PAWHUSKA, Okla. — On a recent afternoon here in the heart of Osage Nation, Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear’s office was as wide open as the prairie.

Stepping out from behind his desk, he extended a friendly handshake and visited for nearly two hours without appointment. Like his tribal ancestors, he seems taller than he is, but he’s not nomadic like they were.

A certificate for being an accomplished lawyer adorned the wall. A binder, thick with documents for what would be the first Indian casino in Missouri and a boost for his struggling tribe, hunkered on a shelf.

As a gift, he offered a hardcover copy of the nonfiction book, “Killers of the Flower Moon.” In an award-winning movie, Hollywood told the story about murderous whites targeting Osage families flush with newfound oil wealth in the 1920s.

“We had all this money — once,” said Chief Standing Bear, 71.

And legendary power.

Before being forced to resettle multiple times, the Osage commanded close attention from the likes of the French, Spanish and U.S. President Thomas Jefferson. The tribe once stood firmly in the way of westward expansion. Their native homeland not only covered the strategic confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, but also what is now St. Louis and the rest of the Show-Me State, as well as northern Arkansas and swaths of Kansas and Oklahoma.

“We could put 10,000 warriors in the field,” the chief said. “And that was only a portion of our population at that time when we were in Missouri.”

But even the fierce Osage couldn’t stop what was coming. Endless waves of white settlers desperate to survive and spread their way of life in a land new to them. Other displaced and hungry tribes. Smallpox. Measles. Typhus.

In a series of treaties, the Osage ceded the last of their Missouri lands in 1825. They were forced into what is now a patch of southeastern Kansas, only to move to their current location — 1.5 million acres in northeastern Oklahoma — in the 1870s following more pressure from white settlers. By then, their population had fallen some 90% from its peak.

Today, Osage Nation is a federally recognized tribe of about 25,000 members, but many of them have scattered.

“We want to bring them back home, and that takes money,” Chief Standing Bear said.

In the middle of his third term as chief, he said many resources have already been spent for a new health clinic and senior housing, revamping the visitor center and running a ranch that offers discounted meat prices to tribal members.

He said more money is needed to continue to offer and expand scholarships and financial assistance to all tribal members for health care and funerals that last four days. He said educational programs that preserve the Osage way of life that was nearly wiped out must also be protected and bolstered with modern technologies such as bringing internet to remote locations of the reservation.

“We have songs,” he said. “We have traditions that are thousands of years old and it’s a fight to keep them going.”

He’s been looking for help and opportunities to reconnect with Missouri, but the tribe has been hit with a few notable setbacks from its ancestral lands.

In September 2021, national news hit that an anonymous buyer, paying $2.2 million, had outbid Osage Nation for Picture Cave. Some scholars believe the secluded cave — loaded with paintings from the distant past in Warren County near the Missouri River — is the sacred “womb of the universe” that tells the creation story of Osage ancestors. Three years later, the buyer and their intentions are still unknown to the public.

One month after the publicized sale, Osage Nation announced that it had applied to the U.S. Department of Interior for a pathway to build a tribal casino in Missouri at Lake of the Ozarks. If approved, the federal government would transfer 28 acres of land the tribe purchased at the corner of Bagnell Dam Boulevard and Highway 54 in the tourist town of Lake Ozark into federal trust with tribal sovereignty.

The project, touted as a $60 million gaming, entertainment and cultural venue, would be exempt from most Missouri laws and regulations, while funding social programs for the tribe.

Osage Nation currently has seven casinos in Oklahoma, ranging from a tin-sided building in tiny Hominy to a sprawling hotel and live entertainment complex in Tulsa that’s scheduled to host The Temptations and Randy Travis. If the Missouri project is approved, it would be the first tribal casino in the state.

Clearly, a lot of money is at stake that comes with opportunities and market implications that reach far beyond mid-Missouri. In 2023, the National Indian Gaming Commission reported that 527 gaming operations, made up of 245 tribes in 29 states, generated $41.9 billion in gross revenue, a record high.

Now, a second casino plan that competes with the Osage Nation project has surfaced and is gaining momentum. Casino giant Bally’s and Eldon-based real estate developer Gary Prewitt bankrolled the effort to build a casino on a site adjacent to the Osage River, below Bagnell Dam.

A change in the state constitution is necessary to get that project underway because the state’s current fleet of 13 casinos is limited to sites along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, areas once dominated by the Osage. On Nov. 5, Missouri voters will be asked if they support Amendment 5 that would expand the number of casinos to 14 to accommodate the proposal. It would still need approval from the Missouri Gaming Commission once enacted.

Chief Standing Bear thinks the competing proposal is another slight against the Osage. For starters, the name of the project is registered under Osage River Gaming and Convention.

“I wish they wouldn’t call it that,” he said. “That makes people think it’s us. We have our own path that we established.”

He said the location chosen is also insensitive. He said some of the last Osage village sites in Missouri were flooded to create Lake of the Ozarks, which is part of what drew Osage Nation’s interest in opening its tribal casino there — near Osage Beach.

“I am not quite sure what they are doing,” he said. “They have never talked to me, and I am the chief. That’s offensive. I mean, people gotta show respect to each other.”

On Tuesday, Osage River Gaming and Convention representatives released renderings for possible high-rise casino options for their project. Phone calls to the Prewitt family were referred to two veteran political operatives, John Hancock and Ed Rhode.

On Wednesday, Hancock defended the name and location.

“It’s the Osage River,” he said. “That’s where the thing actually is. I mean, we aren’t trying to fool anybody.”

