Reclaiming our Water

The room was full. People had gathered to focus on water and returned to fill the room a second day.

The People of the Middle Waters dove into the Osage County water discussion. The mayors, city officials, their nation’s leaders, their Natural Resources director and water district representatives. Quantity and Quality. Osage County depends on surface water to meet all their water needs. Households, businesses, school, ranching and oil production all require water.

They identify as the “77th county” and understand their standing in the state differs in many ways from the “lower 76” counties in Oklahoma.

I was honored to be the keynote speaker for the Reclaiming our Water Symposium, sponsored by the OSAGE NEWS. I spoke at length on our damaged water, Tar Creek showing both Loren Waters’ Meet Me at the Creek and Aaron Gibson’s Take Care, Tar Creek illustrating loss while hoping to instill activism. I was gifted and wrapped in one of the specially made Pendleton blankets and presented a small Water Protector plaque from Osage News.

After returning to my seat, to the round table and to a set of people, a mayor, a candidate for Osage Chief, 2 Osage Congresswomen, and a woman who lives and works on the Tallgrass Prairie. That table became “my people” before the end of the second day.

There were journalists and lawyers, activists and artists, in attendance but few were not Osage Nation members or residents of the county.

During these two days I learned of the interconnectedness of this tribal nation and the towns and water districts within what has been known as the Osage Reservation, now after the URBI decision referred to as: “dis-established.” The Osage actually bought the land that is the largest county in the state. For a great number of years, their reservation was the only one recognized in the state, before McGirt re-established the reservations of other tribal nations here.

It became obvious the title, Reclaiming Our Water Symposium was apt when I heard many say, “We’re taking water serious.” It certainly is with the boil order for Hominy, OK having been in place since July 2024. Let that sink in. Boil all of the water used in your home, what you cook with, drink, and do it for 16 months.

Imagine the change in your budget if you supplemented your water use with commercially bottled water, month after month. People sitting at my table were filling their trunk and BACK SEATS with bottled water, for nearly a year and a half.

Journalists moderated the symposium and conducted the conversations with persons who the Osage News then deemed Water Protectors for their professional efforts for water.

The Osage Nation director of Natural Resources, Craig Walker declared, “It takes all of us to make a difference for all of us.”

There is a great connection between the Osage and the Quapaw, their language!

But also, the great wealth and degradation that have occurred to both of their reservation lands. With the Quapaw, it was hard rock mining and the lasting impact it has had on our Tar Creek and the heavy metals poisoning of our children, with the Osage, their wealth from oil and gas extraction also has brought environmental harm from oil wells, left unattended, and the injection wells that are purging “salt” water that also contains benzene and other chemicals leaving their lands and streams polluted indefinitely. No simple fencing can stop this, it will take enforced legislative changes on the industry to change the way it is able to operate, hopefully before all of their aquifers and surface water sources are lost.

Here in Ottawa County, the Rubidoux aquifer, with municipal and private wells, with a small number of drinking water coming from parts of the Boone provide our water. Our surface water leaves us and helps replenish the Grand Lake o’ the Cherokees. Our runoff is drunk by nearby county residents. This is why we all have to be mindful when using pesticides and other chemicals or over applying fertilizers in our watershed, that can wash downstream in the next rain. Silt fencing can be installed along streams, construction and industrial sites to keep soil from eroding and washing downstream. To suggest sites where this will help prevent runoff call the ODEQ Hotline 1-800-522-0206.

For 27 years the Tar Creek Environmental Conference has been held with the 28th already planned for next October, but what we have in mind for the spring is different. Let’s get serious about water, just like the Osage are. They call themselves Water People. But aren’t we all?

Who would you want to be in the room when the OTTAWA County Water Symposium is held? Your suggestions for moderators, speakers and the actual questions as well as your input on how we design the agenda are welcome.

Respectfully submitted ~ Rebecca Jim