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Killers of the Flower Moon

The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
May 09, 2020DavidSpencer99 rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Killers of the Flower Moon exposes a history of systematic murder of native Americans by white Oklahomans who coveted the wealth of Osage Indian families, whose fortunes came from those hereditary rights to oil revenues from their reservation lands. The murderous campaign was born of prejudice. To be sure, greed was involved, but underlying all is the belief that the Osage were inferior and undeserving. Newspapers ran stories about profligate spending, but “rarely, if ever, mentioned that numerous Osage had skillfully invested their money or that some of the spending…reflected ancestral customs that linked grand displays of generosity with tribal stature.” Through the Department of the Interior, the federal government declared many Osage “incompetent” based on whether they were full-blooded or mixed. Government-assigned financial guardians oversaw the expenditures by adult Osage, as if they were children. Invoking fire-and-brimstone, biblical condemnation, Congressmen gave these guardians full control over how tribe members could spend their oil revenues. David Grann attributes many of the Osage murders to these guardians.