Osage Nation Congress members say they’re in the dark after the tribe’s executive branch decided to close its visitors center, language immersion school and Harvest Land farm.
Principal Chief Joe Tillman issued an executive order Tuesday to declare a state of emergency, citing financial shortfalls in the tribe’s projected revenue.
Last month, he wrote that the tribe’s annual budget totaled around $60 million with submitted budget requests totaling nearly $90 million. He said the tribe must reduce spending by around $38 million.
Daposka Ahnkodapi, which teaches Osage culture and language to children up to the 8th grade, was closed Wednesday morning as a result of the cuts. The Osage Nation Visitors Center will close Saturday.
Harvest Land farm, which will close at the end of the year, was designed to expand Osage food sovereignty, including through food assistance for tribal citizens.
Congressional member RJ Walker, who has served as assistant principal chief and acting principal chief, said he never expected the farm to generate revenue.
“To me, that is a government service. I know that we’re not going to grow tomatoes and pineapples and different things and make a profit off of that,” Walker said. “That provides a service to our people. It’s something we can be proud of. It’s food sovereignty.”
The executive branch released a statement Wednesday stating the locations were not generating revenue.
The Osage Nation Congress met Thursday morning for a special session Tillman requested two weeks ago. Tillman addressed congress and asked them to appropriate several budget requests, but did not directly address the closures. He left shortly after his statements. A KOSU reporter attempted to talk to him outside, but a spokesperson said Tillman could not speak on the situation.
Osage Congress member Eli Potts said there is no actual state of emergency.
“We’re paying millions of dollars to have a patch on the uniforms of OSU athletes. We are spending millions of dollars to invest in our infrastructure throughout Osage County. We are spending millions of dollars to invest in economic development at Skyway 36,” Potts said in an interview. “We are not broke.”
Congress member Billy Keene said the executive branch’s statements do not reflect reality.
“It’s Orwellian, man. It literally is,” Keene said. “It’s not true.”
Congress member Maria Whitehorn echoed that sentiment during the meeting.
“We’re financially stable, and I just want the people to know that,” Whitehorn said. “We have two months worth of this fiscal year [left] with $11.3 million sitting there.”
Walker said budget requests often outweigh project revenue.
“Every single budgetary session that we go through, there are more budget requests than we have, let me say, that exceed our projected revenue,” Walker said. “So this is nothing new.”
The Osage Nation Congress has yet to set a budget for the tribe’s 2027 fiscal year, which begins on Oct. 1.
Communication with the congress
Potts, along with at three other members of the congress, said they were unaware of Tillman’s decisions before they were made.
“What we have is what the public has … We were as blindsided as everyone else,” Potts said. “The communication from the executive branch has been lacking, and it’s led to confusion and fears in our community. And that’s wrong.”
Walker said Tillman is his friend but has not responded to his messages for the past day.
Keene said the tribe can still make remedies before the next fiscal year. He said the tribe should learn more about the logistics of the closures during the Osage Congressional Education Committee meeting at 3:30 p.m. Monday.
“We haven’t set a fiscal year budget yet, so hopefully we can just make things better,” Keene said.
This story was produced as part of a partnership between the Tulsa Flyer and KOSU.