The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs recently approved the Osage Nation’s land-trust applications to build new casinos in Bartlesville and Pawhuska, Oklahoma. The approvals were printed in the federal register, allowing the tribe to move forward with the two new gaming properties. The Osage Nation filed the Bartlesville land-trust application in 2014 and Pawhuska in 2016.
Principal Chief Geoffrey M. Standing Bear stated, “The Osage Nation will begin at once to turn dirt and construct new amenities on these parcels that will help boost our region’s economic recovery from this Covid-19 pandemic.” He thanked federal approvals for the approvals, noting the tribe’s applications “languished for nearly a decade in the dustbins of the federal bureaucracy.”
Bureau of Indian Affairs Assistant Secretary Tara Sweeney noted, “With this action, the Osage Nation can now move forward on its economic development plans and enjoy the benefits of its lands. I congratulate Principal Chief Standing Bear and the Osage people on this achievement. Your success is a testament to your determination to bring greater prosperity to the Osage Nation now and for generations to come.”
The Bartlesville property will include a 57,400-square-foot casino and 150-room hotel, plus 11,800 square feet of meeting space. The new Pawhuska casino hotel eventually will replace the tribe’s existing Pawhuska Osage Casino.
