(This paid promotional brought to you by Osage County Tourism)

FAIRFAX — Oklahoma State University’s Mixed Reality Lab is partnering with the Fairfax community and the members of the Osage Nation to digitally preserve several historic buildings that stand on Wahzhazhe land and carry generations of memory. Using advanced 3D scanning, photogrammetry, and mixed‑reality tools, OSU will create permanent digital records of the First National Bank, the Masonic Lodge, the Osage Bank, and the Tall Chief Theater.

For the Osage people, stewardship of land and community spaces is a responsibility passed down through families and through time. These buildings—some more than a century old — hold stories of commerce, gathering, creativity, and everyday life. Many are aging and at risk, making digital preservation an important act of cultural continuity.

“This project is rooted in respect for Osage values,” said Dr. Tilanka Chandrasekera, Director of the Mixed Reality Lab. “We understand that these structures are part of the relationship between people and place. By preserving them digitally, we’re helping protect the memory held in these buildings and supporting the community’s ability to carry that history forward.”

OSU Interior Design students, along with Woodland Public Schools students, will also document the storefronts along Fairfax’s Main Street, creating accurate building footprints and floor plans. These digital models will support future restoration efforts, community planning, and educational programming for both OSU students and Osage youth.

The project is being carried out in partnership with local leaders and with respect for Osage sovereignty. All digital files created will be available to the community and the Osage Nation for future use, including grant applications, cultural storytelling, and revitalization initiatives.

Scanning will begin later this fall, with student design work continuing throughout the academic year.

For more information, contact Kay Bills at 202-550-9801 or kay@friendsoffairfax.org

(This paid event promotional provided courtesy of Osage County Tourism)

Jones has been managing a difficult police department situation for about a month, since Police Chief Forrest Smith on July 30 surrendered to authorities in Canadian County in regard to a felony charge of “impersonating another in execution of instrument.” The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation conducted the investigation that led to the charge being filed.

Smith allegedly committed the offense in April of 2024, while he was police chief in Okarche. He is accused of improperly using another officer’s signature and notary stamp.

Smith was not accused of any wrongdoing in Pawhuska.

Jones said the Pawhuska Police Department has not been without police officer services during the last month.

“We’ve had local officers the whole time,” Jones said. She said the Osage County Sheriff’s Office and the Osage Nation Police Department have been available to provide backup if needed.

“We’ve been taking care of ourselves,” Jones said. The city had three full-time police officers and two part-time officers as of Monday, she said.

Sheriff Bart Perrier said Monday morning that his office was not having to cover police calls for Pawhuska.

“We’re not having to do anything more than normal right now,” he said. During the past month, Perrier has said several times that the Pawhuska P.D. was handling its own calls.

According to an online court record, Smith was scheduled for an initial appearance Wednesday, Aug. 26 in Canadian County District Court. As of Aug. 31, the court record had not been updated to reflect any activity during the arraignment.

The court record showed Smith was being represented by an Oklahoma City lawyer named R. Scott Adams.

Neither Smith nor Adams returned phone calls seeking comment.

Superintendent Chris Tanner said the latest enrollment total for PPS was 657, as opposed to 685 in 2025.

“It is significant,” Tanner said, explaining that 30 students translate in school revenue terms as roughly $200,000. Tanner said PPS received only about 10 additional students for the 2026-27 academic year as a result of the Osage Nation closing Daposka Ahnkodapi, which was its private, state-accredited Osage Language immersion school serving pupils through the eighth grade.

Tanner said the Pawhuska district’s enrollment had previously dropped from about 730 in the recent past. Asked about reasons for the decline, he cited more than one factor. He mentioned declining birth rates and a lack of starter homes for families.

Tanner also said that additional measures the Osage Nation might take to promote Osage language instruction in the public schools would likely not be implemented until Pawhuska’s 2027-28 school year, as planning and other preparation would be necessary.

Pawhuska Public Schools already has Osage language classes at the high school, Tanner said. PPS is the public school district for the county seat of Osage County, Oklahoma. The county was historically the Osage reservation, which the Osage purchased from the Cherokee. The state takes the view that the reservation no longer exists. The Osage take the view that the reservation was never legally dissolved.

Peg and I have planned a sojourn to the Grand Canyon for our anniversary. Actually, Peg asked me what I wanted to do, then she contacted the Park and got us a room for three days with a dinner reservation for August 25^th, our anniversary.

Once she had secured both room and board for us, she developed a scenic and meandering route to guide us; she included two motel reservations on the way out. As we may wend our way to Monument Valley and, as yet to be determined adventures on the way home, she will secure those accommodations before we leave the Canyon.

You might ask what I helped do in the preparations. Well, I did not demur to anything Peg proposed. And, I have already procured a bottle of Amarone for our anniversary evening. It makes me proud that I contributed. In fact, Peg’s meticulous matriculation to our anniversary Odyssey caused me to reflect on some of my other ideas that would have been but peccadilloes without Peg’s inspiration. As they are myriad and varied, I will mention just a few.

I went to Volgograd, Russia to teach Russian judges about the American jury system. Volgograd was called Stalingrad during WWII. In a six-month’s winter battle one and a half million Russians and six-hundred thousand German soldiers died there. It is recognized as the bloodiest ground battle ever. Also, it is known for the movie made about it, Enemy at the Gates, and the Russian sniper, Vasily Zaitsev, who personally killed 225 German soldiers. Of course, it was Peg who made all of our travel arrangements and who prepared the PowerPoint for my week of lectures. It was also Peg with whom all the male Russian judges wanted to dance as she knows how to Rock and Roll and the Russians love American music.

