Killers of the Flower Moon: 

The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

By David Grann, 2017, 352 pp

 

Review by Marsha Katz

 

Killers of the Flower Moon is a true story about murder, family, power, greed and racism. It was an unbelievably horrific episode in U.S. history that nobody would believe if they were reading a novel. But it is a true story that illustrates how racism can make ordinary people commit terrible acts against a minority group. Their belief that the other group is inferior and subhuman creates an atmosphere that enables them to not recognize that they are doing harm to other human beings. Moreover, since racism is usually a group phenomenon, others can feel the same way and encourage each other to engage in bad behavior.  In this way, the belief is perpetuated and spread.

 

The story centers around Mollie Burkhart, an Osage Indian in Oklahoma. On May 24, 1921, she feared that something happened to her sister, Anna, who disappeared three days earlier. Anna was later found murdered in a ravine. Three years prior, another sister died from a "wasting illness".  Mollie believed the wasting illness was actually a slow poisoning. Her last sister, Rita, was killed by a bomb along with her husband. Meanwhile, hundreds of the Osage were dying by a variety of methods. The white community accepted the murders, and and the thefts. The local authorities did not investigate.

 

The murder spree became national news. Previously, the Osage made the news because they were the richest people per capita in the world. When the Osage Indians were forced to give up their lands to the white man, they eventually relocated to lands in Oklahoma. . .." that were broken, rocky, sterile and utterly unfit for civilization." Decades after their exile, the Osage learned that their land had huge oil deposits.  Since they had purchased the land, it was harder for the government to take it away from them. Furthermore, in their agreement, it was stated that the "oil, gas, coal, or other minerals covered by the lands . . . are hereby reserved to the Osage tribe."  

 

Prospectors had to rent leases from the Osage. However, the U.S. government, ruled that many Osage were incompetent to handle their own money, and many, including Mollie's relatives, were required to have a local, white guardian oversee and authorize all of their spending, including day to day necessities. Some of the guardians took advantage of their wards. Some guardians would purchase goods from their own stores at higher prices, or direct purchases to certain stores and take a kickback. One government report estimated that the guardians stole more than $8 million. 

 

However, the mineral rights could not be bought, only inherited. Some people married into the tribe and then caused their spouse's demise. This was the case with Mollie's family.  Mollie's husband would get the headrights only when she and her whole family died.  She was the only one to survive.

 

The book also tells the story of the beginning of the FBI, which was involved in solving 21 of the deaths. Most of them, however, remained unsolved. 

    

This story documents the worst of what society can condone for its own self interest. It serves as a warning about racism and injustice that we still see today.