Principal Chief of the Osage Nation, James Roan Gray

2002 - 2006

James Roan Gray is the Principal Chief of the Osage Nation after winning election in June of 2002.   He is the youngest Chief in the history of the Osage Tribe of Indians.  His election is widely considered the biggest upset in the history of the Osage Tribe. Today he is one of the leading voices in Native America.  Since taking office he has been elected as Vice Chairman, and now Chairman of the Inter -Tribal Monitoring Association (ITMA) deliberating on the Federal Government’s mismanagement of Native American trust funds, elected to the Executive Board of the Council of Energy Resource Tribes, Co-Chair of the National Budget Council, which sets the priorities for the Bureau of Indian Affair’s $2.3 billion budget.  Chief Gray has accepted appointments to the Office of the Special Trustee Board of Advisors, Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Native American Rights Foundation, Intertribal Economic Alliance and a proud member of the American Indian Chamber of Commerce.

Most recently in response to a request by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Vice Chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA), Chairman of the House Resources Committee, and Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV), ranking member of the House Resources Committee approached Chief Gray as Chairman of the Inter-Tribal Monitoring Association, and Principal Chief of the Osage Nation along with Tex G. Hall, President of The National Congress of American Indians and Chairman of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation and Elouise Cobell, lead plaintiff of the Cobell vs. Norton  case., to spearhead and lead a national working group that would also be comprised of other  national native leaders, organizations, and individuals who collectively would draft and present the Cobell Settlement Workgroup Principles and reform the National Trust Fund Management System. This information would be the basis of legislation that would resolve a nine-year court battle and create a permanent solution to the trust case.

Formerly Chief Gray was considered a distinguished journalist and co-publisher of the largest independently owned Indian Newspaper in America, the Native American Times.  With his wife Liz, they have watched their newspaper grow over the years to become the leading Native American media group in Oklahoma.  During his time at the Native American Times, Jim helped pace public debate on issues important to Native Americans in Oklahoma and across the Nation.

Chief Gray’s work has been recognized over the years by numerous organizations like the Native American Business Development Center who during MED Week Awards for Native Advocates.  The Greater Tulsa Area Indian Affairs Commission also awarded him for the Lewis B. Ketchum Award for Excellence in Business.

Chief Gray is a much sought out speaker in Indian Country and in Washington D.C., as the leading spokesperson on Native American Issues throughout the United States.  As well as testifying in Washington D.C, he has been the keynote speaker at the annual convention of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, the National Tribal Membership Coordinators Meeting in Las Vegas, NV and a panelist at the Oklahoma University’s Native Journalism Symposium and the National Intertribal Tax Alliance.

Chief Gray is the father of three children Henry, Naomi, and James Gray.   He is culturally well versed in his Osage Traditions and has been dancing in his tribe’s ceremonial dances since he was six years old.

Chief Gray and the Osage Tribal Council over the past three years in office are leading the Osage Tribe through some of the most dramatic changes in the history of the Osage Tribe.  Some of the sweeping changes in tribal government have been establishing membership and creating economic development opportunities throughout their sprawling 1.5 million acres of the Osage Reservation. Not long after his inauguration he and the Osage Tribal Council embarked on closing some of the largest oil and gas concessions since the 1930’s.  If the coal bed methane concessions prove to be as successful as the operators are predicting, there should be approximately 1400 wells drilled in Osage County over the next five years.