From a Google Image Search – West Vancouver Memorial Library
The movie is streaming online, and I am just getting around to reading Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann. This is not a literary book. Indeed, it’s a bit dry in style and involves many names, mostly of men. And not for the most part good men. However, the content is anything but dry; it’s still shocking even if you believe that recent events have made you unshockable.
The story begins with the Osage Indians, continues with oil and gas discoveries, and ends with plots, murders, greed, theft, and the formation of the modern FBI under J. Edgar Hoover. The US government had treaties with indigenous people which they frequently ignored. That’s how the Osage tribe ended up far away from Kansas and found themselves in Oklahoma. (Next stop Pacific Ocean?) Each family was given allotments of land that depended on the size of the family. When oil and gas were discovered, it turned out that the Osage did not own their allotments, but they owned the mineral rights under them. Each member of the family was given a “headright” to profits from any wells on his/her property.
Although the Osage had those headrights, the government (in its infinite wisdom) sought to “protect” the naïve owners of these headrights. They assigned white folks to act as guardians. That, rather than offering protection, opened the door to human predators who had no moral boundaries. The greedy guys did not even stop at killing someone or paying someone to do it for them. To make sure the headrights came to a white person, marriage was required.
The story begins when two members of the tribe have been killed by a bullet in the back of the head. Charles Whithorn had been missing for a while and Annie Brown’s body was found quickly due to pressure from Annie’s sister Molly. Annie and Molly were quite different. Annie liked to party and so she was given short shrift by the authorities, her life undervalued and disrespected. Molly lost her sister Minnie who seemed to get progressively sicker for no discernible reason, as did Mollie’s mother Lizzie. For the time being, Mollie’s married sister Rita seemed fine. Mollie was married to Ernest Burkhart, a white man. He was related to William Hale, a man who seemed overly present in the lives of certain members of the Osage.
The machinations of bad actors are what makes this tale both shocking and engrossing. Can you guess which characters are the slimiest? Remember, these are all real people.
So Many Books, Choose Wisely 