Southwest
Oklahoma's oldest Native American college faces uncertain future due to financial woes
- Founded in 1880, Bacone College evolved into an Indigenous-led institution, fostering an intertribal community and offering degrees.
- Currently, the college is grappling with financial woes after struggles with mismanagement, leadership instability and lawsuits.
- In response to financial difficulties, Bacone has suspended classes, facing the risk of permanent closure.
The hallways of Bacone College are cold and dark. In the main hall, there are no lectures to be heard, only the steady hum of the space heater keeping the administrative offices warm.
Students aren’t attending classes here this semester, but work still needs to be done. In the college’s historic buildings, there are leaks to plug, mold to purge and priceless works of Native American art to save from ruin. Not to mention devising a plan to keep the college from shuttering for good. It’s a daunting task for the nine remaining employees.
But on this rainy December morning, the college’s president is running a DoorDash order. “If we have the money, we can pay,” Interim President Nicky Michael said regarding salaries. Even she has to find a way to make ends meet.
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Founded in 1880 as a Baptist missionary college focused on assimilation, Bacone College transformed into an Indigenous-led institution that provided an intertribal community, as well as a degree. With the permission of the Muscogee Nation Tribal Council, Bacone’s founders used a treaty right to establish the college at the confluence of three rivers, where tribal nations had been meeting for generations.
A statue of a Chickasaw warrior sits on display at Bacone College on Jan. 8, 2024, in Muskogee, Oklahoma. The Native American school is nearing the brink of closure as years of poor financial decisions, inconsistent leadership and disrepair threaten what was once a haven for Indigenous academics. (AP Photo/Nick Oxford)
Throughout the 20th century, the center of this was Bacone’s Native American art program, which produced some of the most important Indigenous artists of their time, including Woody Crumbo, Fred Beaver, Joan Hill and Ruthe Blalock Jones.
They and their contemporaries pushed the boundaries of what was considered “Native American art.” During a period of intense hostility against tribal sovereignty by the U.S., Bacone became defined by the exchange of ideas its Native faculty and students created and represented a new opportunity for Indigenous education and academic thought.
“Bacone was the only place in the world where that could happen for Native people,” said Robin Mayes, a Cherokee and Muscogee man who attended Bacone in the ’70s and taught silversmithing there in the ’90s. “It’s a tragedy to think that it’s going to be discontinued.”
For decades, the college has been plagued by poor financial choices and inconsistent leadership, triggering flashpoints between administration, students and staff over the mission and cultural direction of the college.
Some have accused recent administrations of embezzlement, fraud and intimidation, resulting in multiple lawsuits. Students expressed frustration with a lack of resources and cultural competency among some school leaders. The college also has had trouble maintaining its accreditation.
Last year, a lawsuit crippled Bacone’s finances. Ultimately, Michael made the decision to suspend classes for the spring semester. She hopes the deferment is temporary, but if the college can’t muster up millions of dollars, Oklahoma’s oldest continually operating college likely will close its doors.
“It has endured for over 140 years through terrible decisions,” said Gerald Cournoyer, an instructor who was hired in 2019 to restart the college’s art program.
“Providing oversight for Bacone has been a struggle because of the leadership or lack thereof,” said Cournoyer, who also is a renowned Lakota artist. Some presidents focused time and money on athletic programs, others on Bacone’s Baptist missionary roots. “When you put absolutely no money, nothing, not $20, not $10, into your fundraising efforts, this is what you get.”
During the time Patti Jo King was the director of the Center for American Indians at Bacone from 2012 to 2018, leadership wanted to build a state-of-the-art museum to replace the 80-year-old building housing many priceless pieces of Native art.
“We didn’t even have the money to keep it open seven days a week,” said King, now a retired Cherokee professor, writer and academic.
Even when she first arrived on campus, King said Bacone’s financial debts already had caught up to it. The student dorms didn’t have hot water, staff were severely underpaid and graduation rates among the college’s remaining students were low.
Still, she and other faculty endeavored to make it a place where Native students could find community, but Bacone’s old problems never went away. Like Cournoyer, after years of working toward rebuilding, she left in frustration.
