The Osage Nation executive branch closed its private school dedicated to language and culture immersion. The decision has since sent community members and leaders scrambling to find other alternatives.

What was supposed to be a boisterous second week of school at Dapsoka Ahnkodapi during the 2026-27 school year was instead a quiet, somber affair.

Teachers were packing up their classrooms when 12-year-old Wahreshe Hamilton and her mom, Geneva HorseChief Hamilton, visited the private Osage school, which served students between 6 weeks old and 8th grade.

“It's weird hearing no one screaming,” Hamilton said, thinking about how the playground normally sounded at this time.

About a week before the school year, the Osage Nation executive branch decided to shut its doors along with the tribe’s visitor center and Harvest Land farm.

Osage Principal Chief Joe Tillman declared a state of emergency Aug. 4, citing a financial shortfall in the tribe’s projected budget. Ten days later, Tillman retracted it. Yet, he chose to keep Daposka closed.

“Expanding our language and culture must be our top priority,” Tillman said in a statement on August 13. “By redirecting resources that currently serve approximately 90 students, we can invest in programs that reach many more Osage children and families.”

Geneva HorseChief Hamilton called the closure an act of “dismantling [Osage] sovereignty.”