Traveling the Osage with Colonel E. Walters

Jefferson is of Osage/Pawnee/Sac and Fox descent and was born and raised in Osage County, Oklahoma. Her formal education includes associate degrees in American History and Liberal Arts. Her bachelor degree in Liberal Arts was with a concentration in writing.

Colonel Ellsworth Alanson Walters was the tribal auctioneer beginning around 1916 and for about the next two decades. He officated the Osage lease sale auctions which brought in revenue for the Osage shareholders. During the oil boom, millions of dollars came into the tribal treasury. Two of the most famous lease sales took place in 1922 and 1924. These two sales were held in the Constantine Theatre on Pawhuska's main street. Walters commissioned a memorial honoring Native and White friendship dedicating it to the state of Oklahoma in 1926. The monument with his likeness shaking hands with Osage leader Bacon Rind still stands in his home town of Skedee, Pawnee County, Oklahoma. Colonel Walters was an essential figure in one of the Osage Nation's historical chapters.