Then we were contracted by the U.S.A.I.D., the American Bar Association, the East-West Management Institute and the National Judicial College, where I have long served on the faculty, to spend six months in the country of Georgia working with Georgian judges. Georgia borders Russia and is directly across the Black Sea from Ukraine. Once again, Peg made all the arrangements and did all the paperwork for my twenty-four presentations. We had to socialize and teach through translators. Peg was able to easily ingratiate both of us into the legal community while giving me the professional credit. And, we were greatly aided in this by our wonderful Georgian friends, Irina and Eka.

Peg reminds me of that nostalgic 1968 song by Tom Jones, My Elusive Dreams. Basically, the lyrics are you followed me in all my dreams and never left me to move on alone. There is so much more that I find myself grateful to Peg for at this anniversary. Suffice it to say, without you all those and many other adventures would not even be memories. And one more extremely important and thoughtful thing Peg has done for me was she figured out how to use her I-Pad to get the 2023 Super Bowl live at 5:00 a.m. Georgian time. We did not miss a moment of the Kansas City Chiefs defeating the Philadelphia Eagles. While Peg used her native ingenuity to defeat all efforts to have us miss the game, I did my part too; someone had to make the morning coffee.

By the way Peg, as she has done for many years, typed this column, emailed it to the news media, put it on my website and posted it to Facebook, too. I think it’s only fair to point out that I did come up with the original title and remembered our anniversary. Well, Peg may have gently mentioned it first. Thank you, Peg, and Happy Anniversary!

Part 2: While we Can

I had my funeral August 16, 2014. I loved it! I recommend you also consider having yours while you and your family and friends can laugh instead of cry. My parents had already passed before 2014 and I attended each of their funerals; they were sad. More importantly, the things I regretted not asking them or not saying to them were no longer possible. Another reason to hold your own wake is you can invite whom you want and see who really cares.

At my “Fun-er-al” we played and sang songs and marched a “second line” around our barn while singing, “When the Saints Go Marching In”. We shared not only good memories but speculated on the new adventures we would have. I cannot, for fear of missing someone, name all the wonderful dear people who helped plan and join in the celebration. But I still remember each one who made the effort to re-live my and their pasts together. And, I had no concerns that my transgressions might be mentioned; after all, I was right there! Unlike Mark Antony said of Julius Caesar in Act 3, Scene 2 of Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, only my good lived on.

I believe my wish to attend my own funeral had its genesis in my twelve-year-old boy’s reading of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. You recall that Tom, ever the mischievous imp, watched his Aunt Polly and the community of the small town of St. Petersburg on the Mississippi River mourn Tom’s supposed drowning. Tom and his friends Joe Harper and Huck Finn listened to people praise them just before the boys marched down the church aisle in glory. It was grand.

Then there was the splendid 1998 Irish movie Waking Ned Devine. Ned had just won the Irish lottery but the shock of winning caused a deadly heart attack. In the plot, the law was to claim the prize, 6.9 million pounds, one had to be alive. Ned’s friends in his tiny village had his friend, Michael O’Sullivan, pretend to be Ned. To help with the ruse, the town held a funeral for Michael posing as Ned at which Michael’s best friend, Jackie O’Shea, gave a eulogy and said wonderful things about Michael. He got to attend his own passing albeit under the pseudonym Ned Devine.

One of my favorite folk singers was Phil Ochs who died in 1976 at age 35. He must have had many thoughts about how to save the world, but one of my favorite Phil Ochs songs is “When I’m Gone”. Part of the lyrics are:

“There’s no place in this world

Where I’ll belong when I’m gone

And you won’t find me singing

On this song when I’m gone

Won’t see the golden of the sun

When I’m gone

And the evenings and the mornings

Will be one when I’m gone

Can’t be singing louder than the

Guns when I’m gone

So I guess I’ll have to do it

While I’m here.”

In other words, words are not worth much if we do not say them to the living person. Therefore, say it now while we can and while we and those we care about can know how we truly feel.

This lesson was reinforced for me in an article by Angela Haupt in the August 5, 2026 Time online magazine. The general theme was about what we can and should or should not say to someone who is dying. “There is no perfect script and your presence likely matters more than anything you manage to say”. Haupt quotes Ira Byock, a palliative care physician, on the issue of whether to go see a dying friend. His question is, “Would you go to the funeral?” If the answer is yes, then say the things you want to say to your family and friends now while they can actually hear it.

Funerals are helpful for some of the survivors but they mean nothing to the deceased unless it is someone like Queen Elizabeth, who pre-plans all the pomp and circumstance. For most of us, if we do not have frequent physical contact with those we care about and if those people do not make the effort to tell us now and then how they feel about us, it does us no good for them to show up at our funeral and say nice things to our casket. Unless you have your funeral while you are still alive and can enjoy it, what’s the point? I still cherish every moment of mine from 12 years ago.

Buck’s story with his beloved wife, Barbara, began while he was serving in the Army. They met on a blind date, which they both attended under protest. When Buck eventually returned to Louisiana, the two began a long-distance relationship. He liked to tell that on one of their phone calls, Buck asked Barbara, “Will you marry me?” She answered, “Yes! Who is this?” It was a story that never failed to get a laugh, and one that captured something of the humor that remained part of their marriage throughout their life together.

