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Acronym Guide BIA: Bureau of Indian Affairs. See OIA CDIB: Certificate Degree of Indian Blood An official document issued by the U.S. government certifying the percentage of biological ancestry an individual has in a federally recognized American Indian nation. New applicants must submit legal documents, such as a birth certificate, to the BIA illustrating biological descent from someone listed on a base roll. The U.S. government generally created the base rolls during the allotment period, with little input from American Indian nations. While these rolls remain controversial, many American Indian nations use them as part of their own citizenship criteria, including requirements for a certain percentage of blood. OGRC: Osage Government Reform Commission A group of ten Oklahoma-based Osage headright holders appointed by the OTC to survey the Osage people and write a constitution reflecting those opinions. They were sworn in on March 3, 2005, and served through the adoption of the 2006 Osage Constitution on March 11, 2006. The group consisted of Tony Daniels, a judge for the Miss Oklahoma pageant; Doug Revard, a retired Oklahoma district judge; Edward Lookout, the grandson of the last hereditary chief of the Osage; Joe L. Conner, a Ph.D. in experimental/clinical psychology; Jerri J. Branstetter , a corrections counselor; William S. Fletcher, the primary litigant behind the 1994 Osage sovereignty case; Priscilla H. Iba, a teacher of the Osage language who volunteered at the Osage Tribal Museum; Mary Joe Webb, a member of the Tulsa Catholic Diocese Synod Commission ; Charles H. Red Corn, an award-winning novelist; and Jim Norris, a retired senior Health Services officer for the Indian Health Service. OIA: Office of Indian Affairs This agency is housed within the U.S. government and is responsible for the government’s relationship with American Indians, American Indian nations, and Alaska Natives. Officially created as the OIA in 1824, its original duties involved negotiating treaties with American Indian nations. The department was moved from the Department of War to the Department of the Interior in 1849 with its name changed in 1947 to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Today, it focuses primarily x : : : A c r o n y m G u id e on the administration and management of the lands held in trust, providing services and assistance based on treaty obligations. It also operates court, law enforcement, and detention facilities on American Indian lands. ONO: Osage Nation Organization A group officially founded in 1964 that argued that the 1881 Osage Nation Constitution had been illegally terminated by the BIA and thus still represented an active government. In addition to advocating a return to this governing structure, this group was motivated by a desire to move Osage citizenship away from the headright system toward a minimum one-fourth blood quantum requirement. The ONO was unsuccessful in its reform efforts due to its insistence on a minimum blood requirement for citizenship and the perception that its intent was to do away with the headright system altogether—a system that was providing annuitants with a substantial income each quarter from oil lease revenues. One of its founders, Charles H. Lohah, is the current Supreme Court chief justice within the current Osage Nation. OSA: Osage Shareholders Association A group of Osage annuitants organized on September 20, 1994, in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, for the purpose of encouraging efficient management of the Osage Mineral Estate, protecting the federal trust relationship with the Mineral Estate, encouraging better management of the Mineral Estate by the BIA, and calling for laws to protect the Mineral Estate against theft, fraud, and conflicts of interest. OSA meetings are attended by about thirty and occur approximately once a month, depending on current issues of concern. This group took a vocal stand against the 2006 Constitution and has led initiatives against its passage and for its reform. OTC: Osage Tribal Council The governing body of the Osage Tribe from July 1, 1907, when it was established by an act of Congress, until July 1, 2006, when the 2006 Osage Constitution went into effect, with the exception of a three-year window in the 1990s. The OTC was originally intended to last for only twenty-five years, until the Osage people would, according to BIA projections , be acculturated into mainstream U.S. society, eliminating any need for Osage governance. Through various creative tactics, the OTC was able to extend the Mineral Estate until 1958 and then to 1983. In 1978, the OTC convinced the U.S. government to change the language about...

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