The Bigheart Times

Bobby Neighbors on Fox news this week

Bobby Neighbor's search for his mother's killer made People last week and is on the news again in Tulsa this week: 

http://www.fox23.com/news/local/story/Pawhuska-teen-searches-for-mothers-killer/HRQSyNj-hk-F_Bu9khhcFw.cspx

A Dark Tale

A Pawhuska legend makes the LA Times 100 years after his post-mortem career as a greeter. 
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0703-then-20110703,0,6628020.story

Osage trust case settlement proposed at $380 million for tribal and non-Osage headright owners

The Osage Nation's 11-year-old trust case against the federal government likely will end in December with the largest tribal trust settlement in United States history, an attorney told a tribal council on Wednesday morning. 

After attorney Wilson Pipestem, one of the lawyers who represented  the tribe in the trust case, presented the $380 million settlement agreement, the Osage Minerals Council unanimously gave its preliminary approval. The money is to be divided between those who own headrights, or shares of the tribe's subsurface mineral estate that lies beneath all of oil-rich Osage County. 

"Given the history of tribal litigation for trust mismanagement, this is probably about as good as it's going to get," said tribal member and headright owner Joe Conner of Fairfax. "And given the political environment right now, this is a minor miracle."

Not all agreed. 

"Chump change!" exclaimed one woman after the meeting.

Shareholder Patricia Spurrier Bright was cautious:  "When I've got a check in my hand, I'll believe it. Where is the government going to get the money? The United States is broke."

As the case has progressed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, Judge Emily Hewitt found that the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs had grossly mismanaged Osage oil and gas money. Last year, she issued a $330 million judgment against the federal government for mismanagement between 1972 and 2000, the first time span litigated in the case. Pipestem said that judgment was not a sure bet because it could be appealed. Pre-1972 claims in the case are scheduled for trial early next year, but the settlement would end the case. 

"This will be it," Pipestem said.

Before the settlement is finalized, the trust team that negotiated it will meet with Osage shareholders to get their feedback. The first meeting is slated for Aug. 24 at 6:30 p.m. at the Wah-Zha-Zhi Cultural Center in Pawhuska. Only tribal members with headrights will be allowed to attend. Minerals Council Chair Galen Crum said that a password-protected website will also be launched for Osages to ask questions and stay abreast of developments in the settlement.

The settlement announced Wednesday means that, barring an unforeseen legal breakdown, the government will pay $345.8 million into the tribal trust account by Oct. 30, and checks will be cut to individual headright owners by Dec. 5. The amount each shareholder will receive will depend on how many headrights each owns. There are a a total of 2,229 Osage headrights, and $155,136 will be paid out for each whole one.  Many headrights were fractionated as they were passed down over generations, but some people have multiple shares. 

Attorneys who fought the case for the Osages will take 9 percent of the total settlement, or $34.2 million, as their contingency fee. 

About 30 percent of headrights are owned by non-Osage people and, as Pipestem said,  "non-humans" – churches, universities,  corporations and other entities. Those, too, will receive payments under the settlement. 

That irks Osages because some of those headrights were transferred to white people during the  "Reign of Terror" that gripped the tribe in the 1920s, when the oil boom made Osages the richest people per capita in the world and attractive to swindlers and killers. In 1978, the U.S. Congress made it illegal to permanently transfer headlights from an Osage to any non-Osage person or entity.

Many headrights were also willed by Osages to the Catholic Church, the University of Oklahoma, and other groups. 

The settlement "follows the trust machinery that's been in place for over 100 years," Pipestem explained to Osages who don't want anyone outside the tribe to get paid in the agreement. "Non-Osage shareholders have trust property rights. That is a reality this settlement will have to face. It's not perfect, but there are certain things we have to face."

The settlement is the culmination of months of negotiations between a tribal trust team made up of Chief John Red Eagle, Osage Congresswoman Jerri Jean Branstetter, and Minerals Councilors Dudley Whitehorn, Cynthia Boone and Galen Crum.

"it was a lot of work," said Whitehorn, who chaired the trust team. "…And $155,000 is a lot of cottonpickin' money."

Whitehorn said that his main regret is that the case took 11 years to litigate. After his colleague Myron Red Eagle read the names of 20 Osage shareholders who have died recently, Whitehorn said: "Those 20 people won't ever see this money. 

"It took too long to get."

 

From the Oklahoma Highway Patrol

TROOPER ON SCENE OF FIRES IN PAWNEE COUNTY ADVISED AT THIS TIME THEY DO NOT
HAVE CONTROL OF FIRES AND THEY WILL BE EVACUATING THE TOWNS OF OILTON,
JENNINGS, TERLTON AND HALLET

This week's editorial!

(The Bigheart Times is not fond of writing editorials, but this week came across a topic it feels is of import to the general public. Of enough interest that we are also publishing it online.)

