A groundbreaking ceremony for a new Osage Nation Judicial Branch courthouse is scheduled for Monday, Dec. 18 at 1 p.m. in Pawhuska.
The new courthouse building and groundbreaking location is on Nation-owned land at 315 W. 11th St.
Osage Nation government officials will be in attendance and the community is also invited to witness the commemoration for a new and more modernized building for the Judicial Branch operations. The forthcoming Judicial Branch building project seeks to replace the aging current roundhouse-type building on the Osage government campus where tribal court proceedings and court clerk and administration operations are located. The building also formerly housed other ON entities, including the Nation’s police department now in the Law Building on campus.
In recent years, the current courthouse building experienced closures due to rooftop rain damage as well as COVID-19 precautions during the earlier years of the pandemic.
Planning for a new Judicial Branch building came following the appropriations approval of appropriation bills to fund the preliminary costs.
During the 10th special session of the Seventh ON Congress in 2021, the Legislative Branch approved bill ONCA 21-81 (sponsored by then-Congressman RJ Walker) – An Act to authorize and appropriate $4 million to the Judicial Branch for improvements to the current Judicial Building and for the design, engineering and construction of a new Judicial building.
In a subsequent special session, the Seventh ON Congress also approved bill ONCA 21-109 (also sponsored by Walker, who is now Assistant Principal Chief), which authorized and appropriated $2 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding “for a new COVID-19 compliant Judicial (branch) building.”