Content about Osage Minerals Council

Stories of unenforced drilling regulations from Osage County landowners rained down on the Negotiated Rulemaking Committee Friday, Jan. 25.

Surrounded by more than 80 landowners at the Wah-Zha-Zhi Cultural Center, the committee listened as story after story of environmental hazards caused by oil companies on their lands endangered cattle, wildlife, and loved ones.

Researching oil production in the Osage just got a lot easier.

A interactive website, built by the Nation’s Environmental Resource department has compiled and mapped out nearly every oil well in the Osage. Information that used to take weeks, sometimes months, to obtain at the Bureau of Indian Affairs can now be obtained at the click of a mouse. 

The Osage Minerals Council’s Negotiated Rulemaking Committee is hosting two open meetings on Sept. 27 and 28 in Tulsa.

The committee is meeting with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in a series of planned meetings to update the Code of Federal Regulations concerning the Osage Minerals Estate. More committee meetings are planned for October and November.

Osages are sounding off on the four proposed Constitutional amendments, which will be up for vote in the Aug. 13 Special Election.

Osages will be asked for the second time this year to vote in a Special Election to be held on August 13 on the Osage campus. The Special Election asks Osages to vote for or against four proposed Osage Constitutional amendment questions.

The questions pertain to the Osage Minerals Estate and its role in the 2006 reformed tribal government.

The amendment questions require a 65 percent “yes” vote to pass.

During the 14th Special Session, the Second Osage Nation Congress passed a resolution calling for a special election to be held Aug. 13. The special election date follows the recommendation of the ON Election Board, which decided on the Aug. 13 election during its Jan. 18 meeting.

There are six expiring Congressional terms up for grabs, so the June 4 ballot will contain names of those candidates seeking office and will also contain questions on seven proposed Constitutional amendments unrelated to the Minerals Estate.

An appeal is on the horizon to keep a proposed 94-turbine wind farm out of Osage County, which the Nation argues will harm the Minerals Estate.

Last month a federal judge ruled against the Osage Nation in U.S. District Court, which filed suit through the Minerals Council, to stop the project to be built by Wind Capital Group on approximately 8,500 acres near Burbank.

Trial dates have been set for Dec. 14 and 15 in the federal court case filed against Wind Capital Group over its proposed 94-turbine wind farm near Burbank, which the Osage Nation argues would harm the Osage Minerals Estate.

The Tulsa federal court dates were set after a judge heard from attorneys representing the Nation and Wind Capital Group on Oct. 26 during an expedited status and scheduling conference. According to the joint motion requesting the conference, construction of the wind farm is scheduled to begin Nov. 19.

The Osage Trust Case is over. Osage Nation Principal Chief John Red Eagle, the Second Osage Nation Congress and the Osage Minerals Council have approved the Osage Trust Case Settlement for $380 million.

“This is a pretty historic day . . . and should be a time of happiness, I believe,” said OMC Chairman Galen Crum at the beginning of the special meeting to approve or disapprove the settlement, held at the OMC Chambers Sept. 26.

The Second Osage Nation Congress posed a question to Attorney General Jeff Jones Jan. 25 that asked whether the Osage Mineral’s Council was subject to the Nation’s Open Meetings Act and the Open Records Act. His reply: yes they are.

His official opinion, issued April 29, said that although the OMC is an independent agency it is still an entity under the Osage Nation and its Constitution.

Osage Congresswoman Shannon Edwards is the subject matter of some angry Osage shareholders lately.

Edwards introduced a bill, ONCA 11-51, during the congressional Hun-Kah session that asked for an audit of the Nation’s S-510 account. She asked that the ON Treasurer audit and segregate the funds in the account.