Today, the old museum is empty. Its artifacts were moved to another location so they wouldn’t be exposed to extreme temperatures.
The remaining staff act as caretakers of the historic stone buildings that predate Oklahoma, themselves important pieces of the past. In the museum, Ataloa Lodge, the fireplace is made of stones sent to the college from Indigenous communities across the country: one from the birthplace of Sequoyah, one from the grave of Sitting Bull, another from the field where Custer died. Five hundred in all, each stone a memory.
Michael, the interim president, and others have been cleaning up buildings in hopes they might soon host graduation banquets and student gatherings. Other staff chase off looters. Rare paintings still hang across campus, including pieces by members of the Kiowa Six, who became internationally famous a century ago, and Johnnie Diacon, a Muscogee painter and alumnus whose work can be seen in the background of several episodes of the television show Reservation Dogs.
A few years ago, experts from a museum in Tulsa warned that many of the paintings are contaminated with mold, which will spread to other nearby works of art. Leslie Hannah, a Cherokee educator who sits on the college’s board of trustees, said he’s concerned, but the cost of restoring them falls far down the list, behind broken gas lines, flooded basements and a mountain of debt.
Bacone’s current financial crisis stems partially from a lawsuit brought by Midgley-Huber Energy Concepts, a Utah-based heating and air company that sued the college over more than $1 million in unpaid construction and service fees. Twice last year, the Muskogee County Sheriff’s Office put Bacone’s property up for sale to settle the debt. Both times the auction was called off, most recently in December.
MHEC owner Chris Oberle told KOSU last month that he intended to purchase the historic property. Attorneys for MHEC have not returned repeated requests for comment from the Associated Press.
Alumni have called the validity of any sale of the property into question, pointing to the treaty right that established the campus and its listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Attorneys for the college declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation.
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Michael said she doesn’t know what stalled the auction, but she is grateful for more time to try to save Bacone.
Across the country, there are only a few dozen tribal colleges, according to the American Indian College Fund, a nonprofit that supports Native American access to higher education. Tribal colleges must be sponsored by a federally recognized tribe and have a majority Native student enrollment. But unlike most of those colleges, Bacone was built on its identity as an intertribal school, a quality that former staff and alumni say made it special.
Now a private institution, Bacone no longer receives state or federal assistance. Its finances have long relied heavily on student tuition, and now it has no students. Michael said judging from the finances, it’s a miracle the college managed to keep its doors open this long.
“Now I’m looking back on this thinking this was set up for failure,” she said.
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Southwest
Nancy Guthrie’s abductor may have returned to the crime scene, left critical clues at tribute: expert
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TUCSON, Ariz. — As a growing memorial outside Nancy Guthrie’s Tucson-area home continues to draw visitors, new questions are emerging about whether investigators are monitoring the site.
Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie, is believed to have been abducted from her home in the early hours of Feb. 1.
“They could [have eyes on the memorial], we’re just not seeing it,” Betsy Brantner Smith, spokesperson for the National Police Association and a retired police sergeant, tells Fox News Digital. “They could be keeping track of it, but we’re not seeing the cameras.”
Nancy Guthrie was abducted from her Tucson home on Feb. 1. (Getty Images)
Yellow flowers, handwritten notes, artwork and even an open letter addressed to the “kidnapper” have been left at the makeshift tribute in front of her home.
While the memorial grows, however, visible law enforcement presence has significantly dropped.
“Detectives are reviewing all viable leads in this case,” a spokesperson for the Pima County Sheriff’s Department told Fox News Digital. “We do not speak to specifics, as this is still an ongoing investigation.”
Authorities have not publicly identified a suspect, vehicle or any persons of interest.
MULTIPLE SUSPECTS ARE POSSIBLE IN NANCY GUTHRIE’S ABDUCTION
Haunting Nest doorbell camera video shows a masked man on Nancy Guthrie’s front steps around the time of her abduction. He is described as being of average height and build and was wearing a black Ozark Trail backpack.
