Geoffrey Standing Bear, Candidate for Osage Nation Congress

By Geoffrey Standing Bear, Candidate for Osage Nation Congress

There has been major debate between advocates of two different approaches on fixing several important problems with the present form of Osage government. One position is to ignore the new Osage Constitution and pursue remedy through the BIA and the federal courts and the other position is to get into the Osage government and push for Amendments to the Constitution. I have been in the latter camp, those who take the Constitutional Amendment view. The BIA has been funding the new government since it was formed and this was a statement of BIA support and recognition. Because I am an attorney who works with the Department of Interior and Department of Justice attorneys, I knew that the opinion of the attorneys for the United States was that H.R. 2912 had the effect of amending the 1906 Act on the day it became law, which was December 3, 2004 when signed by the President of the United States. Those who argue that this law did not really change the 1906 Act form of government were either not here, or were not paying attention when the many meetings and changes occurred immediately thereafter.

The recent vote of the Minerals Council on the election of the Minerals Council under rules which require Osage shareholders to be members of the Osage Nation is yet another announcement that things have changed. Any lawsuit in federal court will take years and the legal precedent shows the likelihood of a federal court changing how an Indian tribe governs itself is very small, almost non-existent.

The BIA has been and continues to support the views that the Minerals Council is an entity of the new Osage Constitution. The majority of the Minerals Council is also supporting the position that the Osage Congress and Chief have the authority over Minerals Council elections which requires an exemption of some sort from the Osage Congress and Chief. This is the reality. This is also why I did not run for Minerals Council because it is clear to me, that the action has to come from the Chief and the Osage Congress. The schism between the Osage who want a return to an independent Minerals Council, accountable only to the Osage Shareholders and the federal government and those Osage who believe it is necessary to wrap the Minerals Council and its business into the fold of a larger Osage government has been a historical battle for generations which manifests itself in different forms over the decades. I believe we will learn from past experience and be able to separate the political questions from the property questions of the Osage. The issue of actual control over the entire mineral estate has been shifted to the new government in a sharing arrangement between the Minerals Council, the Chief and the Osage Congress. This debate is raging but we have a duty to not lose sight that our people have many needs and hopes which need to be addressed, which are not minerals matters.