Real Men Wear Purple participants, from L to R: Cory Spotted Bear, Benny Polacca, Jasper Clark, Harold Hughs, Jeremy Spotted Bear and Everett Waller pose in support for men against domestic violence. Photo by Shannon Shaw/Osage News

Osage News

Men wearing purple shirts were all smiles as they lined up for a photo outside of the Osage Counseling Center in downtown Pawhuska. The photo will be made into a poster for Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

The men had volunteered their time Sept. 9 to pose for the photo, wearing their purple shirts. Purple being the DVAM official color.

“I just want to thank all the participants who came by to support this cause,” said LaVina Clark, domestic violence administrator for the counseling center. “To know that these men support Domestic Violence Awareness Month is heartening.”

Each of the real men received a ticket for a door prize in which Everett Waller, liaison to the Osage Minerals Council and cultural adviser in Chief John Red Eagle’s administration, won a $50 gift card. A long-time Hominy resident and Hominy Buck fan, Waller even wore his purple shoes.

According to the Domestic Violence Awareness Project Web site, DVAM evolved from the “Day of Unity” in October 1981, conceived by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. The intent was to connect advocates across the country who were working to end violence against women and their children. The Day of Unity soon became an entire week devoted to a range of activities conducted at the local, state, and national levels, according to the site.

Activities for the month vary and are diverse. Common themes done by program sponsors include: mourning those who have died because of domestic violence, celebrating those who have survived, and connecting those who work to end violence.

In October 1987, the first Domestic Violence Awareness Month was observed. That same year marks the initiation of the first national domestic violence toll-free hotline. In 1989 the U.S. Congress passed Public Law 101-112 designating October of that year as National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Such legislation has passed every year since with NCADV providing key leadership in this effort, according to the site. Each year, the Day of Unity is celebrated the first Monday of Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

If you are in danger and need help, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at (800) 799-SAFE (7233) or TTY (800) 787-3224.

For more information about Osage Nation DVAM activities from the ON Counseling Center, call (918) 287-5425.

The banner and theme for the first ever Osage Nation Watershed Forum is posted to the conference room wall at the Doubletree Hotel at Warren Place in Tulsa. The event was held August 24-26 and was hosted by the Nation's ENR Department. Photo by Benny Polacca/Osage News

By Benny Polacca
Osage News

TULSA, Okla. – The Osage Nation’s first-ever Watershed Forum aimed to bring the region’s government entities together so they could network and build a foundation to build future partnerships in handling watershed issues.

The topic of watersheds is also vital because many Native American tribes, including the Osage, hold water in high regard because it plays a role in spirituality and identity.

“They called our ancestors by the Osage name Ni-U-Ko’n-Ska which means ‘the children of the middle waters’ and they also called us Wah-Zha-Zhi – that means ‘water people,’ Principal Chief John Red Eagle shared in his opening remarks to the crowd of about 100 on the forum’s first day. “It is our hope that our water that comes to us in our streams and is clean and clear as it comes from the sky.”

“We view water as a viable importance to our culture and know you are all in the same agreement with that and that’s why you are here today,” Red Eagle said. “The world would surely be a poor place without healthy streams where we can teach our children to fish,” he said hoping the event generates ideas on protecting the area’s water.

Also delivering remarks that day was Muscogee (Creek) Tribal Councilman George Tiger who is also a TV personality for hosting “Inside Native America.”

“We are indeed the original environmentalists. We were taught to take care of this land, we were taught to take care of the resources that we have,” Tiger said. “We were also taught to defend the resources that we have.”

“It is with great hope and great confidence that today we see that because of tribes and the impact that they have here in the state of Oklahoma – whether it’s economically or whatever the case may be – that we finally have the leverage where we can come to the tables as evens,” said Tiger. “And I believe that you would agree with me that’s not always been the case in the past. We use sovereignty to improve relations with state, federal governments… As Indian tribes, we’ve always aggressively pursued good-faith negotiations on state and federal levels and I believe that certainly has to be continued.”

Shanon Phillips, who is the water quality director for the Oklahoma Conservation Commission, also spoke about the steps her entity used to address watershed issues. “Our primary partners are through the conservation districts” as well as local people who know the areas at issue, she said.

Phillips also told the attendees, who represent various state, tribal and federal environmental entities, that one of the most important components of addressing watershed issues is education in addition to partnerships.

