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From: Osage Voter No. 448
Date: 3/21/2006
Time: 12:47:03 PM
Remote Name: 70.182.222.154
I do appreciate the "Concerned Employee's" comments regarding the rumors that are running rampant in our community. And here's my take on it. I think a lot of us are just trying to lay out the pieces of the puzzle with reference to the doors left wide open by the new Osage Constitution. The membership provision is an open term, and we ask why. The Mineral Estate is fully exposed. Again, we ask why. We know that the Commissioners and their staff had to have read other Tribal Constitutions in the process of drafting this one. Some of us regular folk did, too. The Kaw Constitution clearly states that all base enrollees and their descendants ARE MEMBERS, subject to a dual enrollment prohibition. The 1994 Osage Constitution says the same and in no uncertain terms: all 1906 enrollees and their descendants ARE members for ALL purposes. The Constitutions of other tribes clearly state that, "a blood quantum shall not be used as a basis of membership." Our Constitution says nothing of the sort, even though that was the result of the referendum vote. It contains every other provision under the sun -- why not that one? Take a look at the 2005 legislation, which is posted on this site, where Congress recognized the Osage Nation once and for all and set this government reform process into motion. The statute states that 1906 base enrollees are recognized as members ONLY FOR PURPOSES OF RECEIVING A SHARE OF LAND AND ANNUITIES IN 1906 and for no other purpose. Congress didn't write that legislation; one of our lawyers did on the advise of our Chief and Council. If we had a better Constitution, I don't think we would worry so much. But we don't, so we have to be on guard ALL the time and consider every rumor for the grain of truth it may contain.