Buck was born in Garden Grove, California. His grandparents had moved there from Mississippi in search of employment, and his mother wanted to be with her own mother when he was born. He dearly loved his family, especially his grandmother, and often spoke fondly of those early years. He served in the United States Army in Maryland and Japan in several capacities, but his favorite was as a photographer, a hobby he would enjoy throughout his life. He later earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Southwestern Louisiana Institute. He became a registered Professional Engineer and later, a Professional Land Surveyor and achieved certification from Mississippi State University in Radioactive Fallout Shelter Design and Earthquake Protection, credentials he carried with quiet pride throughout his career.

Together, Buck and Barbara built far more than a home. They built a family. Their first two children were born while they lived in Vicksburg, where Buck worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. A few years later, a business trip to Columbus Air Force Base unexpectedly changed the course of their lives. Buck attended a seminar there, left with a job offer, and moved his young family to Columbus. Their third child, his favorite, was born soon afterward. Although the job was in Columbus, Buck and Barbara chose to make their home in West Point, a community they loved and where they would spend the rest of their lives.

Providing for his family was never simply a responsibility to Buck. It was one of the great purposes of his life. Every promotion, every late night, every weekend surveying job, every project he tackled, and every improvement he dreamed up was ultimately for Barbara and the children they were raising together.

His children learned very early that Saturday mornings were not for sleeping in. Long before sunrise, Buck would wake them, load surveying equipment into the truck, and head into the woods. His son especially remembers trudging through the timber carrying surveying instruments while his father patiently taught him the work. At the time, those mornings may have felt more like labor than life lessons, but in hindsight they became some of the greatest gifts a father could give. Buck believed that character was built through responsibility, perseverance, and doing a job well. He never expected his children to do anything he wasn’t willing to do himself.

That work ethic defined Buck’s professional career. After beginning with the Corps of Engineers, he spent more than 33 years in federal service, including 25 years with the Civil Engineering organization at Columbus Air Force Base. Those years placed him in the middle of one of the most consequential periods in American history. Columbus Air Force Base was then home to Strategic Air Command’s B-52 bombers and KC-135 aerial refueling aircraft. During the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, Buck was working there as the nation stood one step away from nuclear war. Strategic Air Command moved to DEFCON 2, the highest state of readiness it has ever reached, and personnel worked around the clock to support the mission. His children remember him leaving early and staying many late nights, almost working around the clock during this heightened tension with Russia.

Buck rarely talked about his work in grand terms, but the awards he left behind tell part of the story. He received Commander’s Certificates of Merit in both 1961 and 1962, recognizing service of unusual value to the Air Force and describing him as an employee of superior ability. He later received recognition for his outstanding contribution and service to the mission of Strategic Air Command. One of his improvements in the management of Air Force real property maintenance and operations resulted in a documented savings of more than $214,000, approximately $1,000,000 in current value.

He continued his professional education throughout his career, including advanced engineering studies through the Air Force Institute of Technology. Among the certificates still hanging on his wall is one from the Department of Defense showing that he completed training in Fallout Shelter Analysis in 1967. Anyone who knew Buck’s tendency to build things to last might consider that particular qualification an explanation for quite a few things.

He designed and built his family’s home largely of concrete and steel. It was a house constructed by a man who apparently believed that building codes were merely a promising place to begin. The house could serve as a tornado shelter and, knowing Buck, probably would have given a nuclear blast a respectable argument.

He developed his own asphalt formula that was later sold to a major asphalt company. He and his family revitalized the historic Ritz Theatre in the early 70s, giving his family several more years of projects to tackle together. Buck simply wasn’t wired to sit still.

As remarkable as his engineering career and other pursuits were, it was only preparation for what he would later consider the most important work of his life. Retirement certainly did not mean slowing down.

After retiring, Buck’s relationship with Jesus Christ became the defining focus of his life. He approached Scripture with the same discipline he had once devoted to engineering. He studied the Bible tirelessly, learned Hebrew so he could better understand the original text, and immersed himself in God’s Word with a student’s curiosity and a servant’s heart.

That passion naturally became ministry.

Buck was ordained into the Gospel ministry and founded Zoe Prison Ministry. He faithfully ministered in local jails, at Parchman Penitentiary, and even on death row. His mission work eventually carried him to Russia and the Philippines, where he developed lifelong friendships while sharing the Gospel with hundreds of people.

Even as age began to limit his strength, it never diminished his calling. He continued ministering at the Clay County Jail long after climbing the stairs had become difficult. The sheriff and his staff lovingly helped him carry his Bibles, assisted him up the stairs, and encouraged him to continue the ministry he loved so deeply. Buck often spoke of the respect and gratitude he felt for each of them.

When God placed that jail ministry on Buck Buchanan’s heart, He knew exactly what He was doing.

As the years passed, Buck became less concerned about himself and more concerned about what would happen after he was gone. True to his nature, he made a plan. He gathered and mentored a group of faithful men who shared his burden for prison ministry, investing in them so that the work would continue long after he no longer could.

That decision may say more about Buck than anything else.

Throughout his life, he was a builder. He built roads and facilities. He built a home where his family would gather for decades. He built a career marked by integrity and excellence. He built character in his children by teaching them that worthwhile things require hard work. And in the final chapter of his life, he devoted himself to building God’s Kingdom.