“The more partners you have, the more likely your program is to be successful,” Phillips said.

Also addressing the forum were guest speakers from the Environmental Protection Agency which defines a watershed as “the area of land where all of the water that is under it or drains off of it goes into the same place.” In the continental United States, there are 2,110 watersheds; including Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico, there are 2,267 watersheds, according to the EPA Web site. Dr. Andrea Hunter (Osage) of the Nation’s Tribal Historic Preservation office also spoke on Aug. 25 for a presentation on the cultural perspective on water.

The attendees were also treated to a handgame demonstration hosted by Bruce Cass, who emceed the first day of the forum. Cultural Center Director Vann Bighorse played the drum and sang while the participants played the handgame as part of icebreaking activities.

The event was sponsored by the Dallas-based Region 6 office of the EPA (which covers Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Texas, as well as 66 Native tribes) with additional support from the Osage Million Dollar Elm Casino and the Nation’s Childcare Department.

The Nation’s Environmental and Natural Resources Department hosted the forum and the department’s Web site is at www.osagetribe.com/naturalresources and the EPA Region 6 office Web site is at www.epa.gov/region6.

Osage Nation ENR workers Jason Bussey (front) and Andrew Yates, who is also an Osage Minerals Councilman, listen to the guest speakers at the Watershed Forum on August 24 in Tulsa. Photo by Benny Polacca/Osage News

Attendees of the Osage Nation Watershed Forum listen to guest speakers at the event's first day on August 24 in Tulsa. Photo by Benny Polacca/Osage News

John Star Bighorse. Photo by Chalene Toehay/Osage News

Editor’s note
This story was used with permission.

The Bigheart Times

The Pawhuska school board had five applicants to fill the vacancy created by the death of Dr. Mike Priest, and after meeting behind closed doors Aug. 9, the remaining members made their choice: John Star Bighorse.

Bighorse, who works as an inspector the Osage Nation Tax Commission, will serve until Feb. 8 of 2011, when Priest’s term would have expired.

Also applying for the spot were Priest’s mother-in-law, Nila Thomas, oilman Mark Helmer, funeral director Mark Suiter and chiropractor Garen Kirk.

The appointment means that the school board is unusually populated with Osages: Three of its five members are now Osage – Bighorse, Tom Boone and board president Justin Sellers. Also on the board are Lori Loftis and Donnie Smith.

“It seems like it’s our turn,” said Bighorse. “Justin got on there first, then Mr. Boone. It’s not that we’ve been treated different but we’ve been around here forever. And now we happen to have three, and we are all going to work hand in hand and do the best thing for all of the kids.”

Bighorse has a degree in education from Haskell University and is the father of three with a fourth child due next month.

“I was born in Pawnee and lived in Pawhuska my whole life except when we pulled stakes and went to Haskell,” he said. “We graduated and came back home because we always promised my son John we’d go back to Pawhuska.”

He said he wants to teach and coach, but when he graduated from college, it was mid-year and no teaching jobs were available, so he wound up working for the Osage Nation Boys and Girls Club, then transferred to the Tax Commission.

Bighorse currently coaches football with the Bartlesville Bruins White team. He also coaches soccer and baseball and has worked with the 21st Century program in Wynona.

“Just about the only sport I don’t coach is basketball,” he said. “You can tell by looking at me that I don’t play basketball.”

Bighorse said he still yearns to teach math and coach, but has decided to pursue a master’s degree first. While certified to teach in Kansas, he is not yet certified in Oklahoma.

“I wish I’d never stopped my education,” he said. “Now I am anxious to get my master’s.

“I feel very honored and privileged to be considered for the school board and look forward to working with the other members and with the superintendent and helping kids.”

Osage Nation Head Start students walk into the Pawhuska Head Start facility for their first day of school. Photo by Shannon Shaw/Osage News

[Editor's Note: This story was modified on Aug. 30 for clarification purposes.]

By Shannon Shaw
Osage News

It’s that time of year again. Young Osages marched to the front doors of the Osage Nation Head Start today, some arriving for their first time, others attending their second year.

“We have [non-Osage] parents that want [their children] to come here because of the Osage culture,” said ON Head Start Director Denise Keene. “Some [non-Osage] parents are proud their children can say Osage words and know about the culture.”

