Sarah Liese
KOSU Indigenous Affairs ReporterSarah 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 team in April 2024.
Liese is from Saint Louis, Missouri, and received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the School of Journalism and New Media at the University of Mississippi in 2019. Following graduation, she worked at WLOX-TV in Biloxi, Mississippi, as a Producer-In-Residence Fellow and Digital Content Producer. She hungered for more schooling and enrolled at Ohio University to pursue a Master of Science degree. While in graduate school, she was awarded the Outstanding Master's Student Award in 2022 from the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism.
Liese has presented her findings at the International Indigenous Climate Change Research Summit and International Indigenous Research Conference and has received multiple fellowships from the Sundance Institute and the Indigenous Journalist Association.
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The Choctaw Nation announced last week the purchase of a former Big Lots distribution facility and adjoining land in Durant, which had been speculated to be a potential detention center site for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. -
An Oklahoma federal judge decided the state cannot intervene in a jurisdictional settlement between the City of Tulsa and the Muscogee Nation in an opinion filed Monday. -
An Oklahoma federal judge ruled he can't rule the Osage Nation's reservation is still intact, denying a legal maneuver to resurrect an old lawsuit. However, Principal Chief Geofrey Standing Bear said this decision does not diminish hope; rather, it provides Osage leaders with more clarity on how to move forward. -
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." -
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. -
Attorneys for Oklahoma's Tax Commission are asking the US Supreme Court not to hear the tax dispute of a Muscogee Nation citizen. But if they do, they should "revisit" the landmark McGirt ruling. -
The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation is trying to figure out how to navigate a conflict between Gov. Kevin Stitt and Attorney General Gentner Drummond over what licenses tribal citizens need when hunting in Indian Country. -
The Muscogee Nation is sounding the alarm over the need to revitalize two Indigenous languages. Principal Chief David Hill recently issued an executive order outlining actions to safeguard the Muscogee and Euchee languages. -
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt has appointed a special prosecutor to go after Indigenous hunters who are cited for hunting without a state license on tribal reservations. -
Cherokee Nation issues state of emergency to combat food insecurity ahead of SNAP benefit suspensionSupplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits are going to expire Saturday, leaving hundreds of thousands of Oklahomans without food assistance. The Cherokee Nation is declaring a state of emergency and calling on state leaders to step up.