“In this type of situation where you have the potential for a suspect having done this because he or she is somehow obsessed with Savannah Guthrie or seeing Nancy featured on the ‘Today’ show multiple times… someone who is obsessed with notoriety, celebrity — there’s a lot of pathology involved in that,” Brantner Smith said.
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A member of the Pima County Sheriff’s office was seen outside of Nancy Guthrie’s home, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026 in Tucson, Ariz. (Ty O’Neil/AP Photo; Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
“Potentially, that is the type of person that could come back to the memorial, look at the memorial, even take photos of the memorial and add to the memorial themselves.”
As to why there’s been an alleged lack of law enforcement presence monitoring the site, Brantner Smith pointed to one likely scenario.
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“It may be because they have solid suspects, and they just haven’t released that information to the public,” she said.
It’s not uncommon for an offender to return to the crime scene, she added.
A growing vigil in the morning light under cloudy skies is seen at Nancy Guthrie’s home on February 13, 2026, in Tucson, Arizona. (Ty O’Neil/AP Photo)
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“Sometimes the offender will come back to the scene of the crime. So, in that vein, they would come to the memorial, and they may have left their own note, their own flowers,” she said.
Often, it’s a mark of their arrogance, she told Fox News Digital.
“I am guessing that the suspect or suspects who did this are frankly taking great pride in the fact that so far they’ve got away with it,” she added. “Coming back can also be a way to bring back that rush that they had when they originally committed the crime.”
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Such behavior happens frequently in arson cases, she said.
Deputies examine a flyer taped to Nancy Guthrie’s mailbox on Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. They were called to the scene after volunteer searchers and several streamers walked onto Guthrie’s property with a shovel. (Michael Ruiz/Fox News Digital)
“But it’s also not untypical in a homicide case or, in this case, a missing person,” she continued. “We’ve got to look at the psychology of people who do this kind of stuff. They also may want to come back to see what kind of people are leaving notes and leaving flowers.”
For that reason, she said, investigators should be reading the notes to develop potential leads.
“They’re coming back to see the impact that they had on this neighborhood and on this family,” she said. “And the rest of us would view that as very sick, but law enforcement has to view that as a way to collect clues.”
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Savannah, her sister Annie, and brother-in-law, Tommaso Cioni, placed flowers at the growing tribute near the foot of Nancy’s driveway on Monday in a somber visit to the crime scene.
Annie Guthrie, her husband Tommaso Cioni, and Savannah Guthrie at their missing mother Nancy Guthrie’s home on Monday, March 2, in Tucson, Arizona. (Fox News)
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A combined reward for information that leads to Nancy’s recovery from the FBI, local authorities and the Guthrie family stands at over $1 million. It has not yet been claimed.
Savannah is asking anyone with information to dial 1-800-CALL-FBI.
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U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has endorsed Texas state Rep. Steve Toth, who is challenging incumbent U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw in the Lone Star State’s 2nd Congressional District Republican primary.
“I am proud to endorse @SteveTothTX for Congress in Texas’s 2nd Congressional District. Steve faithfully served the people of Texas in the Texas House of Representatives, championing our Texas values of liberty, limited government, and constitutional governance,” Cruz said in a post on X.
“Steve is an unwavering fighter for school choice, fiscal responsibility, and the next generation of Americans. Washington needs bold leadership and representatives who will stand up for Texans at every turn,” Cruz continued.
Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw speaks during a showcase hosted by TerraFlow in Houston Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
“Steve has the experience, the courage, and the conviction to do just that. I’m honored to support his campaign and urge voters in Texas’s 2nd Congressional District to join me in electing Steve Toth to Congress,” he added.
While President Donald Trump has not made an endorsement in the race, he previously backed Toth for Texas state House in 2022 and 2024.
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Texas House incumbent Rep. Steve Toth gives a brief statement before the start of a gubernatorial debate held at Grace Woodlands Church and put on by the True Texas Project on Monday, Jan. 10, 2022 in Spring, Texas. (Michael Wyke/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
“State Representative Steve Toth is doing a fantastic job representing Texas State House District 15. A Small Business Owner and an Ordained Minister, Steve is fighting tirelessly to Secure our Elections, Grow the Economy, Eliminate Needless Regulations, Strengthen the Border, Support our Great Military/Veterans, and Protect and Defend our under siege Second Amendment. Steve Toth has my Complete and Total Endorsement!” Trump wrote in a 2024 Truth Social post.