The federally funded program, funded through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through a yearly grant, serves 210 children, of which 58 percent are Osage. The Nation has seven head start facilities on the Osage reservation, four daycares and more than 40 jobs, Keene said. The sites are in Pawhuska, Skiatook, Hominy, Fairfax, Barnsdall, McCord and Shidler. The largest enrollment is in Skiatook with the smallest enrollments in Barnsdall and Shidler.

The McCord facility will receive a new building this year that will adjoin with the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program there.

Since the head starts are considered a pre-school, the staff has chosen Creative Curriculum, a nationally known curriculum for effective and comprehensive early childhood classrooms that reflect a fundamental understanding of child development and best early childhood practices, Keene said. The curriculum involves interactive games, learning computer fundamentals, with the curricula helping the child feel as if they are playing. The head start staff feels this type of curriculum meets the Osage students’ needs most efficiently, Keene said.

The students attend classes five days a week, with the classes being four-and-a-half hours long. The exception is in Barnsdall where the children only attend classes four days a week to match the Barnsdall public school system.

The students take educational field trips each year to places like the Jenks Aquarium, the Tulsa Zoo, Woolaroc and other fun places.

There is currently a waiting list to be admitted to the head start, with federal guidelines prohibiting the facility from admitting everyone, regardless of race or income. The facility has to give priority to Osage 4-year-olds who come from low-income families. The second priority is the 4-year-olds who are non-Osage but of another tribal affiliation and from low-income families. The third priority is 4-year-olds of non-Osage, non-tribal affiliation that are low income. Part of the federal grant is having a waiting list, Keene said. The biggest waiting lists are the Pawhuska and Skiatook facilities.

However, said Keene, they always manage to get every child in and currently there are no students left on the waiting list, which fluctuates all the time. The head starts always have children whose parents are moving or taking their children out of head start for various reasons in which they admit a new child. The best policy is just to call and check availability, she said.

For those students in the future who are denied by the head start due to income or the facility is too full, Keene and staff has developed a “pre-school” room in the Osage Nation Daycare facilities. These classrooms function almost exactly as the head start curriculums, she said.

Osage Language

Teachers at the nation’s head start facilities are encouraged to take Osage Language classes. The Osage language department starts their Fall semester Sept. 13. There are two language assessments made during the head start school year, said Tammy Cunningham, manager of the Pawhuska head start. By the end of the school year the students should have learned at least five Osage words. They are taught the Osage words for body parts, numbers and family members, she said.

Mandy McKinley, Osage and a teacher at the Pawhuska site, has a cultural library that the students can choose from. The library also has DVD’s that teach the children about the Osage heritage and other cultures as well, Cunningham said. The letters of the alphabet on the classroom walls correspond to something in the Osage culture. For example, for the letter “A” is the word arbor.

“We have our [Osage language] DVD’s, and our teachers are trying to speak Osage through lunch,” she said. “They have been speaking commands [with the children].”

In head start parent meetings the teachers teach the parents a few Osage words to encourage its use in the home as well, Cunningham said.

Dream program

Keene first started working for the head start as a teacher in 1979 and fell in love with the program and the students. She has her degree in Family Relations and Child Development from Oklahoma State University.

“The reason why we’re still here after all these years is because we love it,” Keene said. “Each family has a right to choose the education for their child . . . a facility where the parent feels that their child is getting quality education.”

Cunningham agrees. Married to an Osage, Milton Cunningham, she is of Sac’n Fox descent, she loves working at the head start, working with the children and promoting the Osage culture to the students.

“Head start gets in you and either you love it or you don’t love it,” she said. “[We] just get excited when it’s August and school’s starting up, it’s just a good feeling.”

For more information about ON Head Start facilities, call (918) 287-5461 or visit their Web site at www.osagetribe.com/headstart/.

ON Head Start students exit the school bus for their first day of school Aug. 19. Photo by Shannon Shaw/Osage News

ON Head Start students beginning their first day of school Aug. 19. Photo by Shannon Shaw/Osage News

ON Head Start students line up to meet the students in the second class. Photo by Shannon Shaw/Osage News

The Osage Nation Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program held their annual symposium on the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding Aug. 12 at the Million Dollar Elm casino in north Tulsa. Photo by Chalene Toehay/Osage News

By Benny Polacca
Osage News

TULSA, Okla. – Lisa Vaden is an advocate for breastfeeding infants and shared her testimony during the Osage Nation Women, Infants and Children program’s Breastfeeding Symposium. She told the story of her second child’s birth in which she immediately bonded with her daughter through breastfeeding during an ice storm, which left her family with no electricity and little gas for heat.

