by an Osage citizen
On September 2, 2026, the Osage Nation Congress authorized retaining special counsel to investigate whether Principal Chief Joe Tillman’s actions are grounds for removal. This page tracks that process on its own, in order, as the investigation proceeds: what was alleged, what has been said publicly since, and what the enacted removal procedure requires at each step. It does not repeat the record’s full account of the outlay or sovereignty’s account of the closures; it cross-links to both. Written September 9, 2026.
Status as of September 9, 2026. On September 2, Congress authorized a $50,000 special-counsel investigation into whether Principal Chief Joe Tillman’s actions warrant removal. The authorization alleges an unjustified emergency declaration, use of that emergency to close Daposka Ahnkodapi, the Visitor Center and Harvest Land, and executive-staff pressure on the Attorney General’s office over peyote-related charges against the former Treasurer. These are allegations, not findings. Tillman rejected them on September 4 and said he would cooperate. As of September 9, the case remains in fact-finding, with no removal decided or attempted. Special counsel investigates and reports; proceeding to a removal trial then requires eight of twelve congressional votes, and conviction requires ten. The full authorization, Tillman’s response, and the procedure are below.
A plain-language summary of this same investigation covers the same facts.
The authorization
On September 2, 2026, an Authorization to Retain Special Counsel concerning the Principal Chief was filed with the Office of the Clerk at 4:35 PM and certified by Clerk of the Congress Jordan Davis. Presented by Second Speaker Whitney Red Corn under Rule 12.1 of the Rules of the Osage Nation Congress, it names three allegations that, if true, would constitute grounds for removal, each characterized in the authorization as “constituting malfeasance”:
- That Executive Order 26-01 declared “a State of Emergency that did not exist, and without any basis in law to issue the order.” - That the Chief “utilized a false financial State of Emergency to close Daposka Ahnkodapi, the Visitor Center and Harvest Land.” - That Executive appointed staff “pressured the Office of the Attorney General, an independent office, to file and or dismiss criminal charges” against former Treasurer Clark Batson over his possession of peyote, a substance legal for Native Americans under federal and Osage law.
The stated budget for the investigation is $50,000. Eleven of the Congress’s twelve members signed: six by hand, five by the electronic-mail approval Rule 12.1(c) permits alongside a signature. The line for Congressman John Maker was blank. The full account of the signatures and the underlying closures and outlay is in the record’s timeline.
What has been said since
Osage News reported the authorization on September 3, updating the story the next day with the Chief’s response. Speaker Alice Goodfox, asked what concerned her most, named the state-of-emergency and Attorney General’s Office allegations ahead of the closures:
"Out of everything, the most concerning to me is the state of emergency and AG's office. Having sat on this seat for 16 years, the false state of emergency and AG's is most alarming."
Speaker Alice Goodfox, statement to Osage News, Sept. 3, 2026
Second Speaker Red Corn described the moment in a separate statement:
"This is a serious and difficult moment for the Osage People. The issuance of Executive Order 26-01, the declaration of a financial State of Emergency, the resulting closure of Daposka Ahnkodapi and other Osage Nation initiatives, and allegations concerning interference with the prosecutorial independence of the Office of the Attorney General have raised questions that warrant an independent investigation."
Second Speaker Whitney Red Corn, statement to Osage News, Sept. 3, 2026
She added that the authority behind the authorization “is derived from the Osage People.” According to the Osage News report, Red Corn made clear that the authorization is not a finding that the allegations are true or an attempt to remove the Chief, but rather the beginning of a fact-finding process.
Congressman Billy Keene, who posted the authorization publicly the same day, wrote that it is “just a first step; we will now wait for the investigative report before Congress decides how to proceed. It’s a fact-finding mission.” He separately disputed the security rationale given for the Daposka Ahnkodapi closure:
"On the record in committee, the Daposka Superintendent, Mr. (Patrick) Martin, stated he never even received any written findings of any security or facility threat. There was then a discussion about having to fix some locks on some doors. This was not an expensive remedy."
Congressman Billy Keene, Osage Community for Responsible Citizenry Facebook page, Sept. 3, 2026
Congressman Maker, the one member whose line on the authorization was blank, told Osage News he had not signed because the document arrived by email after hours and he had not checked it in time; he said he would have signed it so as to allow the Chief to “have his day in court.”
On September 4, shortly before 4 p.m., Chief Tillman issued a statement:
"On Sept. 2, 2026, the Osage Nation Congress authorized the retention of special counsel to investigate allegations related to decisions and actions taken by my administration. While the allegations are without merit, I recognize their seriousness, respect Congress's constitutional authority, and will cooperate fully with a fair, thorough, and impartial review of the facts. My administration is, and always will be, committed to operating within the authority of the supreme executive power vested by the Osage Nation Constitution. Our Nation is best served when its leaders are focused on solutions, cooperation, and results that move the Osage Nation forward."
Principal Chief Joe Tillman, statement, Sept. 4, 2026
The Congress held its regular Tzi-Sho session floor sitting and an Appropriations Committee meeting on September 8, and the Minerals Council met September 4; recordings of all three were transcribed for this record on September 9 and have now been reviewed. None named the special counsel, the removal process, the three allegations, or the selection of an attorney to conduct the investigation. The floor sitting and Appropriations Committee continued the underlying outlay dispute this record already tracks: Chief Tillman’s amended-outlay request remained unanswered as of September 8, and Congress read in a new FY2027 Executive Branch appropriation bill that day, both recorded on the timeline rather than repeated here, but neither session connected that dispute to the investigation itself. The Minerals Council covered its own routine business (214 lease matters, budget modifications, a Tribal Energy Consortium appointment), unrelated to any of it. A councilman on the Minerals Council named Tillman, Chuck Tillman, participates throughout that recording; he is not the Principal Chief and is not otherwise connected to this page.
What the process requires
Speaker Goodfox said it falls to Legislative Counsel Loyed “Trey” Gill to choose the attorney who will conduct the investigation, and that she expected the selection to take four to five days from September 3. The Congressional rules under which the authorization was filed fix the investigation’s scope and the standard for removal:
"The special counsel shall conduct a comprehensive investigation limited to the allegations listed in the authorization to retain Special Counsel. ... The Osage Nation Congress shall reach a judgment for removal only when the evidence indicates that misconduct resulted in injury to the Nation. The Congress shall consider first whether any of the evidence, standing alone, rises to the level of impeachable conduct."
Amended Rules of the Osage Nation Congress, Rule 12
After the special counsel reports, a motion by a member of Congress is required to proceed to a removal trial, and that motion needs 8 votes to pass. A trial itself requires 5/6 of the Congress, 10 of 12 members, to vote for removal. Keene stated the same threshold in his September 2 post:
"After we receive the report, if we still decide to move forward with Removal, this will require 8 votes to proceed to a removal trial."
Congressman Billy Keene, Sept. 2, 2026
The 2014 precedent
The Osage Nation has removed a Principal Chief before. In 2014, Principal Chief John Red Eagle was removed from office following an eight-day removal trial; the Third Osage Nation Congress voted to sustain five of six Articles of Removal, which included interfering with an Attorney General investigation involving a relative, misusing more than $70,000 in tribal funds, withholding public records requested under the Nation’s Open Records Act, and disregarding laws specific to mineral estate control.
This page is part of a record compiled by an Osage citizen, independent of the Osage Nation government. It will be updated as the special counsel process moves forward. Every figure, date and quotation on it can be checked against the document or recording it came from.