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Gaylord News is a reporting project of the University of Oklahoma Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication

Gaylord News

Gaylord News is a reporting project of the University of Oklahoma Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication

Gaylord News

Gaylord News is a reporting project of the University of Oklahoma Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication

Gaylord News

Usha-Maria Turner during her Senate nomination hearing for Assistant Administrator of the EPA’s Office of International and Tribal Affairs. Courtesy Senate Environment and Public Works Committee

Oklahoma energy executive pledges tribal collaboration, regulatory balance in EPA nomination hearing

Blake Madden June 25, 2025

WASHINGTON—Oklahoma energy executive Usha-Maria Turner pledged Wednesday to strengthen the Environmental Protection Agency’s global and tribal partnerships if confirmed as Assistant Administrator of...

Kalyn Free in a campaign video for DNC vice chair. Courtesy Kalyn Free

Oklahoma Democrat loses DNC vice chair role in election revote

Blake Madden June 21, 2025

WASHINGTON—Kalyn Free, an Oklahoma Democrat and Choctaw tribal citizen, lost the Democratic National Committee vice chair revote Friday, falling short of Shasti Conrad, the Washington state Democratic...

Kalyn Free in a campaign video for DNC vice chair. Courtesy Kalyn Free

Choctaw Democrat Makes Final DNC Leadership Push

Blake Madden June 19, 2025

WASHINGTON—Kalyn Free has positioned herself as a solitary figure in the renewed Democratic National Committee vice chair election, leveraging her background as an Oklahoma Democrat and a citizen of...

Kalyn Free in a campaign video for DNC vice chair. Courtesy Kalyn Free

Oklahoma Democrat Kalyn Free Prepares for DNC Vice Chair Run-Off

Blake Madden June 18, 2025

WASHINGTON—Kalyn Free, an Oklahoma Democrat and Choctaw tribal citizen, will move on to a runoff for a vice chair seat of the Democratic National Committee following Tuesday's vote, where no candidate...

Kalyn Free campaigning for DNC Vice Chair. Courtesy Kalyn Free

Oklahoma Democrat Seeks DNC Vice Chair After Overturned Election

Blake Madden June 16, 2025

WASHINGTON—Kalyn Free — a Native American attorney and longtime Oklahoma Democrat — is running again for DNC vice chair, hoping to reshape the party’s focus on rural and Indigenous communities...

The Cherokee Nation Outpatient Center in Tahlequah in 2024, which it operates with the Indian Health Service. Photo courtesy The Cherokee Nation.

Cole seeks to protect Indian Health Service from budget cuts

Kylie Caldwell June 13, 2025

WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Tom Cole (R, Moore), an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation, has spent 22 years in Congress fighting to protect tribal funding and says he won’t allow cuts to the Indian...

The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History Kylie Caldwell/Gaylord News

OU history museum is one of largest holders of Native American remains

Kylie Caldwell April 24, 2025

Oklahoma’s largest museum of natural history is also one of the largest holders of the remains of Native American and funerary objects in the country. Now, 25 years after passage of law requiring...

Shortly before President Joe Biden left the Oval Office he heeded calls from activists to commute the life sentence of Leonard Peltier, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, who had been convicted of the murder of two FBI agents. /Federal Bureau of Investigations

Biden Commutes Peltier Sentence

Kevin Eagleson January 21, 2025

Shortly before leaving office, President Joe Biden commuted Leonard Peltier’s life sentence to indefinite house arrest following decades of community activists fighting for his release. “It’s...

Cherokee Nation Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. takes a photo with President Joe Biden at the 2024 White House Tribal Nations Summit. During the summit, Biden announced a 10-year plan for Native American language revitalization.

‘They didn’t forget Indian Country’: Tribal leaders and scholars reflect on Biden administration

Kevin Eagleson December 17, 2024

WASHINGTON – Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland didn’t mince any words when she called Pres. Joe Biden the best president for Indian Country of her lifetime during this year’s final White House...

Rep. Tom Cole (R-Moore) reaffirmed his commitment to solving the missing and murdered Indigenous persons crisis. Cole is Chickasaw and the first Indigenous American to chair the House Appropriations Committee.

Cole reaffirms commitment to solving missing and murdered Indigenous persons crisis

Kevin Eagleson November 26, 2024

There are 86 missing Indigenous persons in Oklahoma, according to data from the National Missing and Unidentified Persons Systems. At a Nov. 20 House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Interior,...

Congressional candidates’ campaign committees submitted their pre-general election financial disclosures showing their contributions and expenditures. Most of Oklahoma’s incumbents are outspending and outraising their opponents from Oct. 1 to Oct. 16.

Incumbent Oklahoma delegation holds big financial advantage over opponents

Kevin Eagleson November 1, 2024

Most of Oklahoma’s Congressional incumbents are out fundraising their opponents during the final stretch of the campaign. They are also all outspending their opponents. Why it matters: Candidates...

According to research by the Department of Interior’s Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, before 1969, there were 451 Federal  Indian Boarding Schools, 87 of which were in Oklahoma. //Kevin Eagleson Gaylord News

Oklahoma Native leaders react to historic Presidential apology

Kevin Eagleson October 30, 2024

Oklahoma tribal leaders say they are pleased with President Joe Biden’s apology for the forced removal over 100 years of Indigenous children from their families and tribes to Federal Indian Boarding...

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