Assistant Principal Chief RJ Walker remembered the day when he heard the Osage Nation’s application to put their 43,000-acre land into trust was approved.
“I think I was in my office, and I don’t want to say it was hollered about, but it was, ‘Hey, everyone, the fee to trust application has been approved,” Walker said with a smile.
Walker reminisced about driving to Hutchinson, Kans., in 2016 with then Assistant Chief Raymond Red Corn to make the $74 million bid for the Osage Nation Ranch. Walker was an Osage Congressman at the time.
“This is a historic deal and it’s in trust forever on behalf of the Osage Nation,” he said.
“The United States of America now has a responsibility that it is taken care of, and we are taken care of, and it can never be sold.”
A “fee-to-trust land acquisition” is the process where a Native American tribe or individual transfers ownership of land they currently hold in “fee simple” (private ownership) to the United States government to be held in trust for their benefit. “Trust Land” has special legal protections and benefits specific to tribal sovereignty, such as exemption from state and local jurisdiction, exemption from state and local taxes, and greater control of resources and land management for the tribe.
A historic bid
In 2016, Walker and Red Corn were on a tight timeline to purchase what was then called the Bluestem Ranch from media mogul Ted Turner after they’d heard rumors it was going to be on the market. It went up for private auction after Christmas in 2015 with only thirty days to submit a bid. Red Corn worked the phones over the holidays, got the Osage Congress together while Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear wrangled lawyers and bankers to get enough money to purchase back what was once Osage land.
Now, more than eight years later the Nation has made history by signing a fee-to-trust acquisition with the Bureau of Indian Affairs for that land. It’s reportedly the second-largest trust acquisition in United States history. The largest is Santa Ana Pueblo’s fee-to-trust land acquisition of the Alamo Ranch in New Mexico for more than 60,000 acres in 2016.
This was one of the largest parcels of land in Osage County – with prime tallgrass perfect for cattle grazing.
But the purchase was going to be expensive. Standing Bear, two years into his first term at the time told Red Corn, he was prepared to bid the maximum amount. And that’s what they did.
During the signing ceremony, Standing Bear recounted how he instructed Osage Nation Police to be ready to take the bid up to Kansas if Walker and Red Corn were to get into an automobile accident and couldn’t make it.
“I told Raymond, ‘Just hold that bid out the window and then Nick (Osage Nation Police Chief) is going to send somebody to pick it up, and you’re going to get to Kansas and we’re going to file it in time,’” Standing Bear told the audience who laughed.
Fortunately, both Walker and Red Corn made it safely and did get the bid into the land broker’s office just before the deadline. Red Corn recounted the entire affair to Bloomberg on the In Trust podcast and said that both men remembered getting the call on the drive home to Pawhuska telling them they were the highest bidder, they had the ranch.
Fee to Trust
The Nation filed the first fee-to-trust application in 2016 but was told there was too much environmental damage after more than a century of oil and gas production. The Bureau of Indian Affairs believed that the environmental degradation of the land would create a liability for the agency under federal environmental laws.
There are laws that explain that landowners are responsible for cleanup of any damage, but many have left and have been gone since the days of the oil boom in Osage County. Standing Bear said he sought help from Congressman Frank Lucas and Senator Lankford.
Standing Bear recounted the conversation before his speech about the first application.
“He goes ‘BIA says you can’t put it in trust because of all this environmental damage, but also environmental damage happened when they were in charge to make sure everything was not damaged’ … I go, ‘Yes, sir.’ And he goes, ‘well, that doesn’t make sense’ … then I go, ‘that’s what we think,’” Standing Bear said.
It was resubmitted in 2023 after the 8th Osage Nation Congress approved it. Despite the initial bump in the road with the BIA, agency staffers such as Katie Yates Free and Osage Agency Superintendent Adam Trumbly, both Osage, and BIA Regional Director for Eastern Oklahoma Eddie Streater, were critical to the historic acquisition.
Trust status
Now that the land is in trust, it cannot be sold or hampered by any legal or financial burdens but only preserved for future generations. The Osage Nation also has criminal jurisdiction over the land, another important step toward tribal sovereignty.
Before it was privatized, the 43,000 acres were historically original Osage allotments. And before they were allotments, it was land purchased by the Osage from the Cherokee and held in title by the Osage.
Before Turner owned the land, it was owned by Chuck Drummond, grandson of Cecil Drummond and included a parcel of land owned by William Hale, who deeded it to Cecil before he went to prison.
Now, it’s back in Osage hands. That makes Assistant Chief Walker very proud.
“For me personally, one of my biggest desires as an Osage, as an elected official, is to purchase our land back,” Walker said.
Walker said that land in Osage County is getting expensive, but the Nation is still looking to get back more of it. “The simple reality is that they’re not making any more land. And we sit in one little spot in this world and it’s the Osage Nation, the Osage Reservation, and we’re taking it back little by little,” he said. “In this case, it was a big bite.”