I would’ve first had to find some water in the middle of nowhere, which was Webb City, Okla.,” she said. “We didn’t have time to prepare for a disaster, we didn’t have clean water. We went into Shidler which did have water but it was all brown.”

Vaden’s mother, who was with her at the time, helped prepare for the home delivery by melting snow and icicles for water “to keep me cleansed so that I’d be sterilized for her (my daughter). If it wasn’t for me breastfeeding, I would’ve had to figure out what I’m going to do with her, she would’ve starved and there was no water.”

Approximately 50 people attended the one-day WIC symposium at the Osage Million Dollar Event Center where testimonies and presentations were shared by several people who advocate for and encourage breastfeeding.

Gina Kelly of Osage WIC is a lactation consultant and encourages breastfeeding because it is part of making a first impression in the relationship between a mother and her child.

WIC is a federal program founded in 1972 which provides services for low-income women and children including food, nutrition counseling and access to health services.

“I’m glad that the WIC program has branched out to tell people about how, and to educate young women… how important it is to breastfeed and also eat properly,” Vaden said. “You have to eat properly, you have to have so much water, so much nutrition goes into you so whatever you eat is going into your baby.”

Bobby Tallchief, the Nation’s emergency management manager, spoke at the symposium and raised the importance of breastfeeding a child especially when disaster and/ or emergencies arise.

“Breast milk is pure, there’s no contaminants. It’s the safest, healthiest, most affordable and always available. Breast milk contains immunities to diseases and helps aid and develop the baby’s immune system,” Tall Chief said.

He added that breastfeeding is best because it could be the only food source for infants during disasters or an unexpected crisis. He spoke about the time his office responded to help Gulf Coast Osages when Hurricane Ike hit in 2008 and also cited severe Okahoma weather as examples.

During the Hurricane Ike disaster response, there was “a half-mile long line of people waiting just to get a few bottles of water, a gallon of gas, a bag of ice… that was a long-term event,” Tallchief said. “As a rule in a disaster, the local response is about all you’re going to get for the first 24-72 hours” before other agencies respond.

Tallchief recommends people should research and consider building emergency aid kits for their homes if they don’t already have one.

For more information, visit the Osage WIC program’s Web page at www.osagetribe.com/wic.

Osage WIC’s ten steps to successful breastfeeding:

Have a written breastfeeding policy routinely communicated to all health care staff.

Train all health care staff in necessary skills necessary to implement this policy.

Inform all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding.

Help mothers initiate breastfeeding within one half-hour of birth.

Show mothers how to breastfeed and maintain lactation even if they should be separated from their infants.

Give newborn infants no food or drink other than breast milk, unless medically indicated.

Practice “rooming in” which allows mothers and infants to remain together 24 hours a day.

Encourage breastfeeding on-demand.

Give no artificial teats or pacifiers to breastfeeding infants.

Foster the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer mothers to them after hospital discharge.

Bobby Tallchief, director for the Nation's Emergency Management program, was the keynote speaker for the WIC symposium. Photo by Chalene Toehay/Osage News

Participants of the WIC symposium Aug. 12 fill out surveys. Photo by Chalene Toehay/Osage News

Around 55 people attended the WIC symposium held at the Million Dollar Elm's Event Center in north Tulsa Aug. 12. Photo by Chalene Toehay/Osage News

Chinese ambassadors pose with the Osage Tribal Museum staff during their tour Tuesday. From L to R: Chinese Ambassador Nanping Yu, OTM Senior Researcher Lou Brock, Chinese Interpreter Mary Nimtz, OTM Director Kathryn Red Corn, Policy Analyst Leonard Maker, Chinese Ambassador Yun Chen and English Language Officer Gordon Matic. Photo by Shannon Shaw/Osage News

By Shannon Shaw
Osage News

Yun Chen and Nanping Yu didn’t waste any time Tuesday in asking questions about the tribe’s infrastructure, casino profits, land decisions, oil business, health care and election process during their tour of the Osage Tribal Museum.

The two ambassadors are visiting the United States as part of an International Visitor Leadership Program, a project through the U.S. Department of State. They are here to study aspects of energy security and its foreign policy implications, with emphasis on academic and private sector input into policy making. They have already visited Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York City, Cleveland, Ohio, and Tulsa.

