Wind group requests ‘take’ permit for incidental killing of bald eagles
Wind Capital Group, which is poised to start building a 94-turbine generation facility near Burbank and Shidler, has applied for a federal permit allowing it to kill bald eagles without facing prosecution for the deaths incidental to the operation of the wind farm. Although Oklahoma has several wind farms, the Osage County project, Osage Wind [...]
County road sets the stage for modern range war
The first of two hearings on requests to vacate county roads that oil producers want kept open to access drilling sites drew a crowd on Monday and took on the hue of a modern-day – and unarmed – range war. In February, less than a week after oil company BGI Resources asked permission and received [...]
Assistant chief: rape suspect is a ‘big teddy bear’
The assistant chief of the Osage Nation testified at a bond reduction hearing for a man charged in a brutal rape and kidnapping is “a big teddy bear” who has never been known to be a danger to anyone. Assistant Chief Scott BigHorse made his statements May 7 at a bond reduction hearing for Christopher [...]
Gun thief gets no hard time
A man who was linked to a Hominy gun theft by DNA from spittle on a photo frame in 2010 pleaded guilty last week and received a 10-year suspended sentence as part of the plea deal but will serve 10 weekends in the Osage County Jail. Ronald Keith Gilley, 48, pleaded to the second-degree burglary [...]
Uh-oh, Wagons Ho!
The Oklahoma Championship Wagon Races rumbled through Skiatook Saturday and Sunday. Contestants from throughout the Mid-west came to compete in the event which featured not only wagon racing, but horse racing, wild cow milking and burro racing. Read the full story by Sally Asher. By Louise Red Corn
A cowboy to the end
John Tallchief was a lot of things: A World War II veteran twice injured in action, an Osage who served on the Tribal Council for 24 years, a father, a grandfather and a mentor for many in his hometown of Fairfax. But most of all, he was a cowboy and a steer roper who began [...]
Lawsuits pile up against former music minister
The number of people accusing a former Barnsdall music minister who also worked as a financial advisor of defrauding them is growing, with the latest accusations leveled by several Osage County businessmen. One couple in the burgeoning number of people who claim they were duped lost $343,500 to Dearman, and Bartlesville Realtor Marya Gray, the [...]
Former BIA regional director under investigation
Jeanette Hanna, the former regional director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs who oversaw the Osage Agency, is the target of a scathing report by the Department of Interior’s Inspector General that depicts the BIA as rewarding an employee who was under investigation. Hanna, who has been the subject of numerous complaints in eastern Oklahoma, [...]
School van kills 11 bison
At 11:20 p.m. Wednesday, workers at Ted Turner’s Bluestem Ranch had their hands full. One of the bison ranch’s fences had been breached, and about 100 yearling buffalo had streamed out in force and onto U.S. 60 about seven miles west of Pawhuska. According to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Bluestem ranch manager John Hurd called [...]
Cops work unusual burlargies
Some unusual burglaries have been reported in Osage County in the past week, including the heist of a hefty gun safe containing an as-yet undetermined number of weapons and commercial burglaries in which the thieves took nothing. The gun theft occurred east of Barnsdall on State Highway 11 and was reported by a caretaker at [...]
Barnsdall hires a keeper for chief
Barnsdall, which suffered various public police embarrassments over the past several years, hired a new chief Tuesday that others in the legal community says is a real keeper: John Ferguson, a man with 31 years of law enforcement experience who is retiring as an investigator for the Osage County Sheriff’s Office. The City Council voted [...]
Preordained for the priesthood
When he was just a toddler, Todd Nance stood apart from the other young parishioners at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Hominy. While the other kids climbed over pews, fidgeted and ran around the nave, he was rapt, fascinated by the rites and ceremony administered by Father Jerry Ryan. “Todd would stand there enthralled,” his [...]
A diamond anniversary
The Osage Tribal Museum celebrated its 75th anniversary on Friday and Saturday with a ballet performance, parade and several other events, including a dance at the Cultural Center that drew both young people and adults. By Louise Red Corn
5-year-old gone astray from school is safe, but parents irked
Brianna Cass, a 5-year-old kindergartner from Pawhuska with flyaway hair and big brown eyes, says she was scared Monday when she got off the school bus and found no one at home. Brianna’s parents, Jake and Stormy Cass, were fit to be tied that Pawhuska’s Indian Camp Elementary School lost track of their daughter, who [...]
Pawhuska’s Field of Dreams wins tentative lease agreement on split vote
In a rare split vote to which they were pushed by several passionate souls, the Osage County Commissioners approved leasing unused land near the county jail to a group that intends to build a ball field complex. Commissioner Scott Hilton cast the lone no vote, with Bob Jackson and Darren McKinney voting yes to approve [...]
Huskie golfers get to regionals: Only team to do so with no home golf course
Pawhuska High School’s golf team, despite being hamstrung by the demise of the city’s historic nine-hole course, competed in the regionals Monday. They didn’t do well enough to compete at the state tournament next week, but they are likely one of the few golf teams to make it into regional play who have no course [...]
O’Neal seeks to have search warrant suppressed, get guns back
A Skiatook businessman who was accused of shooting at dogs in the midst of his failed campaign for the city’s at-large council seat is asking that the search warrant – and all of the evidence gathered through it – be thrown out. In court filings by his attorney Earl Lawson, Pearson Leon O’Neal says there [...]
21-year-old gets 50 years in child sex case: ‘God says forgive, but I will never forget’
A young man who pleaded guilty to raping and sodomizing a six-year-old girl was sentenced Thursday to 50 years in prison for the crimes. Brandon Allen Bridgeford, 21, of the Osage County part of Tulsa, was accused in August 2012 of the felonies. According to a pre-sentence investigation, he admitted to not only the crimes [...]
Woman killed in Okesa mower accident
A woman was killed Monday while mowing, when she apparently got too close to a dike around a pond and her mower overturned, pinning her. Deanna Kay Pierce, 43, of Bartlesville, was found by a friend who came to visit at 2:50 p.m. The Osage County Sheriff’s Office responded and found Pierce pinned beneath a [...]
Village debates changes
Proposed changes to the federal laws governing the three Osage Indian villages in Pawhuska, Hominy and Grayhorse caused some raised eyebrows after they were revealed on Friday. The most surprising change, which struck many as rather cozy given the fact that the former Pawhuska Five-Man Board is currently the target of a federal criminal investigation, [...]
Man shot in home invasion
A man who used a sledge hammer to bust into a house in southern Osage County in an effort to get some possessions back was greeted with three 9mm rounds in a “stand-your-ground” shooting for which it is unlikely that the shooter will be prosecuted. Jason Ray Smith, 29, was hit in the chest – [...]
Man charged in reported brutal rape in Pawhuska
A Pawhuska man has been charged with rape, kidnapping and other felonies in a reported brutal assault on a woman during which she was allegedly held hostage for 12 hours. Christopher Beatty Harris, 27, was charged last week in the assault that took place at a woman’s home and then at the defendant’s apartment on [...]
