Expanding health care coverage and the status of the tribe’s reservation have emerged as two top issues in the 2024 Osage Nation election — scheduled for Monday, June 3 — where 16 candidates are competing for six seats in the Osage Nation Congress.
The Osage Nation holds congressional elections every two years for half of its 12-member Congress. All 16 candidates will compete in one election, each citizen will have up to six votes, and the top six vote earners will win a seat. In 2020, the Osage Nation implemented a term limit of five terms, but no incumbents are term limited this cycle.
The race drew five incumbents, two former Osage Congress members, a former Osage treasurer who resigned and several new faces seeking a seat in the legislative body. From attorneys, accountants and teachers to small business owners and a hall of fame strength coach, Osage candidates from a variety of backgrounds are seeking a congressional seat this year.
Congresswoman Paula Stabler is not seeking reelection.
Also on the ballot, a proposed amendment to the Osage Nation Constitution would give the Osage Congress power to confirm or reject a principal chief’s executive appointments during a special session.
Currently, the principal chief of the Osage Nation can appoint executive officials when the Osage Congress is out of session, and those appointments expire at the end of the next regular congressional session. The Osage Constitution does not allow for the Osage Congress to reject an executive official appointed outside of the regular session.
Osage voters can vote during early voting Friday, May 31, from noon to 7 p.m. or Saturday, June 1, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Osage Casino Hotel in Pawhuska or on Election Day between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. The deadline to request absentee ballots has already passed, and absentee ballots must be received by the Pawhuska Post Office by 10 a.m. Monday, June 3.
The following candidate cheat sheet is drawn from publicly available information, such as candidate websites, candidate statements, reporting by Osage News and the candidate debates shown above. Three articles from Osage News covered the debates.
Candidates are listed in alphabetical order.
Tina Allen
Profession/background: Allen is a real estate broker who works in Oklahoma, California, Utah and Colorado. She previously ran for the Osage Nation Congress in 2018 and has a master’s degree in fine arts from the University of Colorado. She is also an administrator of the Committee for a Responsible Osage Nation Budget Facebook group.
Priorities: Allen supports increasing the representation for and resources spent on at-large citizens who live outside of Osage County. She argues that investment in Osage County should be accompanied by investment in at-large citizens.
More information: Candidate statement (Osage News), candidate coverage (Osage News) and campaign Facebook.
Patrick Cullen-Carroll
Profession/background: Cullen-Carroll is a former physical education teacher inducted into the National High School Strength Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2023. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree from California State University in Los Angeles and a master’s degree from Azusa Pacific University before teaching in California and Arizona.
Priorities: Cullen-Carroll advocates creating educational and vocational mentorship programs as well as increasing funding for education, health care, fitness and housing. He also advocates supporting the Osage Mineral Council.
More information: Candidate statement (Osage News) and candidate coverage (Osage News).
Christa Fulkerson
Profession/background: Fulkerson graduated from Oklahoma State University with a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and a certificate in tribal finance and accounting. She previously worked for the Osage Nation as a grants and fiscal compliance officer and the grants management director. She currently works at the Innovation Foundation at OSU as the director of grants management.
Priorities: Fulkerson advocates increasing economic development, access to health care and cultural preservation efforts in the Osage Nation. She believes her background in grant management gives her the ability to allocate resources and would help in crafting the Osage Nation budget. She’s advocated reexamining how the Osage Nation levies taxes and doing more to support Osage Nation businesses.
More information: Candidate statement (Osage News) and candidate coverage (Osage News).
Jacque Jones
Profession/background: Jones previously worked for the Osage Nation as an executive administrative assistant from 2004 to 2007 and as the director of the Osage Nation constituent service office between 2007 and 2016. Between 2017 and 2019, she served as vice president of Osage Nation Environmental Solutions. In 2019, she founded Whitehair Consulting LLC, a financial consulting company for governments. She previously ran for the Osage Nation Congress in 2014, 2016 and 2022.
