Books Set in the United States: Oklahoma

Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann (2017)

Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann recounts the calculated murders of members of the Osage tribe in the 1920s solely for their oil rights in Oklahoma.  By the 1890s, the Osage had been relegated to a rocky area in Oklahoma, basically deemed uninhabitable for the white families moving and settling west.  In the early 1890s, oil was discovered and, because the Osage owned the land, they quickly became very, very rich.  The United States Government determines that the Osage need white guardians to protect them and their money.  Many of the “guardians” however, actual use their status to deprive the Osage from their wealth.

By the 1920s, the Osage begin to die under mysterious circumstances.  The book focuses on Mollie Burkhard, a young Osage woman married to Ernest Burkhart, a white.  In 1921, Mollie’s sister, Anna, was found shot and killed and left in a ravine.  She was the second of Millie’s sister to die.  The first sister died of a “wasting” disease shortly before Anna’s death.  Then, Mollie mother died.  Within a year or two, Mollie’s remaining sister and husband were killed when their house was bombed.

Within 4 years, over 20 Osage were known to have been killed or died unnatural deaths.  There was no single method of the killings.  Local law enforcement was corrupt and offered little hope to the Osage.  Finally, the killings reach the attention of the United States government and the matter is handed over to the nascent agency that would later be known as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, headed by a young J. Edgar Hoover.

Hoover desperately wanted a win, so he handed the case over to former Texas Ranger Tom White.  The book describes how Tom and his team laboriously searched through records and documents looking for clues.  What he finds was a truly cold and calculated scheme to steal the wealth from the Osage.

The author also provides insight into an era of US history that was not taught in my school growing up.

The book is a real page-turner.

Read:  May 28, 2017

5 Stars