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Fancy dancers parade in at the 2008 Osage Sovereignty Day Celebration. Photo by Dawn Haney/Osage News

Sovereignty Day

By Shannon Shaw for Osage News

TULSA, Okla.—Native American men, women and children from all across Indian Country danced and sang in honor of the Osage Nation's second annual Sovereignty Day Celebration Tuesday at the tribe's Million Dollar Elm Casino Event Center.

The celebration was in honor of the second anniversary of the 2006 ratification of the Osage constitution that gave the tribe independence and a new form of government for the first time in more than 100 years.

"Every government indicator of success is off the charts [for the Osage Nation] . . . headright checks are up, unemployment's down, poverty's down," Osage Principal Chief Jim Gray said during his annual State of the Nation address at the celebration. "When a tribal government is flourishing, it is a rising tide that lifts all boats."

He delivered the 45-minute address to more than 1,000 people in attendance at the event center.

Gray spoke of the tribe's $210 million gross impact on the state of Oklahoma and the work of the tribe's Minerals Council and its Congress. He said unemployment is almost wiped out on the reservation and that a cultural renaissance was taking place with record numbers of tribal members learning the Osage language and participating in the tribe's dances. Osages attending in college are at an all-time high, and the tribe is providing more than $2 million in higher education scholarship money.

"The [tribe's seven] casinos will be debt free by the end of the year. Trust me, that is music to the ears of the people who want to do business with the Osage people," Gray said. "Whether it's economic, education, social or cultural, we are experiencing a renaissance unlike anything we've seen in the past 200 years. Yes, the Osage Nation is strong."

Also in development are new dance arbors and community buildings for the tribe's dances, and construction of senior housing in the Osage villages of Hominy and Grayhorse. The tribe is nearing completion of an expansion of the Indian Health Service clinic in Pawhuska. It will feature the first IHS in the country with a drive-through pharmacy.

The celebration started at 1:30 p.m. with gourd dance sessions and specials for the Osage head staff. A dinner break followed with Osage cooks serving frybread, meat gravy, dried corn, green beans and assorted desserts to the crowd. After dinner, dancers prepared for the 7 p.m. grand entry.

Brightly colored fancy dancers, shining jingle dresses, graceful buckskins and intricate ribbonwork were displayed by the dancers parading in. The event was broadcast live on the tribe's Web site and was displayed on two concert screens in the event center, causing some little dancers to bump into each other while giggling and watching themselves on screen.

The celebration included contests between dancers in adult categories, causing the crowd to erupt in applause or break out in raucous laughter when certain fancy dancers would strut their stuff.

Denny Medicinebird, Kiowa/Cheyenne, from Shawnee, Okla., said he enjoyed the celebration.

"This is really nice, and having it at a state of the art venue like this is really impressive," said Medicinebird, who won second place in the men's straight-dancing category. "I was really impressed with [the Osage chief] and the things he had to say about the tribe. I've had a good time, and I think this is a good event to have."

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Watch video of the Osage Nation Sovereignty Day Celebration or of Gray's State of the Nation address.

This story originally was published by Osage News and is used with permission.

Shannon Shaw, Osage, is a reznet assignment editor and the communications coordinator for the Osage Nation in Pawhuska, Okla. A former reporter at the Santa Fe New Mexican, Shaw is a graduate of the American Indian Journalism Institute and the University of Oklahoma.

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