Three Osages elected to local city councils in Osage County

Written By: Collyn Combs

(OSAGE COUNTY, Okla.) Three Osages were elected to their local city councils this spring within Osage County.

Read this story on Osage News here.

Chris Maker and Brandon Wallace were elected in April to the Hominy City Council for Ward 1 and Ward 4, respectively. Both men will serve a four-year term. Ellen Weigant was elected in February and sworn in May for a three-year term to the Pawhuska City Council for Ward 1. Marissa Turley, Osage, has also served on the Barnsdall City Council for two years.

Maker has lived in Hominy for his whole life, and said he wants to make a difference within his community.

“I wanted to bring change to the town hall,” he said. “I’ve only been there [since April], but there’s a lot that needs to be done through the city economy and probably finances, getting things done. Things have been neglected for so many years. I want to try to fix the water infrastructure and equipment. We’re slowly getting it replaced. They just recently bought some new vehicles and new equipment, but we’re just so far behind in time.”

Maker previously worked as a corrections officer at the Dick Conner Correctional Center

in Hominy for 21 years and worked his way up to hold leadership roles while he was employed there. Maker currently works for the Osage Nation Tribal Works Department.

“I’ve got a lot of leadership experience I can bring to the table. I’ve got a lot of good ideas, and I want to try to bring businesses to Hominy,” Maker said. “I believe the council that is appointed now are all on the same page, but trying to get new businesses in town because that is revenue for all.”

Maker has already witnessed some changes within the city and how everyone works together to make sure things get done.

“From what I can tell from talking to the city employees, the council works better now with the department heads,” he said. “Everybody’s kind of bonded. The employees all work as a team. Each department head has really come together, and they help each other out. It’s like one department’s struggling getting something done, another department steps in and helps; that’s something they really didn’t have back a year ago.”

Maker also talked about the importance of Buck Pride within the community.

“In Hominy we got the tradition about pride, and that’s a very big tradition in Hominy,” he said. “The last storm we had, the football team, they came around with the city crew, helped pick up limbs and stuff. It’s just everybody talks about Buck Pride. It’s not only football but it’s your community making your community look good. And that’s something our coaches instill in them young kids.”

Wallace has also lived in Hominy for most of his life and is dedicated to making a difference in his community. He is currently the Housing Director for the Osage Nation.

“My family is from Hominy,” he said. “I’ve been a resident of Hominy since I graduated high school. I grew up a little bit in my younger years, but moved back right after high school. I’ve kind of watched Hominy go from this beautiful little town to what it is now; it’s not terrible, but there’s some things that can be improved. With my experience and drive, I feel like I can make a difference and make some changes that absolutely need to happen in the town.”

He said the overall infrastructure is one of his top priorities and would like to explore different options to help fix some of these issues.

“The infrastructure is my number one priority,” Wallace said. “Not only the water, but the electrical infrastructure. There’s a lot of issues. Anytime we have a storm, we have power outages. With my electrical background, I knew I could assist with some recommendations and also maybe possibly help them to develop a plan for repairs. Everything takes money and having the funding to make these repairs is number one. Without the money, we can’t do anything. I’m hoping that maybe I can help assist as far as maybe finding a grant writer or pushing them in the right direction for that.”

Wallace believes that it’s important to have clean water.

“You always hear ‘water is life,’ and that’s absolutely true,” he said. “Without water, we can’t survive. Clean drinking water for our people in Hominy, our children, water that you don’t have to worry about a long-term effect of chemicals and different deposits that may be in the water lines, those kinds of things. Getting those old lines replaced would be very beneficial to the overall health of Hominy.”

Wallace said the city council members are dealing with some of the same problems that residents are, and changes are being made.

“We’re going through the same issues that they are, and we are working tirelessly to get these repairs made,” he said. “Don’t give up on us, give us a chance. We implemented two new councilors. We’ve made some changes that absolutely needed to happen here recently. It just takes a little bit of time. Rome wasn’t built overnight, but we will get there, and we won’t stop until we do.”

Pawhuska’s newest elected Osage, Ellen Weigant, has lived in the community for her whole life. She said there are changes needing to be desperately made in the community.

“I grew up here,” she said. “They’ll bury me here. I was born here, and I just started seeing that things were not going the way they should, and I just felt like I’ve always been that person, that I can’t sit and complain on Facebook and then not do anything. I could tell that there were big problems, and we had a deficit situation in the city, and I know a lot of people were upset.”

Weigant has had to face some challenges since becoming a city council member. The city of Pawhuska had to terminate several city employee positions at the city council meeting in June.

“This situation should have been changed 5, 6, 7, 8 years ago and we wouldn’t be in the situation we’re in now,” she said. “Some of the ones sitting on the City Council right now were there when this whole thing happened. And it’s really disturbing to see them having not done something sooner. I know that Mayor Steve Tolson, for the last five years, has been telling them they have a problem, that he was one voice and he had four that would vote against him every time. That’s not the same anymore.”

She reflected on how Pawhuska was during her childhood, and how small businesses are important to keep a community thriving.

“The Pawhuska I remember is a Norman Rockwell painting,” she said. “I remember back in the day when all the kids played together. And you had lots of small businesses. The big box stores have really hurt rural America. We fought back against Walmart because they came in out here at the behest again of the city council, and they were advertising prescriptions 50% below cost in the newspaper. And the small New England companies did a lot to keep them from coming in their whole livelihood of their small towns. They didn’t want their small towns destroyed. And that’s what I had to see happen.”

As a small business owner, pharmacist and someone who is actively involved in her community, Weigant has a unique perspective to bring into the community. Pharmacies have regulations to follow, as do cities.

“I do know small business,” she said. “It is totally different from the city. A pharmacy deals with lots of regulations that you cannot imagine. But it’s different regulations than the city. But at the same time, I’m used to dealing with those kinds of regulations.”

Weigant, like many others, has seen the housing situation change in Osage County over the years. Many people are facing a housing crisis for multiple reasons, and this is something Weigant would like to see improved.

“I would like to see the housing situation change,” she said. “The housing situation is terrible. All these towns are the same way; there were beautiful homes at one point, and they’ve just gone to rack and ruin because people aren’t taking care of them for whatever reasons. But we’ve got to come find some innovative ways to get housing for middle income, hard-working people. And it’d be nice to see a little more manufacturing or something like that.”

“I love Pawhuska, we’ve got everything in the world going for us,” she said. “This whole county does. And all the communities need to be stepping up and showing people.”

Osages Taryn Reynolds, Jason Neff, Jennifer Brumley and Janese Lasley were recently elected and appointed to local school boards. Reynolds was elected to the Pawhuska Public Schools board, while Lasley was recently appointed; Neff was elected to the Woodland Public Schools board; and Brumley was re-elected to the Ralston City Council.

UPDATE: This article was updated on Aug. 20, 2025, to include that Marissa Turley has served on the Barnsdall City Council for two years.