The investigation is moving forward into whether Osage Nation Attorney General Clint Patterson is linked to alleged membership fraud.
The allegation came to the forefront after the Congressional Membership Committee held two meetings in January to discuss the case, where it was revealed that Membership Department Director Chris Standing Bear received a tip from Osage attorney Amanda Proctor, alleging Patterson may be linked to a person fraudulently enrolled in the tribe.
The three-person Membership Committee met on Feb. 14 and voted unanimously to hire Crowe and Dunlevy attorney Logan Hibbs as the special investigator.
“In light of everything we’ve got going on, which is a lot with the Osage Nation right now,” said Congressman Eli Potts at the Congressional Membership Committee meeting on Feb. 14. “Receiving word about funding levels, everything else that’s being cut, employees and the Department of Interior … we got a lot going on, a lot of serious things that we need to be addressing.
“So, to dispel some notion that any of the actions of any committee of Congress is ridiculous, in any sense of the word.”
The committee, made up of Congressmen John Maker, Joe Tillman and Potts, requested the Speaker of the Congress Pam Shaw to issue six subpoenas to Treasurer Clark Batson, the Education Department, two to Chief of Staff Jason Zaun and two to Membership Director Chris Standing Bear.
The committee also requested that Standing Bear prepare a report regarding the status of Adopted Memberships within the Nation. The committee also requested Congressman Maker, the committee chair, to request the presence of Regional BIA Director Eddie Streater to one of their meetings to discuss “potentially fraudulent attainment of a Certificate Degree of Indian Blood attestation issued by the Department of Interior and/or the Osage Agency June 27th, 2004.”
Six subpoenas
Osage tribal members enjoy several direct service benefits and financial benefits from the tribe, such as crisis assistance, the Health Benefit card, scholarship assistance, money for children’s school clothes, and much more. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, tribal members also received several thousand dollars each in financial compensation that came from the CARES Act and the American Rescue Plan Act. These funds were strictly for enrolled tribal members.
The subpoenas requested by Congressman Potts for the Treasurer and the Education Department specifically ask for financial information related to the “classified individual in question” during the period of June 27, 2004, through Feb. 14, 2025.
The first subpoena requested for Chief of Staff Jason Zaun is for information regarding any investigation into membership records during the tenure of former director Asa Cunningham. Cunningham confessed to falsifying three memberships in 2015. The second subpoena for Zaun is for financial information.
As for Standing Bear, his first subpoena is also for information regarding the 2015 investigation of Cunningham. His second subpoena is for “the Application for a Replacement Membership Card received from Clint Patterson in February of 2010.”
