The Challenge of Fostering Responsible Relations: The Case of Osage Winds

Jean Dennison (University of Washington)

Too often, the stories told about Indigenous peoples flatten the complexity of Native nation experiences, especially around environmental sovereignty and relationality. This chapter explores the deep politics behind the building and dismantling of an industrial wind farm on the Osage reservation as powerful window into the complexity of these issues. Colonial systems have rendered Osages a minority population in our own territory, forcing our leaders to build fraught relationships to maintain our Nation. This chapter looks at how Osage sovereignty is forced through fraught relationships with the federal government and non-Osage residents living on the reservation. In this context, Osage Nation officials have attempted to use the concepts of “responsibility” and “public interest” to defend its sovereignty, which have had mixed results historically and must be navigated carefully as a strategy to take us forward.

Date: Thursday February 13, 2025

Time: 12:15 pm – 1:45 pm

Location: Haines Hall 352