Osage Nation Acquires Bluestem Ranch

  The Osage Nation closed on the purchase of Bluestem Ranch Wednesday afternoon when Principal Chief Geoffrey M. Standing Bear, signed the final paperwork. The Osage Nation won the land bid from media mogul Ted Turner, Bluestem Ranch is a 43,000-acre parcel of land which was purchased by Turner in 2001. The Osage Nation plans to use much of the lands to preserve, protect and sustain a home for the threatened American Bison.


Standing Bear, signed the paperwork at Musselman Abstract Company . Standing Bear was joined for the closing by Assistant Chief Raymond Red Corn and CEO of Osage Casinos. Byron Bighorse.
The auction was sealed, therefore the purchase price between the Nation and Turner Enterprises Inc. was not disclosed. The deal was brokered by Standing Bear, Red Corn and Chairman of the Nation’s Tallgrass Economic Development team, Tim Tall Chief. The bid was approved by the Fourth Osage Nation Congress and submitted to the Turner group on December 23 of 2015.


Turner accepted the bid and wrote to Chief Standing Bear that the Osage Nation was the high bidder and the preferred buyer, and added, “It is my sincere hope that our transaction is the last time this land is ever sold and that the Osage Nation owns this land for all future generations.”