like the current OMC is protecting their office.
ReplyDeleteThey all have to file with the same reduced period of time as we do but the provision about not working for the Nation or being on a board now removed from the requirements is very questionable and self-serving. There are three or four of them who are sitting MC members currently who work for the Nation or sit on Boards. Serious conflict of interests there, you ask me.
DeleteIs today's OMC meeting being broadcast on Mixlr? I am not able to find it.
ReplyDeleteNotice for today's OMC Meeting on the Live Media page of the web site:
Delete"Due to technical difficulties, the Minerals Council Meeting for February 22nd will not be livestreamed, but will be available on the website as soon as possible."
Here is today's (2/21/18) meeting on-line. https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/who-we-are/minerals-council/meeting-information
DeleteThanks Lou! To the rescue again. So happy you're back.
DeleteYou have got to listen to this meeting. It's just utterly dismal especially the imposed regulations segment of the report and the information that can't be gotten from Robin Phillips, the Osage Superintendent without a FOYA and how important it is to have for business to move forward. I simply cannot see how the Bureau is not violating their fiduciary obligation owed to us, once again, and far worse than ever before. Abysmal!
DeleteThe Director's Report is the one I'm writing about -->>
Deletehttps://osage-multimedia.s3.amazonaws.com/media/minerals/audio/FY2018/2018-0221_3OMC_Pt1.mp3
Again, no Robin Phillips to make her report. This is just horrible.
DeleteWhat a coincidence that they are having technical difficulties on the day the Osage Shareholders Association is attending to discuss the irregularities of the OMC election process.
ReplyDeleteI expect confrontation an resistance from the OMC members between now and the election.
OMC Members are taking the heat right now with no thanks whatsoever in having saved the day with their "one minute before midnight" save on the wind farm lawsuit that the Feds walked away from at the last minute. A lot of this is political because there are a lot of people who want to get a job when we compact and a nice paycheck but giving the MC hell over what they can and can't and what they haven't done because they have no power to do so, has to be taken into consideration. There is very bad weather today in the Osage. The Nation's offices didn't even open until ten o'clock today. It's irritating, I know, but I don't think there is a conspiracy going on here.
DeleteThis thread is now closed. Go to: http://osageblog.blogspot.com/2018/02/osage-shareholder-matters-february-2018.html
ReplyDelete