Osage Nation Elects New Principal Chief

Geoffrey Standing Bear has been elected as the Osage Nation's new principal chief.  According to the tribe's web site, unofficial election results from Monday's vote have Geoffrey Standing Bear defeating Margo Gray by just under 1,000 votes.

• Geoffrey Standing Bear - 1,615
• Margo Gray - 652 

Osage Nation unofficial election results

Standing Bear is an attorney with practices in Bartlesville and Pawhuska. He is a University of Tulsa graduate who has served as Supreme Court Justice of the Sac & Fox Nation of Oklahoma and General Counsel to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, according to his firm's website.

In the race for assistant principal chief, Raymond Red Corn defeated Amanda Proctor 1,209 to 958 votes.

Monday's general election followed the ouster of Osage Nation Principal Chief John Red Eagle in January 2014.

During an eight day trial, Red Eagle was found guilty of five of six charges leading to his dismissal.

The charges included trying to get the tribe's attorney general to stop investigating his granddaughter, authorizing more than $70,000 to give a friend a job with the nation even though the friend never did any work, and refusing to comply with the tribe's open records law by refusing to give public information to two newspapers out of fear it would hurt a friend's reputation.

1/21/2014 Related Story: Osage Nation Chief Found Guilty Of Violating Tribal Law