The Apostle Paul wrote near the end of his life, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”

Buck did exactly that.

His legacy is found not only in the awards that hang on a wall or the buildings and projects he helped create, but in the lives of his children and grandchildren who watched him faithfully love their mother, quietly serve his country, work tirelessly with his hands, and ultimately give his heart completely to Christ. It lives on in the inmates who heard the Gospel because he cared enough to go, the missionaries and pastors he encouraged around the world, and the faithful men who now carry forward the ministry he began.

For a man who spent his life building things to last, there could be no more fitting legacy than that.

He is survived by his children, Burnette Avakian, Mark G. Buchanan (Donna), Robin Portera (Frank), his grandchildren, Grace Alexander (Josh), CK Foster (Ashley), Elizabeth Skrobialowski (Adam), Lydia Gliniak (Brian), Ragan Foster, Tad Merchant (Emily), and a host of grandchildren and great grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his father, John R. Buchanan, his mother, Elizabeth J. Buchanan, his wife, Barbara Brown Buchanan, his brother, Bob Buchanan, and son-in-law, Nono Avakian.

A memorial service will held at 2 PM Monday August 17, 2026 at First Presbyterian Church with Rev. Brandon Bates officiating. Visitation with family and friends will be 1-2 PM Monday at the church.

Honorary pallbearers are Sheriff Eddie Scott and the officers and staff of the Clay County Sheriff’s Department, and the Clay County Jail ministry team that worked with him so diligently.

A special thank you goes to Suzanne Bell and Mike Smith, who cared for our dad with such kindness and compassion, and whose companionship meant so much to him and to us, his family.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be made to the West Point Clay County Animal Shelter5122 Old Tibbee Rd West Point, MS 39773, a charity near and dear to Buck’s heart, where he rescued many animals over the years. Fittingly, his last rescue, Zack Buchanan, remained faithfully by his side until his death.

Osage County Election Board Secretary Kelly Chouteau, said early voting is open to all voters.

“You do not need to provide an excuse to vote early. Oklahoma allows early voting for all elections conducted by the County Election Board — from school board and municipal elections to state and federal elections. This is a great option for those who will be out of town on Election Day or who want to avoid long lines,” Chouteau said.

Early voting is available Thursday, August 20 and Friday, August 21 from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Saturday, August 22 from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Osage County Election Board located at 630 Kihekah Ave, Pawhuska.

Early Voting at the Remote site is also available Thursday, August 20 and Friday, August 21 from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Saturday, August 22 from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. located at the First Baptist Church of Skiatook, 825 W. Rogers Blvd, Skiatook. Chouteau reminds voters that early voting is not available at regular Election Day polling locations.

For questions, please contact the Election Board at (918) 287-3036 or OsageCounty@elections.ok.gov.

SAMPLE BALLOTS AVAILABLE FOR AUGUST 25, 2026, ELECTIONS

Sample ballots are now available for the August 25, Runoff Primary, Bartlesville I03074 SD Special, City of Bartlesville Municipal Special, City of Hominy Municipal Special and the City of Tulsa Municipal Special Elections. Voters can download a sample ballot using the State Election Board’s OK Voter Portal at oklahoma.gov/elections/ovp or pick up a copy at the Osage County Election Board during normal business hours.

Kelly Chouteau, County Election Board Secretary, reminds voters that sample ballots are specific to each person.

“If the OK Voter Portal indicates that you have no sample ballots available, it means you are not eligible to vote in an upcoming election. We recommend checking the OK Voter Portal to make sure you have an election before heading to the polls,” she said.

Chouteau said sample ballots will also be posted outside every precinct polling place on Election Day, so voters can review them before casting their votes.

The Osage County Election Board is located at 630 Kihekah Ave, Pawhuska, and is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. For questions, please contact the Election Board at (918) 287-3036 or OsageCounty@elections.ok.gov.

POLLING PLACE CHANGE FOR THE AUGUST 25, 2026, ELECTION

The polling place for Precincts 570310 and 570311 has temporarily changed, the Secretary of the Osage County Election Board announced.

Voters in Precincts 570310 and 570311 formerly voted at Gilcrease Hills Clubhouse, 1919 W. Seminole St, in Tulsa, OK.

Effective immediately, the temporary polling place will be Gilcrease Hills Baptist Church, 2001 W Newton St, Tulsa, OK. The election held at the new location will be for the Primary Election scheduled for August 25, 2026.

The polling location was moved due to storm damage to the Gilcrease Hills Clubhouse.

Voters who have questions or concerns, should contact the Osage County Election Board at (918) 287-3036 or osagecounty@elections.ok.gov. The County Election Board is located at 630 Kihekah Ave, Pawhuska. Office hours are 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.

In attacking Justice Gorsuch’s statement, the columnist claimed that “anyone with an elementary school understanding of American history should know” that Gorsuch was wrong. In support of this accusation, the columnist cited several Founding Era U.S. political figures -- John Quincy Adams, who was the sixth president; John Adams, who was the second president; James McHenry, who was a signer of the Constitution from Maryland and later the Secretary of War; and John Jay, who was Secretary of Foreign Affairs during the Articles of Confederation period and later became the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Conveniently for his purposes, the columnist did not quote the two most important American founders where the question of the role of religion was concerned -- Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Those two set the terms of what has been the prevailing understanding for more than two centuries of the limitation of the role of religion in American government. They initially did this through the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1786), which Jefferson authored in 1777 and Madison got passed by the Virginia General Assembly despite opposition.

