By
Benny Polacca
The Osage Nation government is honoring the late Osage Minerals Council Chairman Andrew Yates with a portrait, in recognition of his service to the Nation.
At the close of the Hun-Kah Session, the Seventh ON Congress passed a $1,000 appropriation bill (ONCA 21-39 sponsored by Congresswoman Alice Goodfox) to pay for the portrait print and framing costs. Yates passed away following a short bout with cancer in February 2021.
Yates served on the Minerals Council since 2010 and was part of the delegation that signed the 2011 historic Osage Trust Case Settlement in Washington, D.C. He also worked for the Osage Nation for 36 years in the Department of Natural Resources and was also a member of the Nation’s Water Rights Task Force that began negotiations with the state of Oklahoma over the Osage’s right to water on their reservation.
Goodfox said she had spoken with Yates’ oldest daughter, Katie Yates Free, who said the family selected a photo of Andrew Yates that will be used in the portrait. “(Yates’ daughters) have picked a picture, they’re going to be able to blow it up and put a nice frame around it and we’re going to have it either in the (ON) Museum or in the Minerals Council (chambers). You know, this was a really hard thing for a lot of us because we were on a call with Councilman Yates and the next week he was gone. He was a three-term Minerals Council member and elected by the shareholders and the Chair of the Minerals Council when he passed. I campaigned with him since 2010 … He was just one of the kindest people we could have sitting in an elected seat and just his generosity of compromise and the things that he gave to the Nation will forever be missed … I wanted to do something for him and for his girls just to show our love for him.”
The Congress voted 11-0 for the bill with Second Speaker Jodie Revard, who is related to Yates, abstaining on April 27. Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear signed ONCA 21-39 into law after the session.
Original Publish Date: 2021-07-01 00:00:00