Priorities: Jones advocates investing in Osage Nation cultural preservation efforts, health care, education and expanding economic development. She outlines “economic sovereignty” as a priority and has advocated for diversifying tribal business, as well as for creating a tribal utility company to produce and sell electricity.
More information: Candidate statement (Osage News), candidate coverage (Osage News) and campaign Facebook.
Billy Keene
Profession/background: Keene is an attorney and incumbent Osage congressman running for his second term. He is also a great-great grandson of former Osage Principal Chief Paul Red Eagle.
Priorities: Keene has supported legislation in the Osage Nation for 12 weeks of paid maternity leave for Osage Nation employees, a separate attorney for the Osage Gaming Board and a ban on anonymous campaign donations. He supports funding health care, burial assistance and education programs. He supports efforts to get federal courts to affirm the Osage Nation Reservation.
More information: Candidate statement (Osage News), candidate coverage (Osage News), personal Facebook and personal Twitter.
William Kemble
Profession/background: Kemble is an alumnus of Hominy High School and Oklahoma State University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in 2005 and a master’s degree in accounting in 2006. Starting in 2009, he served as financial controller for the Osage Nation’s casinos starting in 2009, and he served as Osage Nation treasurer from 2010 until his resignation in 2012 after an investigation into the tribe’s accounting practices. After his resignation, Kemble worked in public accounting. He was appointed to the Ponca Enterprise Gaming Board in 2020.
Priorities: Kemble outlined his priorities if elected as promoting financial transparency, “self-sustaining programs,” increasing investment in housing, promoting tribal sovereignty and promoting cultural preservation.
More information: Candidate statement (Osage News), candidate coverage (Osage News) and campaign Facebook.
John Maker
Profession/background: Maker, of Hominy, is campaigning for his fourth term in the Osage Congress. He served in the U.S. Army before attending Kansas State University. He previously worked as an Osage language teacher before his first election in 2012.
Priorities: At the Osage Congress debate, Maker indicated his top priority was health care, but he also indicated support for creating an Osage tourism department. He previously sponsored the successful effort to implement term limits for the Osage Congress, and he has advocated for the preservation of the Osage language and culture.
More information: Campaign statement (Osage News), candidate coverage (Osage News) and campaign Facebook.
Alexis Martin
Profession/background: Martin has worked for the Osage County youth shelter, Osage Nation WIC Department and Osage Nation Counseling Center.
Priorities: In her candidacy statement, Martin emphasized “social justice and economic stability” as her priorities. She also supported creating an Osage Nation tourism department and increasing investment in mental health services.
More information: Campaign statement (Osage News), candidate coverage (Osage News) and personal Facebook.
Liberty Metcalf
Profession/background: Metcalf is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma who worked for the U.S. Department of the Interior on legislative affairs between 2008 and 2018. During that time, he worked on bills such as the Violence Against Women Reauthorization of 2013, Tribal Law and Order Act and the HEARTH Act. Between 2018 and 2021, he worked as a realty specialist for the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs in Miami. This is his second campaign for the Osage Congress.
Priorities: Metcalf says his experience crafting and negotiating legislation would be a good addition to the Osage Congress, and he supports term limits. During the Osage Congress debate, he cited improving health care as his top priority. He also supports the creation of an Osage Nation tourism department.
More information: Candidate statement (Osage News), candidate coverage (Osage News) and campaign Facebook.
Traci Phillips
Profession/background: Phillips spent eight years working in information technology before founding Natural Evolution, an electronics recycling business, in 2003. The company contracts with the federal government, tribal governments and other entities. She also previously served on the Osage Nation Gaming Enterprise Board.
Priorities: Phillips has identified her top priorities as health care and expanding tribal sovereignty. She favors the nation financially supporting an Osage chamber of commerce and has advocated for the creation of a new department of commerce with a tourism subagency. She also supports efforts to preserve the Osage language.
More information: Campaign statement (Osage News), candidate coverage (Osage News) and campaign Facebook.