The religious liberty that Jefferson and Madison worked to protect was freedom of conscience — the liberty to espouse a minority religious point of view without being harassed or forced to pay taxes to the state to support a socially dominant religion with which they did not agree.

George Washington, the first president, said of freedom of conscience that “establishment of civil and religious liberty was the motive which induced me to the field” of battle. So, what Jefferson and Madison and Washington labored to create was not a Christian polity, or even a nation that preferred Christianity to other faiths and merely tolerated dissenters. That is what Muslims had done hundreds of years before in medieval Spain through a thing called the dhimmi system — tolerated Christians and Jews but taxed them and enforced social subordination on them.

What Jefferson and Madison and Washington wanted was the establishment of a national political order that promoted human liberty of religious choice, not adherence to a particular faith. And as a creedal nation, the particular creed we profess as Americans to cherish is that of freedom, equality, justice and humanity. There have always been, and there are today, many people of Christian faith in the United States, but our national Constitution makes no references to a preferred religious faith or to religious requirements for persons wishing to seek election to public office.

There are no committees regarding religion or religious doctrine in our national Congress or our state legislatures. Houses of worship are not subject to taxation, and likewise there is nothing in our system of laws that mandates the payment of taxes to support religion.

There are, however, people in our midst now who would like to be able to take public money and use it to pay for religious instruction for children. They have been arguing that this would be a way of giving parents more choices regarding the education of their children. That sounds noble enough on its face, but it is not noble when the taxpayer funds are taken without the consent of everyone who would effectively be paying.

If you are Methodist and I am Muslim and you take taxpayer money that I helped to put in the government’s bank accounts and use that money without my consent to instruct children in Methodist doctrine, you are a thief.

And that, friends, is what any opinion columnist who desires to call the United States a Christian nation is up to. He or she is trying to lay the predicate for taking money out of the public treasury to support religion. It’s the sort of thing you might do if you didn’t mind causing civil unrest.

My position is that such an appropriation of funds is stealing, that it is a grave offense against freedom of conscience and that attacking any political candidate during the run-up to an election for not letting extremist Christians rob the public treasury amounts to a kind of electoral manipulation.

So, when you make decisions about voting in the party runoff primaries on Aug. 25, you might want to filter out any noise from extremist religious people about whether Gentner Drummond is a bad man because he doesn’t favor giving taxpayer funds to religious schools. All he is doing is carrying forward more than 200 years of American tradition.

This column is about 860 words long and I could easily make it 400 words longer. I have some good quotes from James Madison and other American founders that I haven’t used yet. But you get my point. I am not saying you have to like Drummond, but don’t let power-hungry religious extremists play you.

It appears, however, that I was seriously mistaken about Chief Tillman.

It has been 29 days since he was inaugurated and he described the job of principal chief as his “dream job,” and he has already inflicted wounds and ignited controversies likely to result in long-term bitterness. He has done this while apparently saying very little if anything official to affected parties in person since Tuesday afternoon. He has either merely issued written statements or refused to communicate at all at multiple moments.

I think this behavior should be interpreted as intentional. You have to remember that by his own account, Tillman’s studies as a young man attending Oklahoma State University emphasized organized communication. He appears not to be accidental in the way that he expresses himself.

So, when he made the excuse last week that he could not speak with parents concerned about his announcement that he would close the Osage Nation’s Osage-language immersion school, he knew perfectly well that he was insulting them. And he and/or his staff knew, when they more than once did not make time last week for Tillman to answer questions from reporters, that he was denying the Osage public that elected him insight into his decisions.

These behaviors and others lead me to conclude that Joe Tillman is not the considerate servant-leader I took him to be. Rather, I think he is showing himself to be a revolutionary who was hiding in plain sight.

I am not the first person to conclude something is amiss. In a Letter to the Editor of Osage News, published online Friday, Aug. 7, an Osage citizen named Charles Mongrain, from Kansas, said, “Chief Tillman used deception and fraud to gain office. He clearly stated the actions he HAS taken he WOULD NOT take if elected.”

Not having followed the election campaign closely, I wondered if there was any actual evidence of Tillman saying one thing and doing the opposite. So, I checked the website of Osage News (a publication which everyone really should be reading) and there it was.

In a news story about a March 2026 campaign dinner in Grayhorse attended by more than 200 people, there is an account of Tillman dismissing as “fake news” warnings that Osage citizens had heard that he would fire a lot of employees and that he would close the Osage Nation’s private educational institutions.

“That’s so far from the truth,” Tillman said regarding the possibility of closing the tribal schools. “Why would you want to shut that down? We want to make it better and we want to move forward.”

So, what has Tillman done? He disseminated on the afternoon of Tuesday, Aug. 4 an executive order in which he ordered a State of Emergency due to shortfalls in projected revenue and “constraints in the budgetary outlay.” There had previously been an estimate that the Osage Nation would likely receive nearly $91 million in revenues for the 2027 fiscal year and $60 million had so far been appropriated to the Executive Branch by the Osage Congress. Executive Branch departments had submitted $98 million in budget requests, which Tillman had said prior to issuing his emergency order were unaffordable.