The last day of early voting for Texas’ March 3 primary contests is Friday, according to the Texas Secretary of State website.
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Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, arrives for the cloture vote on the government funding bill in the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Crenshaw has served in Congress since early 2019.
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EXCLUSIVE: TUCSON, Ariz. — A resident in the Catalina Foothills neighborhood has a street-facing Ring camera that caught 12 cars passing by on the morning of Nancy Guthrie’s suspected abduction.
The recordings took place between midnight and 6 a.m. on Feb. 1, and some of the activity occurred near the 2:30 a.m. mark, which is around the time authorities said the 84-year-old Guthrie’s pacemaker device last synced with her iPhone.
The homeowners, Elias and Danielle Stratigouleas, told Fox News Digital that police had not canvassed their neighborhood in the 25 days since Guthrie is believed to have been taken from her bed in a home invasion kidnapping. The FBI and Pima County Sheriff’s Department have been alerted to the video. It was not immediately clear whether the video is of any use to the investigation or whether the vehicle had ever been on Guthrie’s street.
Guthrie is the mother of “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie, a Tucson native.
Left: A still image from Ring camera video shows a vehicle passing a home near Nancy Guthrie’s on Feb. 1, the morning she is believed to have been abducted. Right: Nancy in an undated family photo. (Courtesy of Elias and Danielle Stratigouleas, Courtesy of NBC)
The Stratigouleas house is on a back road that leads out of Guthrie’s neighborhood, avoiding major intersections. And they live about 2.5 miles away from the crime scene, which is outside the 2-mile radius of neighbors who received a Ring alert asking for video taken from Jan. 1 to Feb. 2.
Their house is roughly a seven-minute drive from Guthrie’s address, according to Google Maps. One of their videos was recorded at around 2:36 a.m. on Feb. 1, which is roughly eight minutes after Guthrie’s pacemaker last synced with her iPhone, according to the sheriff’s timeline.
WATCH: Ring video shows vehicles on outskirts of Nancy Guthrie’s neighborhood morning of abduction
Danielle Stratigouleas said the number of cars passing that night was not unusual, but she and a friend found it “odd” that no one from law enforcement had visited her neighborhood.
NANCY GUTHRIE SUSPECT’S DIGITAL ‘BLACKOUT’ MAY BE KEY TO CASE, SAYS EXPERT WHO PROBED KOHBERGER PHONE
A map details the neighborhood surrounding Nancy Guthrie’s home on Camino Escalante in Tucson, Arizona, and a secondary route through the Catalina Foothills down Camino Real leading to East River Road. (Fox News)
A Ring camera image taken from video shows a vehicle driving south on Camino Real at 2:36 a.m. on Feb. 1, the morning Nancy Guthrie is believed to have been abducted from a home nearby in the Catalina Foothills of Tucson, Arizona. (Courtesy of Elias and Danielle Stratigouleas)
The FBI and Pima County Sheriff’s Department have been alerted to the video. It was not immediately clear whether it is of any use to the investigation.
Retired NYPD detective and national security expert Pat Brosnan reviewed the video with his team. He tells Fox News Digital they believe the vehicle seen at 2:36 a.m. is a Kia Soul, based on its slanted roof, window design and rear-quarter glass. He also noted the vertical brake lights.
The rewards are still outstanding, and anyone with information they think may be relevant is asked to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI.
The route itself had been flagged to Fox News Digital by another neighbor — who said she also saw a suspicious man walking in the area on Feb. 2, around the corner from what appeared to be an abandoned car. The young mother asked not to be named due to concerns for her children’s safety amid the unsolved kidnapping investigation.
