HOMINY VILLAGE, Okla. – Maria Whitehorn hosted an announcement dinner here as she is seeking a return to the Osage Nation Congress in the 2024 General Election.
Whitehorn served two terms (2012-2020) on Congress and her tenure included serving as chairs of several committees, as well as Congressional Speaker. She spoke on her interest in seeking a third Congressional term while attendees enjoyed a March 29 buffet dinner, which included beef sourced from her family’s cattle herd.
Former Congressional Speaker Archie Mason introduced his former legislative colleague. “We have that (Osage) word that says ‘do your best’ and when I look at Maria and I look at all of the candidates and those who are here sitting and breaking bread with us, I say ‘do your best.’ That’s what I ask as an Osage, as a voter, as an elder – Do your best for us,” he said.
Whitehorn said the four years since her initial Congressional service gave her an opportunity to see “administrative laws that are missing at our Nation that to me would make things better for the people … I’m not running because I’m unhappy with anybody on Congress right now, in fact I don’t want to knock anybody out of their seat. There’s one empty seat on Congress (five incumbents seeking reelection and one opening seat) and that’s the seat I’m running for.”
Grayhorse elder Archie Mason speaks at Maria Whitehorn’s candidate announcement dinner in Hominy on March 29, 2024. ECHO REED/Osage News
Whitehorn was born and raised in Hominy, lived in Texas for several years before returning in 2002 where she and her husband raised their two sons.
“I’ve been real active as a shareholder watching what our Minerals Council does, I enjoy going to those meetings and knowing what they’re doing … I’d love to get reelected because I see that we have issues with our (constitutional) authorities … I’m going to go there right now to Article 15 because that’s one place I believe our authorities are a little bit off kilter. Our document says that the general authority for our natural resources, which is land, fish and wildlife, water, air, it belongs to the Legislative Branch to provide for the utilization and development thereof.”
If reelected, Whitehorn said she wants to work on legislation with regard to how the Nation’s lands are leased and “the way it makes it better is we get to be transparent about it, you guys get to have a conversation about ‘what are we doing here? Are we going to raise cattle to sustain our people?’ Because food, water and shelter are three things that any human being needs.”
“It’s always been about the land, our houses are on the land, our cattle are on the land, the water’s on the land, now they’re wanting to pump CO2 down in our land,” Whitehorn said. “I want to get along with everybody and I want to unite and the way we can do that – follow this document (Osage Constitution) and you can put people in Congress that are willing to do so and support legislation to do those things.”