The morning after issuing the State of Emergency order, on Aug. 5, Tillman abruptly and without warning shut down Daposka Ahnkodapi, the Nation’s accredited and highly regarded private school, and refused to meet with unhappy parents, citing meetings. Within another hour, Tillman had announced the planned closures of the Osage Nation’s visitor center and the tribe’s farming operation called Harvest Land.

All of the closures meant lost jobs and denied services. The announcements contradicted what he said publicly at Grayhorse and appeared to make a liar out of him.

The Osage Nation Congressional Appropriations Committee on Aug. 6 gathered financial information and some members of Congress took issue with Tillman’s emergency order.

Congressman Billy Keene said there is nothing in Osage law that defines a “State of Emergency” and Congressman Eli Potts agreed, adding, “It’s made up.”

The next afternoon, all 12 members of the Osage Congress, with no one dissenting, issued a statement that began as follows, ‘The Osage Nation Congress assures the Osage Nation and the Osage People the government is not in a state of emergency. The Osage government is not financially stressed.”

A little over an hour later, Tillman answered with a news release that said the previous budgetary outlay of $60 million was “the driver for declaring a State of Emergency.” Tillman asked for an updated budget outlay with more appropriated revenue. He also pledged to use funds generated by the program closures “to go towards investing in programs that expand opportunities for language learning and cultural connection for as many Osage children as possible.”

Tillman served in the Congress for a decade, including as Speaker, so I find it questionable whether he honestly could have thought a preliminary revenue appropriation should be “the driver” for an announcement of a fiscal crisis. What I think is more likely is he was looking for a reason to start a panic.

Tillman came across in his Aug. 7 news release as tone-deaf, I think, to just how duplicitous, destructive and downright stupid his little revolution was making him look.

The Osage Nation Congress has faithfully represented the interests of the Osage people in the midst of an unnecessary political storm, but it is essential that the Congress should continue to take a strong stand, and even to change the momentum of the conflict by carrying the fight to the Tillman administration.

I think a good step would be to initiate a Special Counsel investigation to see if Tillman committed an act of Arrogation of Power when he declared a State of Emergency. If it does not exist in Osage law and he made it up to gain political leverage, that might be an offense for which he could and should be removed. The Osage Nation Executive Branch is already powerful. It should not be encouraged to arrogate even more authority to itself.

And while we’re thinking about a Special Counsel investigation, there is the very important matter of the legal outrage committed against former Osage Nation Treasurer Clark Batson.

The week after his July 11 inauguration, Chief Tillman appointed an interim attorney general named RhyLee Wynn, who promptly treated Mr. Batson like a common criminal for his possession of a Peyote plant. Tillman issued a statement, distancing his office from the Attorney General’s office and professing respect for freedom of religion and the Osage Constitution. The charges that the Interim Attorney General had filed against Mr. Batson were dismissed with prejudice, meaning they cannot be refiled.

A special counsel could find facts and make a determination about what Chief Tillman knew regarding the Batson case and when he knew it. Mr. Batson and Osage citizens in general deserve an explanation and for someone to take responsibility for that blunder.

Finally, with regard to Chief Tillman and executive authority, does anyone remember what happened the last time he was the executive party in charge of a beloved community institution? He was the head coach of the Pawhuska Huskies high school football team, right? And how did that work out? Well, the team went 0-10 for the 2017 season and the community had to pick up the pieces. In 2018, with numerous of the same young men on the roster, the Huskies won six games and made the playoffs.

So, how far do you figure Chief Tillman’s current revolution should be allowed to go before someone asks formally for a special counsel?

The Pawhuska City Manager has avoided answering even basic questions about the police chief being criminally charged or about the operations of the city Police Department in the aftermath of that event.

City Manager Carol Jones said Monday morning that she was working on a statement. By Tuesday afternoon she had not provided a statement and said she did not want to talk about the Police Department situation. It Happened in the Osage acknowledged that perhaps she might feel uncomfortable commenting about Chief Smith, but tried to ask her about Police Department staffing and operations under the circumstances.

Jones said she would provide something in writing.

As of this publication, she had not done so.

The Canadian County District Attorney’s Office on July 29 filed a single felony count of “Impersonating another in execution of instrument” against Smith. An arrest warrant was issued with bond set at $5,000. The charge was based on investigative work by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) and pertained to an action Smith allegedly took while he was police chief in the city of Okarche.

The charge had nothing to do with his conduct as police chief in Pawhuska.

On July 30, Smith made bond in Canadian County.

Tulsa Channel 6 reported that Smith allegedly, “Improperly used another officer’s signature and notary stamp.” The investigation of him reportedly focused on an April 2024 audit that a private firm did for the City of Okarche and Smith was signing an affidavit stating that the audit process had been complied with.

In other words, Smith is not accused of doing anything improper involving criminal suspects, the conduct of Police Department investigations or business of any kind before a court. He was police chief in Okarche between 2018 and 2024.

Channel 6 also reported that Smith allegedly committed the offense on April 19, 2024 and it was February 14, 2025 when the Canadian County District Attorney’s Office asked OSBI to look into allegations of fraud against Smith.

More than 17 months later, OSBI’s work yielded the single accusation of a false signature but apparently nothing else considered worthy of prosecution.

Smith became a police supervisor in Pawhuska in August of 2024 and later was named chief.