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WATCH: Path out of Nancy Guthrie’s neighborhood avoids major intersections
She described him as about 5 feet, 9 inches tall, Hispanic, with a close-trimmed beard and wearing a silver bracelet. He was smoking a cigarette near the intersection of Camino Juan Paisano and Piedra Seca, which is between Camino Real and Guthrie’s home.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department did not return multiple phone calls and emails about the man or the vehicle, a dark red Honda SUV that the neighbor said was moved after three days.
A neighbor of Nancy Guthrie’s spotted this dark red Honda near Camino Real on Feb. 2, the day after Nancy Guthrie’s suspected abduction nearby. She told Fox News Digital that it remained in place for a couple of days after deputies examined it. (Obtained by Fox News Digital)
A neighbor of Nancy Guthrie’s spotted this dark red Honda near Camino Real on Feb. 2, the day after Nancy Guthrie’s suspected abduction nearby. She told Fox News Digital it remained in place for about three days before it was moved. (Obtained by Fox News Digital)
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Another unidentified man was spotted in mid-January, according to neighbor Aldine Meister.
“He didn’t have your typical walking gear on, and he had his hat pulled really far over his eyes,” she told Fox News Digital.
She said she saw the man walking in the neighborhood, near an intersection leading to Guthrie’s home — and hadn’t encountered him before or after.
Deputies examine a flyer taped to Nancy Guthrie’s mailbox on Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (Michael Ruiz/Fox News Digital)
“He was kind of younger, and he just didn’t look like he was going out for a walk,” she added.
She mentioned it to her husband but did not report it to investigators until after Guthrie’s disappearance.
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FBI agents canvass homes near Nancy Guthrie’s home in Tucson, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (Kat Ramirez for Fox News Digital)
Danielle Stratigouleas told Fox News Digital that she did see deputies searching what locals call a wash, a common terrain feature in the region, near her office, which is on Skyline Drive, another main road that borders Guthrie’s development.
North Campbell, which was extensively searched by authorities and volunteers, connects to both main arteries. Camino Real connects only to East River Road.
“I think it sounds smart, and if they even sort of knew the area or actually cased the area beforehand, that road behind Camino Real called Camino Escuela would be an even better idea,” she told Fox News Digital. “There’s never anybody on it, and never a police car to be seen.”
Fox News Digital approached five other homes with street-facing cameras on Camino Real. Three of the homeowners said they had not been visited by law enforcement, either. No one answered the door at the other two.
None said they had any notable video from Feb. 1.
Campbell also runs past the University of Arizona and is a much busier road, she said.
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An undated photo of Nancy Guthrie and Savannah Guthrie was provided by NBC in response to the disappearance of the 84-year-old. (Courtesy of NBC)
“It’s always buzzing even on a Saturday night,” she added. “Camino La Brinca and Camino Piedra Seca also lead to Camino Real, and they’re a good way to get from Camino Zorella.”
The residents said they’re hoping more people outside the radius will check their cameras and submit anything that could help the FBI.
Guthrie is believed to have been forcibly abducted from her home on North Camino Escalante, according to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.
In more than three weeks, police have not publicly identified any suspects, persons of interest or vehicles connected to the case. They briefly detained but later released several people and have towed multiple vehicles, including those belonging to family members and the detainees.
No one has been charged with a crime as of Thursday morning, however.
Exterior view of the front entrance of Nancy Guthrie’s home in Tucson, Arizona, Tuesday, February 3, 2026. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
The FBI and Google teamed up to recover doorbell camera footage even though her Nest device is physically unaccounted for, and she did not have a cloud subscription.
FBI Director Kash Patel released still images and video on Feb. 10.
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The video shows a masked individual with gloves on, prowling on her front porch.
These two images were released by the FBI, recovered from Nancy Guthrie’s Nest doorbell camera. It’s unclear whether they show the same person. (FBI)
According to two sources with knowledge of the investigation, one of the doorbell images was taken on a different date than the others. It shows an individual who may be the same masked intruder at Guthrie’s doorstep, without an Ozark Trail backpack or holstered pistol.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has called the timeline surrounding the images speculation.
Savannah Guthrie is asking anyone with information in the case to dial 1-800-CALL-FBI or contact her directly.
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