Geoffrey M. Standing Bear (Osage) is an attorney and politician who has served as Principal Chief of the

Osage Nation The Osage Nation ( ) ( Osage: 𐓁𐒻 𐓂𐒼𐒰𐓇𐒼𐒰͘ ('), "People of the Middle Waters") is a Midwestern Native American tribe of the Great Plains. The tribe developed in the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys around 700 BC along ...

since 2014.

Early life and education

Chief Standing Bear was born into the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. He attended

Bishop Kelley High School Bishop Kelley High School is an American Lasallian Catholic high school with 905 students, grades 9 to 12, located at 41st and Hudson Avenue, in the center of the Tulsa metropolitan area (in the Midtown area), on a campus spanning just over 47 ...

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

and the

University of Tulsa College of Law The University of Tulsa College of Law is the law school of the private University of Tulsa in Tulsa, Oklahoma. For 2021, ''U.S. News & World Report'' ranked the University of Tulsa College of Law at No. 111 among all law schools in the United S ...

. He is the great-grandson of

Fred Lookout Fred Lookout (ca. 1861 – 1949) was an Osage Nation politician who served several terms as the principal chief of the nation. Lookout served as principal chief three times: 1913–1914, 1916–1918, and from 1924 until his death in 1949. Born ...

Political career

Over the years Standing Bear became active in tribal politics as the people took more actions to assert their sovereignty. He was elected as Principal Chief of the Osage Nation and took office on July 2, 2014, after the previous chief,

John Red Eagle John Denyer Red Eagle (September 21, 1948 – January 12, 2024) was an American Osage politician who served as the principal chief of the Osage Nation between June 2010 and his removal from office in January 2014. He also served as the assistant ...

, was impeached. Standing Bear succeeded

Scott Bighorse Scott Norris Bighorse (born c. 1956) is an Osage American politician. Between 2006 and 2008, Bighorse was a member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives from the 36th district. From 2010 to 2014, he served as assistant principal chief of the ...

, who had served as acting chief. Chief Standing Bear took office after the Osage received a landmark settlement from the federal government to settle claims of mismanagement of revenues due tribal members from leased mineral rights. Under his administration, the Osage Nation worked to increase their communal landholdings, acquiring more than 50,000 acres of mostly former reservation land. This total includes the tribe's purchase from

Ted Turner Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor, and philanthropist. He founded the Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour United States cable news, cable news ch ...

of the 43,000-acre Bluestem Ranch, located in historically Osage territory. The tribe has also developed a $160 million casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma, new educational and language preservation initiatives, and two community centers. The tribe has challenged the Oklahoma Attorney General's office with regard to tribal sovereignty and water/mineral rights. Chief Standing Bear worked extensively with

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominatio ...

and his production team to create opportunities for Osage and to promote their culture in the filming and production of ''

Killers of the Flower Moon ''Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI'' is the third non-fiction book by the American journalist David Grann. The book was released on April 18, 2017 by Doubleday. ''Time'' magazine listed ''Killers of the Fl ...

'' (2023). Not only were numerous Osage hired as actors and extras, but others were employed as technical staff behind the cameras, and were involved in research and creation of historically accurate costumes and sets.Press conference at Cannes Film Festival, 2023

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Standing Bear, Geoffrey Living people Principal Chiefs of the Osage Nation University of Tulsa College of Law alumni Oklahoma lawyers Lawyers from Tulsa, Oklahoma Year of birth missing (living people)