Sources with knowledge of the Pawhuska Police Department have shared with It Happened in the Osage that Smith is on administrative leave, that the assistant chief resigned and perhaps as few as three police officers remain on the force.

It Happened in the Osage has also been told that the act Smith is accused of taking is not that uncommon in small Oklahoma jurisdictions in situations where a notarized signature is required and the person who would normally provide it is unavailable for some reason.

Osage County Sheriff Bart Perrier said he is keeping tabs on the situation, and it helps that the county handles dispatching for the City of Pawhuska.

“We have been in conversation with the City,” Perrier said. “The citizens should not be fearful of no law. There is going to be coverage.”

It Happened in the Osage left messages for Smith on his cell phone to express interest in his perspective, but he had not responded

.

“I’m off, as far as I know,” Milleson said in a telephone conversation. He explained that City Attorney Stephanie Clifton recently notified him and also talked with him about a possible basis for retaining him on the Council. Milleson has missed at least some meetings in order to take his wife, Karen, to doctor appointments.

Milleson said there is nothing in the Charter about excuses for councilors missing meetings and he is not interested in making excuses.

“I’m not going down that highway,” he said. “When you’re late, you’re late.”

It Happened in the Osage left a phone message for Clifton but has not yet spoken with her.

Milleson added that he told someone he might attend the Council’s next meeting, on Aug. 11, but he would sit in the audience rather than at the Council table.

“I’m not gonna go in there crying,” he said.

The three-year term that Milleson has been serving ends on the first Monday next May.

J’accuse!

Gentle Readers, you may recall that Peg and I recently went to see the film, The Odyssey. As always, we still have much to learn from the wisdom of those marvelous Greeks from about 2,500 years ago:

(1) The United States should not go to war for another country’s reasons - Helen may have run off with the Trojan, Paris, but Sparta was not attacked by Troy so the Greeks spent 10 years punishing an innocent civilization at great cost to both nations. Think of Israel’s desire to have the United States destroy Iran in the modern day; and

(2) Never trust a Trojan Horse from a nation whose motivation is to advance its own desires using your own nation’s resources. Or, when it is our nation’s future at stake due to Israel’s manipulation of our Congress through the National Defense Authorization Act, which is the danger America is facing right now.

Israel called upon its allies in our Congress to introduce Section 219 in the House and Section 1217 in the Senate as part of the massive 900-page Fiscal Year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act that calls for over one trillion dollars of U.S. taxpayer money to be spent on our military. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated publicly in a June 1, 2026 letter that Sections 219 and 1217 originated as “his plan”. He represents Israel. He has a right to advance Israel’s interests, even if his efforts harm America’s interests. However, Sections 219 and 1217 are a Trojan Horse scheme that provides the Secretary of War would designate an Executive Agent to oversee the United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative to coordinate bilateral defense, research, development, testing, evaluation and industrial cooperation only between the U.S. and Israel. Because Israel is not subject to the laws of the United States, there are no reciprocal obligations on Israel to divulge its national defense plans to America.

It is not the devious actions of Netanyahu in regard to Sections 219 and 1217 that should concern us. As former Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene stated, in essence: J’accuse!

She publicly accused each of the elected officials who support 219 and 1217 of Treason! Any member of Congress who supports 219 or 1217 will have betrayed America, committed treason and sold out the American people to a foreign country.

Section 219 has already passed in the House and Section 1217 will now be addressed by the Senate.

As many others have warned, a majority of the United States House of Representatives have already committed Treason against their country and their constituents who pay their salaries and expenses. Americans must shout once again, J’accuse, and stop it now. The traitors’ Founding Father was Benedict Arnold, their patron saint is Benjamin Netanyahu, and their thirty pieces of silver came from AIPAC. The serpent in the U.S. Garden of Eden is the Israeli attempt to slither its way deep into America’s most vital secrets; much as it did when it spied on the United States nuclear bomb program. Only United States citizen awareness and action can prevent Sections 219/1217 from allowing America’s democracy to be drawn into the political whirlpool of destruction. Of course, if the Bill reaches President Trump’s desk, he can perform the courageous and correct action of vetoing it. Or it might fail to pass in the Senate. Heroes can always do the harder right even when it is unexpected. Odysseus did repent of his deceptions and return to Greece a better person.

Treason is as bad as it gets. America’s citizens elect Representatives and Senators and pay them extremely well to protect America’s interests, not Israel’s or any other country’s. Gentle Reader, you will recall how the former colonial patriot and general, Benedict Arnold, betrayed his oath and his country by attempting to sell the plans for the fortress of West Point, the gateway to the Hudson River, to the British. His treason was the epitome of how a Trojan Horse strategy works. Sections 219 and 1217 are our modern-day Trojan Horse that forfeits our nation’s sovereignty to Israel. Congress must not give away what so many patriots have died trying to preserve.

It is ironic that we have mobilized a Herculean effort to guard our borders against illegal immigrants while many of our elected representatives sell their souls to allow Israel to infiltrate our military. Sections 219/1217 are a cancer that will grow into a loss of our sovereignty if they are enacted. Our Representatives and Senators must not enact Sections 219/1217 or any other treasonous plan to destroy our independence. If our Congress is duped or bought into approving this voluntary destruction of our sovereignty, it is not Israel that is to blame. We will have sown the seeds to our own demise.