Angela Pratt
Profession/background: Pratt, a former speaker of the Osage Nation Congress, is seeking to return to the legislative body after previously serving two terms between 2014 and 2022. She also served in the U.S. Army before working for the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.
Priorities: Pratt outlined health care as her top priority. She has argued for increasing support for elders and veterans as well as for social services. Pratt also indicated she would support a tourism department but noted her support would be conditioned on the details, citing a prior tourism bill she did not support because it did not detail duties for tourism employees.
More information: Campaign statement (Osage News), candidate coverage (Osage News) and personal Facebook.
Jodie Revard
Profession/background: Revard is running for reelection to a second term in the Osage Nation Congress. She graduated from Pawhuska High School and Fort Lewis College. She previously served a four-year term on the Osage Nation Mineral Council. Revard says 129 of 133 bills she’s introduced have been enacted.
Priorities: During the Osage Nation congressional debate, Revard said she supported using census data available to the tribe to better allocate tribal resources. During two questions, one on tribal elders and another on the disparity between on- and off-reservation investment, she pointed to new census data as key to assisting with determining where investment is most needed.
More information: Campaign statement (Osage News), campaign coverage (Osage News) and campaign Facebook.
Pam Shaw
Profession/background: Shaw is seeking a second term in the Osage Nation Congress after winning her first election in 2020. She previously worked 15 years in tribal gaming and spent 17 years in the private sector. She is an alumna of St. Gregory’s University.
Priorities: Shaw outlined education and protecting tribal sovereignty as her priorities. She advocates modeling the tribe’s housing program after other tribes’ successful housing programs and working with other tribes to expand and protect tribal sovereignty.
More information: Campaign statement (Osage News), campaign coverage (Osage News) and campaign Facebook.
Brooklin Sweezy
Profession/background: Sweezy holds multiple degrees related to Native American studies she earned with tribal scholarships.
Priorities: Sweezy favors funding education for Osage Nation citizens and expanding the programs available to citizens living outside of the Osage Reservation. She also favors the tribe seeking more federal funding, citing the United States’ trust relationship with the Osage Nation and its obligation to support the tribe.
On elder care, she advocated for creating a program for younger tribal members to help elders in order to promote the nation’s oral traditions.
More information: Campaign statement (Osage News), campaign coverage (Osage News) and personal Facebook.
Joe Tillman
Profession/background: Tillman is running for a third term in the Osage Nation Congress. He is the son of former Osage Nation Principal Chief Charles O. Tillman Jr., was raised in Fairfax and is an alumnus of Oklahoma State University. He’s previously served as speaker and second speaker of the Congress.
Priorities: Tillman outlined his priorities as seeking federal recognition of the Osage Reservation, promoting fiscal responsibility and continuing social services such as education, health care and burial assistance. Asked about increasing off-reservation investment, he advocated assistance for underinvested communities within the Osage Nation, such as Avant, Barnsdall and Shidler.
Tillman also indicated concern that the Osage Nation only has six months’ worth of reserve funding, arguing that the Cherokee Nation keeps 10 years’ worth of funding in reserves and that the Chickasaw Nation keeps 20 years’ worth. He also advocated more funding for elder services, including transportation to help them shop and attend community events.
More information: Campaign statement (Osage News), campaign coverage (Osage News) and personal Facebook.
Maria Whitehorn
Profession/background: Whitehorn is seeking to return to the Osage Nation Congress for a third term. She previously served two terms between 2012 and 2020, including a stint as the Osage Congress speaker. She was born and raised in Hominy, lived in Texas and returned to Osage County in 2002.
Priorities: Whitehorn supports the Osage Mineral Council’s control of the Osage mineral estate and has advocated for more transparency in the Osage Nation’s leasing of surface lands. She also advocates settling the Osage Nation’s claims regarding water rights in Osage County.
More information: Campaign statement (Osage News), campaign coverage (Osage News) and personal Facebook.
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