This article was written from an interview with Charles Pratt who lost his battle with cancer on March 8. The only remaining plaintiff for the Fletcher Case is William Fletcher. Information for Pratt’s funeral will be posted when it is made public.
Questions still remain on who cashes Osage headright checks being paid to defunct entities or P.O. boxes.
Charles Pratt, one of the remaining plaintiffs in the Fletcher v. United States case, wants Osages to know that their headright income is being depleted because the U.S. government won’t account for all Osage headright shares or their owners. In a list provided by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to the Fletcher plaintiffs, more than 30 percent of headright income is going to entities or non-Indians.
“There are several of these accounts, and the one I want to pick on particularly is Hissom Memorial Center,” he said. “Question one, how many years have we been paying royalties? For years. There seems to be no end to paying Hissom. If we could stop it, then we would know who’s getting it.”
Hissom Memorial Center, abandoned since 1994, was a children’s mental health institution that opened in 1959 and at one time had more than a 1,000 patients. The facility was built on land donated to the state by a successful oilman named Wiley G. Hissom. But after abuse was reported in the mid-1980s and Homeward Bound sued the facility, it was shut down.
“They were sued for damages and had to dissolve,” said Amanda Proctor, Osage attorney on the Fletcher case. “However, their royalty did not and it is still being paid, but to who?”
Proctor said Hissom Memorial Center is a prime example of a reoccurring problem with Osage headrights. Currently, there is no means for entities or individuals to give back their headright interest to the tribe, just as there is no way for the Osage public to obtain financial records for these headright shares.
Recently a church wanted to give the tribe back their headright shares and the BIA wouldn’t let them, Proctor said.
“We took pictures, had to find out which families originally gave it to the church and everything,” Proctor said. “We got set to receive the money and nothing, fell by the wayside because nobody can track it.”
Class Action
Pratt currently resides at the Fairfax Nursing Home after his battle with cancer disabled him. His doctors have recommended chemotherapy and the treatments are taking their toll.
“I want to complete the case,” Pratt said. “In spring, we have to turn up the volume and go to court and keep plugging away, we can’t let our momentum get away … and the minerals council has to step up, and our government, to at least have an opinion.”
The Fletcher case first began in 2002 but has morphed and changed many times. It has seen seven dismissals, three amended complaints and a first and second successful appeal to the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court ruling and the case was certified as a class-action lawsuit on Jan. 31.
Proctor said there are non-Indians that receive headright payments by lawful means, such as spouses or adopted children, and they are excluded. The remedy they are seeking is the accounting of how much has been paid to non-Indians, including entities. But eventually, they will seek termination, extinguishment of those shares that are in non-Indian hands.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs in the Fletcher Case include Indian & Environmental Law Group, PLLC; Sneed Lang, PC; and Shield Law Group PLC. Proctor is the owner of Shield Law Group.
Pratt said he and William Fletcher, the other remaining plaintiff in the case, received advice a long time ago.
“Folks said you take this estate, this oil, this trust, you make it better than it was, and pass it on. So that’s our goal, we got this chance to make it better,” Pratt said. “Let’s step up and do a little work and we can fix this up. So we can find some of this money that goes off to these places that has no business getting it. It goes to P.O. boxes, it goes to companies that have been out of business for years, it goes somewhere, but the bureau won’t tell us who cashes that check.”
Entities in possession of Osage headrights:
- Aladdin Petroleum Corporation
- FABCO Oil Company
- First National Bank & Trust
- Hissom Memorial Center (No longer exists)
- Houston Oil & Minerals Corporation
- Oklahoma Historical Society
- Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation
- Orange County Rehab Institute
- Southland Royalty Company
- Tenneco Oil Company
- The Hefner Company
- University of Oklahoma Athletic School Fund
- University of Oklahoma Trustee
- Wells Fargo Bank
- Archbishop of New York
- Assemblies of God General Counsel
- Assoc. of Mary Immaculate Oblate Fathers
- Board of Regents, University of Texas
- Boatmens Trust Company
- Father Flanagan’s Boys Town
- First Assembly of God-Kalamazoo
- First Christian Church
- First Presbyterian Church (CA)
- First Presbyterian Church (OK)
- First Presbyterian Church (Tulsa)
- First United Methodist Church
- Immaculate Conception Catholic Church
- Institute of American Indian Arts Foundation
- Leland Standford Jr. University
- Los Angeles Orthopedic Foundation
- Martin Luther Homes of Colorado Springs
- Masonic Homes of California
- New Mexico Boys Ranch
- Osage Indian Baptist Church
- Roman Catholic Diocese of Tulsa
- Seventh Church Christ Scientist
- Shriners Hospital for Children
- Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia
- St. Luke’s United Church of Christ
- St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church
- St. Joseph’s Orphanage
- Baptist Foundation of Oklahoma
- Frank Phillips Foundation
- Frost National Bank-San Antonio
- Tulsa Boys’ Home
- Vestrymen St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
- Adobe Royalty (Lawton, OK)
- Adobe Royalty (OKC, OK)
- CEJA Corporation
- Southland Royalty Company
- University of Oklahoma Trustee
- Father Flanagan’s Boys Town
By
Shannon Shaw Duty
Original Publish Date: 2015-03-09 00:00:00