Her start date coincides with the next regular meeting of the Pawhuska City Council, and Walker said she intends to make an appearance before the Council. Walker succeeds Mike McCartney in the Chamber executive post at a time when city government is seeking to establish a new agreement governing its relationship with the Chamber.

Walker said she had made a copy of the proposed agreement to review along with Chamber President Stephanie Swan. The Chamber, which is a private organization that depends heavily on volunteers, nonetheless receives an annual budget appropriation from the Council to support its efforts to organize and manage major community events, and to play a role in economic development.

Walker said she wants to maximize Chamber membership and encourage volunteer participation, including service on committees.

“I would love to see things be family friendly, as well,” she said, explaining that, as a mother of two, her perspective is shaped by being a parent. “Tourism people are looking for things to do with their kids.”

Walker said she thinks of herself as “a listening ear” and is interested in ideas for the next few months, as well as the next year to five years.

“I didn’t come with a huge agenda, as far as things I wanted to do,” she said.

Walker studied Agricultural Communications and Animal Science at Oklahoma State University. She is particularly interested in using social media to promote community and business activities. During a period of several months prior to accepting the Chamber of Commerce leadership position, she enjoyed doing social media and marketing work for the Chamber.

Pawhuska residents who know Walker may have encountered her through her photography business, or through her work as the yearbook teacher at Pawhuska High School, or they may have connected with her through promotional work she did for the annual Cavalcade Rodeo. One way or another, Walker represents a younger generation of Pawhuskans taking responsibility for the future of the city of a little over 2,900 people. The 2020 Census figure was 2,984 people, and the most recent figure is 2,914, reflecting a slow, steady decline.

The community has too little good housing stock to accommodate a lot of new residents and its commercial lodging for travelers is limited. Those conditions create a drag for economic development.

“Social media has been kind of my thing. I enjoy the analytics of it,” Walker said. “I just enjoy making good content.”

Beyond the world of digital content and connections, Walker indicated a desire to hold out a warm actual hand of friendship through the Chamber to owners and managers of small businesses in Pawhuska.

“I really, really want to be able to go into every single business, member or non-member, and visit with them,” Walker said.

As Walker prepares for her new role, the U.S. tourism economy faces serious headwinds due to adverse reactions internationally to the current presidential administration, due to changing visa requirements and due to high fuel prices driven up by the war with Iran.

In the midst of that messaging maelstrom, it will be Walker’s task to help Pawhuska extend a welcoming message to the rest of the nation and the wider world.

One of the most important studies for Senate District 10 will focus on the ongoing water problems in Osage County Rural Water District No. 21. Residents have dealt with brown water, service outages and extended boil orders for too long. My goal is to bring all the stakeholders to the table to determine what went wrong and, most importantly, what it will take to fix the local water infrastructure. I also want to identify long-term solutions that can be applied elsewhere so other communities don’t face these same water challenges.

I also plan to follow up on legislation I worked on this past session by studying consumer protections for online ticket sales. I want to hear more about what other states are doing to combat online ticket fraud and prevent bots from buying up all the tickets to events. I hope this study will help my legislative colleagues better understand why legislation on this issue is desperately needed here in Oklahoma.

Another study I’m working on will examine what the state can do to help individuals with autism who have specialized care needs. I’m optimistic that this conversation will lead to greater support for families who have a loved one diagnosed with autism.

Lastly, I enjoyed visiting with the governor when he was in Skiatook earlier this week as part of a statewide tour marking his final year in office. It was great to have the governor and his staff in the district for the day, and it was wonderful to see so many constituents at the event.

My sixteen-year-old life experience did not do Homer’s great classics justice. I enjoyed The Iliad more than The Odyssey, probably because I could more closely identify with the heroics of Achilles than with the convoluted motivations of Odysseus. Achilles was sometimes envious and petulant, but mainly he was an immortal warrior to whom the morality of the Trojan War was but a footnote. Whereas Odysseus (Ulysses in the later Roman telling) was not motivated by the betrayals of the Trojan Paris and the Greek Helen but by personal desires for glory, sex, adventure and revenge. As a 16-year-old I did not grasp Odysseus’ inner demons but related completely to Achilles’ being all in for glory.

As I now ruminate on my devouring of both The Iliad and The Odyssey so many years ago, I appreciate even more Homer’s almost 3,000-year-old brilliance. Homer tried to help us deal with the good and evil of our human nature. That is the mission of all great literature whether Homer or Shakespeare or Mark Twain. The great irony and tragedy of human history is that whether 3,000 years ago or today, we often fail to understand and apply the wisdom of those whose writings lead us toward the harder right choices and away from the easier wrong ones.

What did the citizens of Troy do to the citizens of the Greek Isle of Ithaca? Paris and Helen fell in love, but did that call for the fall of Troy? Or as we might ask today, what did Iran’s citizens do to America’s citizens? Fifty-two hostages taken in 1979 and released unharmed in 1981 was a crime from forty-four years ago. It was not an act of war and had nothing to do with nuclear weapons. It was in response to the United States’ repeated interference with the inner workings of Iran’s government.

The lesson America could have learned from a reading of The Iliad or The Odyssey from three millennia ago was that it is both immoral and self-destructive to start a war without just cause. It is reported that Americans are reading religious sayings on public school house walls instead of learning from history. It appears that we, as the ancient Greeks, have much to learn about morality and motivation. Maybe opening some books instead of our cellphones would help.