Speaking through an interpreter, Chen asked Leonard Maker, who was giving the tour and who is also the Nation’s Policy Analyst in Principal Chief John Red Eagle’s new administration, about whether or not the tribe’s chief has placed any restrictions on tribal citizens gambling in the tribe’s casinos? In the Chinese city of Macau, whose main income comes from multi-million casino resorts, city residents are not allowed to gamble. City officials view it as bad for its citizens. The city residents are only allowed to work in the casinos.

“No,” Maker said. “There is currently no law prohibiting Osage citizens from gambling in our casinos if they live in the same town as the casino.”

Chen gave an audible sigh of disapproval. “Our citizens do work in the establishments as well but the casino employees are not allowed to gamble in the establishments,” Maker said. Which Chen and Yu nodded their heads in agreement.

Maker, who is also the youngest Osage full-blood at the age of 60, explained the history of the Osage and the rise and fall of the Oklahoma oil business and how it affected the tribe’s income. Yu asked if the tribe has its own oil company and do the citizens work at the Osage oil companies?

“No, we turn it over to the private sector,” Maker said.

Both Chen and Yu asked questions about taxation on the reservation, education and whether or not the Osage had a tribal college. Maker said there were talks of an Osage college and that the tribe is looking into it and for all other educational needs the tribe relies on the state. Chen wanted to know why the Osage chose this area in which Maker explained the tribe’s forced move from Kansas.

This is Chen’s first visit to the U.S. She is an associate professor in the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University in Shanghai. Yu is the director of regional and energy research of East China Normal University in Shanghai and has made several trips to the U.S. for research.

“[Chen and Yu] enjoyed it, that’s the first opportunity to get a better understanding of the Native American and especially your nation because they’ve never had an opportunity, during the entire program, to know the history and visually see the artifacts and all the photos – that was a very special experience,” said Mary Nimtz, who served as Chen and Yu’s interpreter, in a telephone interview Aug. 13. “They appreciated the opportunity, it was a cooperative experience.”

The ambassadors traveled to San Francisco on Aug. 11 and on Aug. 13 visited Stanford University in Stanford, Calif.

OTM Director Kathryn Red Corn explains the Osage Allottee exhibit to Chinese ambassadors Yun Chen, Nanping Yu and their interpreter Mary Nimtz Tuesday. Photo by Shannon Shaw/Osage News

An exhibit at the Osage Tribal Museum displays headdresses worn by Osage leadership. Photo by Shannon Shaw/Osage News

(L to R) Mary Bighorse, Talee Red Corn, Robynn Rulo, and Martin Parks pose for a photo. Parks, who is the Pawhuska High School Assistant Principal, presented a plaque honoring the students who took the school's first Osage Language course during the 2009-2010 school year. Bighorse and Red Corn work for the Nation's Language Department and Rulo was a class student. Photo by Benny Polacca/Osage News

By Benny Polacca
Osage News

The Pawhuska High School honored its students who completed the first Osage language class which started last fall.

Martin Parks, who is the school’s assistant principal and athletic director, presented a wooden plaque with the school’s orange and black colors to Osage Nation Language Department officials and language student Robynn Rulo on July 9. The names of 12 students who took the course were engraved into the plaque.

Parks praised the students who participated in the Osage I class this past year. “These teenagers are involved in a lot of extracurricular activities,” he said adding school is a great venue to teach more Osage students the language.

Pawhuska High is the first high school on the Osage Reservation to offer the tribe’s language class, said Mary Bighorse who is the Language Department’s event director. Skiatook High School offers Osage language classes to its students, but the school is not within the reservation boundary, she said.

Rulo, 17, said during this semester, the class learned Osage words and phrases to describe people (drumkeeper, for example) and objects that are involved during the June In-Lon-Schka dances at the three Indian villages. “Now (the students) know what was happening, what was taking part,” she said.

Rulo and fellow student Jamison Cass were the top students in the class this year.

“Robynn was my back-up when (course instructor) Talee Red Corn was away,” said Parks who was a substitute teacher while Red Corn, who served on the Osage Minerals Council until last month, was away for council business.

“I enjoy watching young people learn,” Red Corn said of teaching youth. “This is something that’s valuable to our Osage youth, something to be proud of.”