Every Friday, I go to the courthouse to pick up the criminal filings for the previous week and to jot down the civil filings. I check a lot of stuff that never makes it into the paper: Protective orders, probate cases, and small claims, just in case some story might present itself. 

Last Friday, I did my routine, and came across a mysterious divorce filing: Osage County Case No. FD-11-142. It is sealed. Hermetically. No names, not even those of lawyers. Just a case number.  Not being one to suffer secrecy in records that should be public,  I ferreted out whose divorce it was: That of a wealthy Tulsa couple. He made a fortune in the oil business and she has a ranch in Osage County. More on that next week. In fairness,  I am not going to ID them by name until I have the chance to talk to the judge who sealed it, and the lawyer who asked that it be sealed, and both were out of town on Monday and Tuesday. The divorcing couple are not well known in Osage County, I can promise you that.

No matter who they are, however, the secrecy doesn’t pass the smell test. If John Q. Public’s divorce is a public record, so should the divorce of the Missus and Captain O. Industry. 

Michael Minnis, the lawyer who represents the Oklahoma Press Association and its members – including The Bigheart Times – said that this affront to open records is becoming more common. And it’s wrong.

“Trials and court filings should not be filed under seal,” Minnis said. “Courts, courthouses, and judicial proceedings are public venues. Nonetheless, some courts have held that in very limited circumstances portions of trials or portions of case filings can be temporarily kept under seal. 

“However, the initial filings should never be filed under seal.”

There are good reasons that some court records are sealed: Matters involving children or proprietary business information, i.e. trade secrets. I am hard pressed to think of any other examples.

The idiotic thing about secrecy is that it only serves to excite interest. Had this divorce been filed openly, it would have been a mere blip on the radar and passed without notice. Now it has become a looming question: Why are the Zs exempt from the rules that the rest of us must live by, and what do they have to hide? Most likely, they have nothing to hide (except their wealth)  – but we don’t know that when they are doing in secret what the rest of us must do in public.

 

Five – at least three of them from Pawnee – dead in Payne County accident

From the Oklahoma Highway Patrol:

COLLISION OCCURRED AT 1257 HOURS ON 07/17/2011 ON STATE HIGHWAY 51 .5 MILES
EAST OF STATE HIGHWAY 18 LOCATED 2.5 MILES WEST OF YALE, OK. IN PAYNE
COUNTY.

VEHICLE #1:  2001 BUICK REGAL, DRIVEN BY WILLIAM L. CAMPBELL, INDIAN MALE,
AGE: 17 OF PAWNEE, OK. PRONOUNCED DEAD AT THE SCENE WILL MASSIVE INJURIES,
TRANSPORTED TO PALMER FUNERAL HOME IN CUSHING, OK.

PASSENGER #1:  SHANE B. HORN, INDIAN MALE, AGE: 16 OF PAWNEE, OK.
PRONOUNCED DEAD AT THE SCENE WITH MASSIVE INJURIES, TRANSPORTED TO PALMER
FUNERAL HOME IN CUSHING, OK.

PASSENGER #2:  MARISSA L. CAMPBELL (MOTHER OF DRIVER) INDIAN FEMALE, AGE:
37 OF PAWNEE, OK. PRONOUNCED DEAD AT THE SCENE WITH MASSIVE INJURIES,
TRANSPORTED TO PALMER FUNERAL HOME IN CUSHING , OK.

PASSENGER #3: INFORMATION WITHHELD UNTIL POSITIVELY IDENTIFIED. TRANSPORTED
TO THE MEDICAL EXAMINERS OFFICE IN OKLAHOMA CITY, OK.

PASSENGER #4:  INFORMATION WITHHELD UNTIL POSITIVELY IDENTIFIED.
TRANSPORTED TO THE MEDICAL EXAMINERS OFFICE IN OKLAHOMA CITY, OK.

VEHICLE #2:  1997 FORD F-250 PICKUP, DRIVEN BY JESSE J. BROWN, WHITE MALE,
AGE: 20, OF YALE, OK TRANSPORTED BY CREEK COUNTY AMBULANCE TO ST. FRANCIS
HOSPITAL IN TULSA, OK. TREATED AND RELEASED WITH TRUNK INTERNAL INJURIES.

PASSENGER #1:  CADE A. ANDERSON, WHITE MALE, AGE: 14, OF YALE, OK.
TRANSPORTED BY EAGELMED TO ST. FRANCIS HOSPITAL IN TULSA, OK. ADMITTED IN
STABLE CONDITION WITH HEAD, ARM, LEG, TRUNK INTERNAL AND  EXTERNAL
INJURIES.

