Osage Nation signs lease securing Osage Agency building in Pawhuska

Written By: Allison Herrera

(OSAGE RESERVATION) The doors of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Osage Agency office in Pawhuska will stay open.

Read this story on Osage News here.

A new lease was signed on June 11 by Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear and will take effect on Nov. 13, 2025. The lease is with the General Services Administration, and the GSA has agreed to a 3-5 year lease. Three years being the set amount.

The Osage Nation will be paid $165,360 per year for the use of the building, which includes 10,335 rentable square feet.

Part of the rent will include more than $75,000 in operating costs, according to the lease agreement.

The Nation owns the building, which was built in the 1970s. The agency itself was established in 1872.

Earlier this year, it wasn’t clear if the building would remain open. The Osage Agency, along with 24 other buildings, ended up on a list published by the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) that were slated to be closed. The planned closures were part of an effort by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to reduce government spending.

The Osage Minerals Council (OMC) and the Osage Shareholders Association (OSA) rallied to keep the building open and to keep Osage citizen Adam Trumbly as the Superintendent. Trumbly briefly lost his job in the chaotic first few months of the Trump administration, which instituted layoffs, only to rescind them later. Trumbly was later reinstated.

The list of buildings set to close includes the Pawnee Agency, the BIA offices in Watonga and Seminole, and the Geological Survey office in Oklahoma City.

In May of this year, Osage News reported the building was to remain open.

Standing Bear requested that a clause be put into the lease if the BIA ever downsizes, the Nation needs to renegotiate the unused space and lease it to somebody else.

Standing Bear said everything is flexible because the BIA would not commit to whether they would use all the space at the agency building for three to five years.

“That whole lease for the building is subject to funding by the federal government,” Standing Bear said.

Government spending is an issue. Trump’s proposed “skinny budget” would cut funding for the BIA by more than half a billion dollars.

“If they can’t fund it in a year or two, well, we’re going to have to do something,” Standing Bear said.

He told Osage News he is considering moving several departments to different buildings the Nation owns, but doesn’t have a firm plan yet. He said space for Osage Nation departments is in short supply.

The original lease, which was proposed before Donald Trump was elected, included provisions for a 10-year lease.

“All they can do is promise that they’re going to be there for three years,” Standing Bear said.