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5th Osage Minerals Council takes oaths of office

Everett Waller, Myron Red Eagle, Talee Redcorn, Melissa Currey, Anthony Shackelford, Paul Revard, Joe Cheshewalla and Kenneth Bighorse Jr. were elected to four-year terms on June 6, 2022.

The 5th Osage Minerals Council took their oaths of office on July 1, 2022.

At the newly elected council’s first meeting, held in person at their chambers on the Osage Nation campus, Supreme Court Associate Justice Elizabeth Lohah Homer presided.

One-by-one, Everett Waller, Myron Red Eagle, Talee Redcorn, Melissa Currey, Anthony Shackelford, Paul Revard, Joe Cheshewalla and Kenneth Bighorse Jr. raised their right hands and swore their oaths of office:

“I … do proudly swear to carry out the responsibilities of the office of Minerals Council to the best of my ability, freely acknowledging that the powers of this office flow from the Osage People and Wakontah. I further swear that always to place the interest of all Osages above any special or personal interest and to respect the right of future generations to share the rich and historic natural heritage of our Osage people. In doing so, I will always uphold and defend the Constitution of the Osage Nation, so help me God.”

Homer gave each council member “a gift from the court,” after they took their oaths, which was a copy of the newly revised ON Constitution.

Following the ceremony, the council immediately elected its leadership. Re-elected as the council’s chairman was Waller, with a 5-3 vote. Voting “no” were Bighorse Jr., Revard and Shackelford. The election of the council’s second chair went to Cheshewalla with a unanimous vote. The council also voted to make Cheshewalla, Shackelford and Redeagle the council’s signature authorities.

The council adjourned following the votes. The council conducts regular meetings on the first Friday and the 3rd Wednesday of the month in the council chambers. The council serves as the governing body for the mineral affairs of the Osage Mineral Estate.

Inauguration Day

The Minerals Council will also be included in the Nation’s Inauguration Day festivities with a “presentation of honor,” according to an ON press release. Inauguration Day is scheduled for Saturday, July 9 at the Osage Casino Hotel & Casino in Tulsa. The event begins at 10 a.m.

Due to recent increases in positive COVID-19 cases among the Wahzhazhe community, the inauguration committee is encouraging all attendees to take health precautions and masks – hand sanitizer will be available. If you are feeling sick and/or have been exposed to someone with COVID-19, please stay home and get tested.

Osage Minerals Councils

The ON Constitution vests the Minerals Council with the powers to administer and develop the Osage Mineral Estate in accordance with the Act of June 28, 1906, 34 Stat. 539, as amended, such powers which, prior to ratification of the Osage Nation Constitution, were vested in the “Osage Tribal Council.” Past councils include:

1st Osage Minerals Council 2006-2010: Kenneth Bighorse Sr., Cynthia Boone, David Dubler, Robert Martin, John Henry Mashunkashey, Jewell Purcell, Kathryn Red Corn, Talee Redcorn

2nd Osage Minerals Council 2010-2014: Joseph “Sonny” Abbott, Curtis Bear, Cynthia Boone, Melvin Core, Galen Crum, Myron Red Eagle, Dudley Whitehorn, Andrew Yates

3rd Osage Minerals Council 2014-2018: Cynthia Boone, Joseph Cheshewalla, Galen Crum, Stephanie Erwin, Kathryn Red Corn, Talee Redcorn, Everett Waller, Andrew Yates

4th Osage Minerals Council 2018-2022: Susan Forman, Margo Gray, Marsha Harlan, Myron Red Eagle, Talee Redcorn, Paul Revard, Everett Waller, Andrew Yates

For more information on the Minerals Council, visit their website at https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/who-we-are/minerals-council

Author

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Shannon Shaw Duty
Shannon Shaw Dutyhttps://osagenews.org

Title: Editor
Email: sshaw20@gmail.com
Twitter: @dutyshaw
Topic Expertise: Columnist, Culture, Community
Languages spoken: English, Osage (intermediate), Spanish (beginner)

Shannon Shaw Duty, Osage from the Grayhorse District, is the editor of the award-winning Osage News, the official independent media of the Osage Nation. She is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and a master’s degree in Legal Studies with an emphasis in Indigenous Peoples Law. She currently sits on the Freedom of Information Committee for the Society of Professional Journalists. She has served as a board member for LION Publishers, as Vice President for the Pawhuska Public Schools Board of Education, on the Board of Directors for the Native American Journalists Association (now Indigenous Journalists Association) and served as a board member and Chairwoman for the Pawhuska Johnson O’Malley Parent Committee. She is a Chips Quinn Scholar, a former instructor for the Freedom Forum’s Native American Journalism Career Conference and the Freedom Forum’s American Indian Journalism Institute. She is a former reporter for The Santa Fe New Mexican. She is a 2012 recipient of the Native American 40 Under 40 from the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development. In 2014 she helped lead the Osage News to receive NAJA's Elias Boudinot Free Press Award. The Osage News won Best Newspaper from the SPJ-Oklahoma Chapter in their division 2018-2022. Her award-winning work has been published in Indian Country Today, The Washington Post, the Center for Public Integrity, NPR, the Associated Press, Tulsa World and others. She currently resides in Pawhuska, Okla., with her husband and together they share six children, two dogs and two cats.

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