Why you can trust Osage News
September 11, 2018
Courtesy Photo/Story Blocks
As the Sixth Osage Nation Congress votes to fund $8.1 million in scholarship money to Osage students across the country, here is a look at who it serves by the numbers.
The Nation’s Higher Education Scholarship has put a countless number of Osages through school since its inception. For the 2017-2018 academic year, there were a total of 1,173 students who were approved to receive scholarship funding, according to the ON Education Department.
Per Scholarship America, the total amount paid in scholarships for the past three academic years are:
– 2015-2016 academic year (funded at full or part-time)
Higher Education Scholarships: $9,423,987
Graduate Degree Awards: $42,000
– 2016-2017 academic year (began per credit hour funding)
Higher Education Scholarships: $8,040,394
Graduate Degree Awards: $69,000
– 2017-2018 academic year
Higher Education Scholarships: $8,149,220
Graduate Degree Awards: $57,000
Student Scholarship Statistics for the 2017-2018 academic year
A breakdown of where the $8.2 million scholarship funds were spent, according to the Education Department:
– 45 states, including Canada and Spain, where Osages attended school
– 249 Associate Degrees
– 780 Bachelor’s Degrees
– 148 Master’s Degrees
– 60 Doctorate Degrees
** Note: There were 64 students who submitted payment requests for more than one degree type during the academic year. This could be due to graduation or withdrawal from a degree program.
The higher education scholarship is administered by Scholarship America for $220,000 each year. However, Scholarship America’s contract says after 1,200 students are served, the Nation will pay an additional $190 per student, said Jason Zaun, ON Chief of Staff. He said this year there were 230 students over the 1,200 student limit, making the cost of Scholarship America approximately $263,700.
The Osage Nation budgets are discussed each year during the Tzi-Zho Session, which began on Sept. 4. For the past three to four years there has been the threat of layoffs to make sure there is enough money to fund the “Big 3,” which is the Higher Education Scholarship, the Health Benefits Fund and the Burial Assistance Fund. The “Big 3” make up $19 million of the Nation’s yearly $45 million appropriation from the Osage Casinos. The Nation’s budgets include the Office of the Chiefs, the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch, Judicial Branch, boards and commissions and the Nation’s business enterprises.
Currently, jobs do not exist for Osage graduates to come back and work for the Nation. Neighboring gaming tribes, such as the Cherokee Nation, require their scholarship recipients to provide community service for every $100 a student receives. The Cherokee Nation also has a residency requirement for several of their scholarship programs that restrict recipients to 14 counties around their boundaries in northeastern Oklahoma, according to the Cherokee Nation’s College Resource Center.
The colleges and universities Osage students are attending cover a wide array of disciplines. They include schools for nursing, law, medicine, veterinary medicine, public health, divinity, dentistry, pharmacy, art, technology, osteopathic medicine, osteopathic medical surgery, agriculture, mechanical, mining and technology, theological seminary, aeronautical, social work and many others.
Shannon Shaw Duty
Original Publish Date: 2018-09-11 00:00:00
Title: Editor
Email: sshaw20@gmail.com
Twitter: @dutyshaw
Topic Expertise: Columnist, Culture, Community
Languages spoken: English, Osage (intermediate), Spanish (beginner) Shannon Shaw Duty, Osage from the Grayhorse District, is the editor of the award-winning Osage News, the official independent media of the Osage Nation. She is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and a master’s degree in Legal Studies with an emphasis in Indigenous Peoples Law. She currently sits on the Freedom of Information Committee for the Society of Professional Journalists. She has served as a board member for LION Publishers, as Vice President for the Pawhuska Public Schools Board of Education, on the Board of Directors for the Native American Journalists Association (now Indigenous Journalists Association) and served as a board member and Chairwoman for the Pawhuska Johnson O’Malley Parent Committee. She is a Chips Quinn Scholar, a former instructor for the Freedom Forum’s Native American Journalism Career Conference and the Freedom Forum’s American Indian Journalism Institute. She is a former reporter for The Santa Fe New Mexican. She is a 2012 recipient of the Native American 40 Under 40 from the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development. In 2014 she helped lead the Osage News to receive NAJA's Elias Boudinot Free Press Award. The Osage News won Best Newspaper from the SPJ-Oklahoma Chapter in their division 2018-2022. Her award-winning work has been published in Indian Country Today, The Washington Post, the Center for Public Integrity, NPR, the Associated Press, Tulsa World and others. She currently resides in Pawhuska, Okla., with her husband and together they share six children, two dogs and two cats. View all posts
Title: Editor
Email: sshaw20@gmail.com
Twitter: @dutyshaw
Topic Expertise: Columnist, Culture, Community
Languages spoken: English, Osage (intermediate), Spanish (beginner)
Shannon Shaw Duty, Osage from the Grayhorse District, is the editor of the award-winning Osage News, the official independent media of the Osage Nation. She is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and a master’s degree in Legal Studies with an emphasis in Indigenous Peoples Law. She currently sits on the Freedom of Information Committee for the Society of Professional Journalists. She has served as a board member for LION Publishers, as Vice President for the Pawhuska Public Schools Board of Education, on the Board of Directors for the Native American Journalists Association (now Indigenous Journalists Association) and served as a board member and Chairwoman for the Pawhuska Johnson O’Malley Parent Committee. She is a Chips Quinn Scholar, a former instructor for the Freedom Forum’s Native American Journalism Career Conference and the Freedom Forum’s American Indian Journalism Institute. She is a former reporter for The Santa Fe New Mexican. She is a 2012 recipient of the Native American 40 Under 40 from the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development. In 2014 she helped lead the Osage News to receive NAJA's Elias Boudinot Free Press Award. The Osage News won Best Newspaper from the SPJ-Oklahoma Chapter in their division 2018-2022. Her award-winning work has been published in Indian Country Today, The Washington Post, the Center for Public Integrity, NPR, the Associated Press, Tulsa World and others. She currently resides in Pawhuska, Okla., with her husband and together they share six children, two dogs and two cats.
RELATED ARTICLESThis mode enables people with epilepsy to use the website safely by eliminating the risk of seizures that result from flashing or blinking animations and risky color combinations.
Visually Impaired Mode Visually Impaired Mode Improves website's visualsThis mode adjusts the website for the convenience of users with visual impairments such as Degrading Eyesight, Tunnel Vision, Cataract, Glaucoma, and others.
Cognitive Disability Mode Cognitive Disability Mode Helps to focus on specific contentThis mode provides different assistive options to help users with cognitive impairments such as Dyslexia, Autism, CVA, and others, to focus on the essential elements of the website more easily.
ADHD Friendly Mode ADHD Friendly Mode Reduces distractions and improve focusThis mode helps users with ADHD and Neurodevelopmental disorders to read, browse, and focus on the main website elements more easily while significantly reducing distractions.
Blindness Mode Blindness Mode Allows using the site with your screen-readerThis mode configures the website to be compatible with screen-readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. A screen-reader is software for blind users that is installed on a computer and smartphone, and websites must be compatible with it.
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to