WHAT HAPPENED:   VEHICLE #1 WAS TRAVELING EASTBOUND ON SH51. VEHICLE #2 WAS
TRAVELING WESTBOUND ON SH51.  VEHICLE #1 DRIFTED OFF THE ROADWAY TO THE
RIGHT, OVERCORRECTED,  WENT LEFT OF CENTER STRIKING VEHICLE #2 HEAD-ON,
CAUSING VEHICLE #2 TO OVERTURN ONE TIME EJECTING THE DRIVER. IN VEHICLE #1
THE DRIVER, PASSENGER #1, PASSENGER #3, AND PASSENGER #4 WERE PINNED FOR
APPROXIMATELY 3 HOURS BEFORE BEING EXTRICATED BY YALE FIRE DEPARTMENT USING
THE HURST TOOL. PASSENGER #2 WAS EJECTED.

SEATBELTS:  EQUIPPED: VEHICLE #1 IN USE BY DRIVER AND CHILD RESTRAINT IN
USE FOR PASSENGER #3 ONLY.
                 VEHICLE #2 NOT IN USE.
AIRBAG:         EQUIPPED: DEPLOYED IN BOTH VEHICLES
ROADWAY:   2 LANE ASPHALT, UNDIVIDED, DRY
WEATHER:     CLEAR
PINNED:          SEE NARRATIVE
EJECTED:        SEE NARRATIVE
COMMERCIAL DOT #:  N/A

CONDITION OF DRIVER:    APPARENTLY NORMAL
CAUSE OF COLLISION:     DRIVER INATTENTION

INVESTIGATED BY TROOPER ANTHONY HARPER #239 OF THE PAYNE COUNTY DETACHMENT,
ASSISTED BY TROOPER STEVE BURROWS #202 OF THE PAYNE COUNTY DETACHMENT,
TROOPER MATTHEW LEDBETTER #388 OF THE TROOP B DETACHMENT, PAYNE COUNTY
SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT, PAWNEE TRIBAL POLICE, YALE POLICE DEPARTMENT, YALE
FIRE AND RESCUE, CUSHING FIRE AND RESCUE, AND EAGLEMED.

"THIS REPORT IS BASED ON THE OFFICER'S INVESTIGATION OF THIS COLLISION.  IT
MAY CONTAIN THE OPINION OF THE OFFICER."

OHP TROOP K – PERRY           OPER:  KROEKER

Pawnee deputy who worked for Osage County and Hominy involved in fatal accident

An 58-year-old man from Choctaw died in a crash with a Pawnee County deputy – and former Osage County deputy and Hominy  police officer – who was responding to an emergency call this afternoon in Pawnee County, according to the Oklahome Highway Patrol.

Deputy Raymond Leach, 24, was heading south on OK 48 with siren and emergency lights when Carlton Burgin, 58, of Choctaw, was heading north and yielded to the patrol car, according to a report by Trooper Mark Sparks. Leach told troopers that he swerved to avoid hitting another car and hit Burgin's  2003 Toyota on the driver's side. 

Burgin died at the scene. 

Burgin's passengers, William Burgin, 82, of Tulsa, and Dana Burgin, 59, of Choctaw, were both critically injured and flown to St. John's Hospital in Tulsa with multiple injuries. 

After the impact with the Burgin car, Leach's Crown Victoria rorated and hit a third car, a Pontiac Aztek drive by Carroll Boze, 76, of Cleveland. Boze was not injured. 

The OHP does not identify the car that Leach was swerving to avoid. 

Leach was treated at Saint Francis hospital in Tulsa for head injuries and released. Leach worked until recently for the Hominy Police Department and before that for the Osage County Sheriff's Office.

All involved in the accident were wearing seat belts. 

Leach's condition and the cause of the accident remain under investigation, according to the OHP report. The OHP report does not reveal the nature of the call to which he was responding.

The accident occurred around 12:15 p.m. a half mile north of the pawnee/Creek County line and a mile south of Terlton.

 

'Robopocalypse' set in Oklahoma, includes Gray Horse

Oklahoma native and Cherokee tribe member Daniel H. Wilson features Gray Horse and the Osage Nation in his book Robopocalypse, slated to be a film with director Spielberg. Listen to what Wilson has to say about the book and native american nations.

 

Solicitor General: SCOTUS should deny Osages hearing on Rez case.

The Solicitor General of the United States has recommended that the U.S.Supreme Court refuse to hear the Osage Nation's case claiming it still has a reservation in Oklahoma.

"This Court's review is not warranted," the advisory opinion says, "Neither the legal framework applied by the Court of Appeals nor the result it reached conflicts with any decision of this Court...

The Solicitor goes on to say that the case is a poor vehicle to address issues of disestablishment, and that the lower courts, which have ruled against the Osage Nation, were correct.

The opinion is available by clicking on the link below.

Download 10-537-osage-nation-v-irby

 

Missing teens

Police are asking folks to be on the lookout for two missing teenagers from Cleveland, one of whom used to live in Barnsdall and Hominy. Missing are Tanner Renken, 14, son of Barnsdall's former basketball coach Scott Renken, amd Joanna Wolf,13, who lives near the Renkens and was Tanner's girlfriend. Anyone with information about the pair, who vanished in nightclothes, with no money or food early Monday morning, should call the Cleveland PD at 918-358-3112.