Regardless, he said, their casino campaign this week changed names to “Yes on 5” so it’s more descriptive of what they are asking people to vote for. Hancock said local officials publicly support their casino project. As for Chief Standing Bear, he said: “We would be more than willing to sit down with Osage Nation. The fact that Osage Nation spent $300,000 to defeat our signature-gathering effort isn’t helpful for such dialogue.”

State records show a committee opposed to the casino, Missourians for Truth in Petitioning, raised more than $380,000 through July 15, all of it from Strategic Capitol Consulting. That firm, which is headed by Steve Tilley, the former Missouri House speaker, was retained by Osage Nation to represent its interests.

While the competing proposal moves forward, and readies for a statewide vote, the Osage Nation’s binder of applications for a tribal casino in Missouri gets heavier on the chief’s bookshelf.

“We are following all the environmental rules and painstakingly preparing our petition to the governor and to federal officials to have it allowed to do limited gaming,” he said.

He said the project isn’t about money.

“This whole situation is about our culture, and our language and our history,” he said. “If we don’t keep it, we are no different than a Rotary Club or any other group.”

The Osage brand

Today, there are only 720 Osage living in Missouri. A drive throughout the state speaks to their former relevancy.

Scores of places and businesses are named after the Osage — anything from Osage 24 Self Storage, Sac Osage Electric Cooperative and Osage Trails to Osage Ag, Osage Backhoe Madness and Osage County.

But it’s School of the Osage that particularly catches Chief Standing Bear’s attention for a possible opportunity.

It’s the name of the school district where Osage Nation is facing local opposition against building an Indian casino on land near Lake of the Ozarks that the tribe occupied before American settlers. The district, which calls itself the “Home of the Indians,” uses an illustration of a chief in headdress as its logo.

“We want to go into the School of the Osage there, in Osage Beach, and talk to the superintendent and bring our people up there to teach those children about Osages, so it really will be the School of the Osage,” said Chief Standing Bear.

It would be one of many efforts to invest in the community beyond building and running a casino.

“I really feel like I can contribute,” he said. “I relish the opportunity to explain our histories and our culture.”

He envisions bringing in weekend dances and live bison as tourist attractions at a new visitor center there.

“Wouldn’t that be cool?” he said. “I tell you the kids would come by to see it. We wouldn’t charge admission.”

But officials in Lake Ozark rejected a resolution endorsing the Osage Nation’s casino project last summer. Mayor Dennis Newberry cast the board of aldermen’s 4-3 tiebreaker.

“The Osage Nation has never provided us with any kind of meaningful information,” Newberry, 53, said Tuesday by telephone. “Just the rendering of the building. There is a lot more to it.”

And a lot of speculation.

“They could open up grocery stores,” the mayor said. “They could open up all kinds of retail that don’t pay taxes.”

Asked about possible cultural sensitivities, given the history of the tribe and the prominence of all-things-Osage in the area, the mayor said he’s not opposed to the Osage Nation in principle.

“It’s not responsible for an elected official to take a position on something they have limited to no knowledge of,” he said, adding: “They’ve had conversations with our police chief about donating money. But what does that have to do with how your project will affect our city?”

‘We can whip anybody’

On a recent visit to Osage Nation, the hotel rooms at a redone casino in Pawhuska were clean. A large painting of a bison hung above the bed. Historic photos of the tribe hung in the hallways.

There were a lot of open spaces, both in the parking lot and on the game floor, which was mainly stocked with electronic slot machines.

“My wife probably left $500 here,” said Bob Cote, 63, visiting from Minnesota.

He didn’t view it as a loss, but rather entertainment.

“It’s in my budget,” said the retired construction manager. “You don’t want to lose money you can’t afford. You aren’t a gambler that way.”

Osage Nation says it paid out $166 million in winnings the past year across all its casinos. There are many other tribal casinos to choose from across Oklahoma, one of 29 states that allow them.

As an attorney, Chief Standing Bear was involved with gaming for years. He said he initially wanted to open four new casinos is Missouri — in Cuba, Kimberling City, Hannibal, and Lake of the Ozarks. For now, the 28 acres at Lake of the Ozarks is the focus.

“You can only do so much in 28 acres,” he said. “That includes parking, casino, hotel, restaurants, the road driving up to it.”

While local officials may not be convinced, he said, the application must show how the tribe is going to pay and provide for things like power, water, sewer and increased traffic.

“Those are all studies done by consultants,” he said. “And we put it all together. We say we are here to enhance the community, and we have to prove it. They’re the Show-Me State, right? We gotta show everything.”

He said Osage Nation will make charitable donations to the local area.

“We will guarantee,” he said. “We can enter into a compact with the state, which is on top of the Deed of Trust. We can lock an annual percentage, provided it’s called charitable donations, and it’s not pooled with the state facilities. Every three years, we could review it to see if there needs to be an increase. We can write language like that.”

While he obviously supports the Osage Nation proposal, he said perhaps two competing casinos at Lake of the Ozarks could be beneficial to consumers. He said Osage Nation continues to be a tested competitor in Oklahoma.

“Our winning ticket is to show we can offer better odds, better player experiences and we can be better hosts to the gaming guests,” he said. “We can do that. We can whip anybody in Missouri on that — anybody in Missouri.”

He’s confident the U.S. Department of the Interior will approve their application within a year if everyone gets on board.

“You know why?” he said. “Because we are following every rule that we can that’s required, and our intentions are good. And it’s going to help our neighbors as well as us.”

He said the Osage are often left in a position to remind people of the suffering their tribe experienced in Missouri.

“People say, ‘What can we owe you for all the terrible things that we did to you,’” said Chief Standing Bear. “Well, support our programs. Support our language. Support our culture. You need to support that casino. That’s what the money is going for.”

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