Sarah Liese
Liese is Diné and an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians. She is passionate about heart-centered storytelling and works as an Indigenous Affairs reporter at KOSU. She joined the station in April 2024.
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Tribal programs addressing mental health and substance abuse in Oklahoma lost federal funding overnight Tuesday. Roughly 24 hours later, the Trump administration moved to reinstate that support without additional explanation. But tribal leaders say they are still reeling from "political whiplash." -
The Muscogee Nation filed a federal lawsuit arguing its authority to regulate hunting and fishing activity of its tribal citizens in its reservation, free from state interference. The tribe is suing Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation Director Wade Free and special prosecutor Russell Cochran. -
Cherokee Nation leaders are proposing tribal legislation that would create a $30 million nursing school campus in Tahlequah, created in partnership with the University of Oklahoma.
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Lawton Economic Development Authority officials voted to approve a joint resolution between their agency, the City of Lawton and Comanche County Industrial Development Authority (CCIDA), acknowledging Westwin Elements' decision not to move forward with a large-scale commercial refinery in Lawton at this time. -
In an effort to revitalize and protect the Choctaw language, the tribal nation and Rosetta Stone announced a new partnership. Interested language learners will be able to access Level One of the new resource this June, which also integrates Choctaw culture. -
About an hour's drive outside Oklahoma City is one of the first active foreign trade zones in Indian Country — an economic tool for tribes and companies seeking stability amid fluctuating tariffs. Meet Citizen Potawatomi Nation's Iron Horse Industrial Park. -
StateImpact’s Jillian Taylor and OPMX’s Sarah Liese spoke with OU assistant professor June Zhao about her research, which explores a solution that could help increase and sustain IHS funding. -
Muscogee Nation leaders are beginning to change tribal policy in response to a court order requiring the tribe to grant citizenship to Freedmen descendants, or those whose ancestors were formerly enslaved by the tribal nation. -
Oklahoma's new Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples task force is holding meetings around the state to identify the gaps in solving the MMIP crisis. The task force, created by the Attorney General's Office, held its first public listening session last Friday at the Cheyenne Arapaho Service Center in Oklahoma City. -
Indigenous people in the U.S. are killed by guns more than nearly any other segment of the population. They rank second behind the Black community, according to a newly published Violence Policy Center report.
