TULSA, Okla. – In celebration of the Osage Nation’s sovereignty, Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear said the Nation is doing well and is also watching the ongoing federal government changes and downsize efforts sought by the President Trump administration to prepare for any needed reactions.
In his opening 2025 State of the Nation remarks, Standing Bear noted the Ninth ON Congress approved funding requests at 100% for its most popular services for enrolled Osages including higher education scholarships, health benefit programs and burial assistance. He added other government programs and services continue to operate with no recent employee layoffs and “our Gaming Enterprise is doing well, we have great promise in the UAS unmanned aerial systems for the (Osage) LLC, and the (ON) Ranch is doing well.”
“From where I sit, the Nation is doing very well,” Standing Bear said. “I’m sure all of our elders are real proud of what we’re still doing and we’re trying to get ourselves to where we integrate this modern world with our traditions that we still have.”
“We are getting more and more, I believe, to … getting that Osage back in our lives and I see it and you see it when these little children come and pray for us at our dinners in our own language; and it’s emotional as it should be,” Standing Bear said in reference to the Nation’s culture and language education and preservation endeavors.
The Nation’s reformed constitutional government is in its 19th year after Osage voters ratified the three-branch government in March 2006 and the Nation now observes Osage Sovereignty Day each March since then.
State of the Nation
Standing Bear delivered the State of the Nation address on March 8 at the Tulsa Osage Casino & Hotel amid ongoing controversial changes to the federal government following the Jan. 20 inauguration of President Donald Trump for his second term. Among those changes announced in February included downsizing efforts potentially impacting the nation-to-nation relations with the 560-plus federally recognized tribes on behalf of the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Two such actions hitting the Nation in February included the termination of Bureau of Indian Affairs Osage Agency Superintendent Adam Trumbly, who was swept up in DOGE’s mass layoffs of federal probationary employees, and a planned closure of the Pawhuska-based BIA agency in September. However, Trumbly returned to work on March 17 after a federal judge ordered that the thousands of fired federal employees be temporarily reinstated.
“Now we also have some anxieties – recently in the last six weeks, the (Department of Government Efficiency), many of us are watching that daily … I want to say that our relationship has always been a complicated one,” Standing Bear said. “We have our treaties in 1808 and 1818 … federal statutory 1906 Act, various laws, we have the act that allowed the Nation here to engage in a constitutional referendum and now we have a new (current) constitution.
“When I speak at other tribal events, I always point out every tribe is different in how they do things, what they do and their histories is similar but different. And there’s no better example of that than us,” Standing Bear said.
“And then to read the name of the Osage Agency on the DOGE list … it says ‘lease terminations,’” he said referring to the proposed BIA office closure. The Osage Agency occupies and pays the Nation lease costs for its office space in the Chambers Building where the Osage Minerals Council is housed on the ON government campus.
“I can tell you we have strong political and legal foundations and we have friends,” Standing Bear said, adding he’s been in recent phone conversations with federal officials in Washington, D.C. “The deputy assistant secretary of Indian Affairs told me ‘we’ve got six months to work this out and we can do that, that’s not a problem.’”
In those discussions, Standing Bear said he’s been told that “others on the floor in the (Department of) Interior are going to continue to make sure the Osage trust responsibility is protected.” The Trump administration changes also come as newly confirmed Secretary of Interior and former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is now serving as of January.
Standing Bear said he was also told the Nation’s status “as an energy tribe – and (Burgum) favors energy tribes, so we are taking steps to make that better known.” As an example, Standing Bear noted the Ninth ON Congress held a March special session, which included consideration and approval of a resolution for authorizing the Nation to join the Coalition of Large Tribes (COLT), which “was established in April 2011 to provide a unified advocacy base for tribes that govern large trust land bases and provide full service in the governing of their members and reservations,” according to the organization’s website.
“I really want to emphasize we can handle this,” Standing Bear said of the BIA situation, noting that Congress also approved a separate March special session bill that added funding to the Nation’s AG’s office for another attorney position. But since Trumbly has been reinstated at his post with the Osage Agency, it’s unclear how the money appropriated to the AG’s office will be spent.
“My point is we step up, we’re in good shape, we’ve got a new $50 million clinic that I’m very confident is going to open on time this summer … We have a new health facility for Primary Residential Treatment (PRT), we have a gaming (business) that has been smart about retention of funding. We’re in good shape enough that when we see a problem from our federal counterparts – like this lease – our people in Washington, D.C. will say ‘you’re an energy tribe, you’re going to be recognized as that and that is something that will fit in well with this administration and also you will be happy with the solution to the lease issue’ because we have plans to provide other offices if they continue to pay (lease costs),” Standing Bear said in his address.
Standing Bear added “there’s all these pieces that are in motion, but we have people who are qualified that are going to be doing this, it’s not me, I’m like air traffic control and that’s what the Chief’s job is, you’re not an expert on anything, but you have to know a lot about everything.” He also cautioned there could be more federal RIFs (reductions in force) coming “and if that’s the case, we’re going to react in a positive way, we’ll take care of that situation, we’ve got to because there are still some people over in the agency that have tremendous knowledge on how all our laws work, how federal regulations work.”
“And then with this new world, that I can assure you from several sources, the federal regulations, guidelines, etc., and statutes are under review, so it’s important to keep our eyes open – and we are – and work together … and continue to take care of ourselves,” Standing Bear said.
“And as long as we do that, we’re going to be OK. And so, within all the gazillion things to take care of, how do you prioritize that? And I prioritize that like I always have … I’ve always looked at land integrity for the tribe, acquire property, acquire land, make it trust land or restricted where we have jurisdiction so our territory is key and then within that territory, practice our religions, our beliefs, our lives, our joys, our troubles as a people. We must have our culture, our ribbonwork, our food, everything we do can be shared on that land and then primary, which is coming back, is our language. And if we can concentrate on those three pillars, I am completely confident the Osage Nation will be here in 200 years.”
