Guest: James Roan Gray Principal Chief of the Osage Nation James Roan Gray is the Principal Chief of the Osage Nation, after his election to his second term; he led his Nation through some of the most dramatic changes throughout their sprawling 1.5 million acre Reservation and also in the history of the Osage. He is the youngest Chief elected in the history of the Osage Nation. Today he considered one of the leading voices in Native America. He served as both Vice Chairman and Chairman of the Inter-Tribal Monitoring Association (ITMA) deliberating on the Federal Government’s mismanagement of Native American trust funds and currently serves as a board member. He serves as Chairman of the Executive Board of the Council of Energy Resource Tribe (CERT), serves as Co-Chair of the Tribal Budget Advisory 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, the Native American Rights Foundation, Intertribal Economic Alliance and recently appointed as Chairman, Tribal Energy Policy Advisory Committee. Recently became one of the founding Board members of The Indian Country Renewable Energy Consortium, an organization consisting of tribal governments and tribal corporations and Alaska Native Corporations dedicated to increasing the opportunities for meaningful tribal participation in the new green renewable energy economy. Chief Gray was also elected as the first-ever Chairman of the Board for this new organization. Chief Gray is also a distinguished journalist receiving his degree in Marketing at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, OK. Prior to his first term as Principal Chief, he was co-publisher of the largest independently owned Indian Newspaper in America, “the Native American Times.” Chief Gray’s work has been recognized over the years by many organizations. Receiving the Honoring Nations Awards Program of Harvard University presented Chief Gray on behalf of the Osage Nation with the award of High Honors in 2008, the American Indian Tribal Leadership Award at REZ 2008.and he was recently awarded the National Indian Gaming Association’s Chairman’s Leadership Award 2009, to name just a few.