At the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis, the graduate students in the Leadership and Evaluation in Indian Country class (Tovar, instructor) have expressed concern over the rights of Indigenous peoples to preserve this historical, cultural, and sacred space. As a result, a position paper to that effect has been written by Tovar and Kelly to support the preservation of this space, citing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2008) among other precedents for preserving historic Indigenous sites.
The students, in this class offer this information and recommendations as a way to honor the Osage Nation efforts to preserve what is left of this special place and retain the Osage history in St. Louis. Although the university is supportive of our students and faculty members to disseminate this perspective, the position paper does not reflect the views of Washington University in St. Louis.