The Osage Nation Police Department is asking the public for information regarding a theft at the Osage Casinos construction site in Pawhuska over the weekend.
According to a Facebook post by the ONPD on Wednesday, Aug. 17, “The monetary value of the stolen items totaled roughly $14,000. Among the property stolen was $10,000 worth of 3-in copper piping.”
Accompanying the post were photos from the construction site of what appears to be cut-off copper piping at various areas on the site, as well as missing construction equipment.
Late last month, Osage Casinos gaming officials announced the delayed openings of the Pawhuska and Bartlesville Osage Casinos to a fall 2023 date due to supply chain issues impacting construction. Officials broke ground on both projects in June of 2021 and the projects were originally slated to be finished in December of this year.
When finished, the Pawhuska casino and hotel will feature 250 slot machines, meeting space and a hotel with 47 rooms – both traditional and suites – as well as a pool, hot tub and fitness center on 60 acres of land.
The general contractor for the project is Kansas-based Crossland Construction.
Anyone who may have any information that might lead to the apprehension or arrest of those involved in the theft, should contact ONPD at (918) 287-5510.
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Title: Editor
Email: sshaw@osagenation-nsn.gov
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 LION Publishers board of directors, the Freedom of Information Committee for the Society of Professional Journalists, and she is also a member of the Pawhuska Public Schools Board of Education. She served on the Board of Directors for the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA) from 2013-2016 and served as a board member and Chairwoman for the Pawhuska Johnson O’Malley Parent Committee from 2017-2020. 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 the Elias Boudinot Free Press Award. The Osage News has won Best Newspaper from the SPJ-Oklahoma Chapter in their division the past five years, 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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