Other Osage language students who took the 2009-2010 course were: Norris Allred, Christen Ballard, Charlsie Cunningham, Josephine Horsechief, Jessica Hutson, Joe Pratt, Trey Rulo, Jeremie Tuller, Michela White, and Dora Williams.

Harvard University announced over the weekend that from now on undergraduate students from low-income families will pay no tuition. In making the announcement, Harvard’s president Lawrence H. Summers said, “When only ten percent of the students in elite education come from families in the lower half of the income distribution, we are not doing enough. We are not doing enough in bringing elite higher education to the lower half of the income distribution.”

If you know of a family earning less than $60,000 a year with an honor student graduating from high school soon, Harvard University wants to pay the tuition. The prestigious university recently announced that from now on undergraduate students from low-income families can go to Harvard for free…..no tuition and no student loans!

To find out more about Harvard offering free tuition for families making less than $60,000 a year, visit Harvard’s financial aid website at http://www.fao.fas.harvard.edu/ or call the school’s financial aid office at (617) 495-1581.

The Hominy JOM Program will host a “Back to School Bash” on Monday August 2, 2010 at the Hominy City Pool from 6-9 pm for all Certified JOM students. JOM Students Supplies will be available for JOM Students School Year 10-11; Pre-Kindergarten – 12th grades. There will be a pizza party & soft drinks. The JOM program has rented the pool for all JOM students to swim free between hours of 6- 9 pm. Parents are required to complete a survey prior to receiving student supplies.

The purpose of the Hominy JOM Program is to provide supplementary financial assistance to meet the unique and specialized education needs of Indian children enrolled in the Hominy Public Schools. The program also receives supplemental funding from the Osage Nation. JOM may assist with variety of needs such as school supplies, ACT tests, caps / gowns, fees for athletic physicals, athletic drug testing, classroom equipment, cultural curriculum, student incentives, tutoring, etc. The Parent meetings are held the first Wednesday of each month from 7-8pm at the Osage Nation Education Center.

The Hominy Parent Committee has recently updated the JOM Student list, to confirm that your student is a certified JOM student for school year 10-11, you may contact Andrea Kemble or Amy Dobbins at 699-5310 or Avis Ballard at 699- 5300.

Robynn Rulo (pink shirt) plays with Mia Jones during the 2009 Osage Nation Summer Youth Enrichment Camp. Rulo, a Pawhuska High School student, was a mentor during the camp and worked for the Nation's Constituent Services this year as part of the Nation's Summer Youth Program. Photo by Chalene Toehay/Osage News

Chris Jake
Osage News

The Osage Nation Summer Youth Program has given Osage youth like Robynn Rulo a chance to gain experience with the Osage Nation.

“I like making my own money,” said Rulo, a 17-year-old Pawhuska High School student who works for Osage Nation Constituent Services as a participant in this year’s Summer Youth Program.

Rulo answers phones, files documents, and helps around the office with other duties she’s asked to do. She also greets people who need assistance provided by Constituent Services. “I like working with the people,” she said.

Rulo is one of the 75 young Osages participating in this year’s Summer Youth Program. The participants work in various Osage Nation departments across the Osage Reservation that serve Pawhuska, Hominy, Fairfax and Skiatook.

Avis Ballard, who oversees the Summer Youth Program, is the Johnson O’ Malley Coordinator for the Nation’s Education Department. Ballard describes the program as a way to provide job readiness training through financial literacy workshops, business etiquette, social skills, resume development and communication.

Christina Mashunkashey is one of the 11 participating in the Osage Nation Work Experience Program that is also through the nation’s Education Department. “It has helped me a lot,” Mashunkashey said.

Mashunkashey has been working for Diane Daniels in the Osage Nation Environmental and Natural Resources Office. “Oh gosh, I’ve learned a lot,” said Mashunkashey. A few of those things are assisting in budgets, payables, and “your basic clerical work,” she said.

“The Work Experience Program is a short-term program that will help the participant obtain a job that will progress into long-term employment,” said Louise Cheshewalla, Training Coordinator for the Osage Nation.

The program is available to Natives who live on the Osage Reservation and meet income guidelines. Participants work two to three months, “Usually three,” Cheshewalla said. Participants work full-time in any of the tribes departments.

“They’re really good about teaching me things,” Mashunkashey said. She plans to use her skills to work in any office setting doing secretary work. “I’m appreciative of this program.”