Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

 

"Travel in any direction that you will from Pawhuska and you will notice at night Osage Indian homes outlined with electric lights, which a stranger in the country might conclude to be an ostentatious display of oil wealth. But the lights are burned, as every Osage knows, as protection against the stealthy approach of a grim specter---an unseen hand---that has laid a blight upon the Osage land and converted the broad acres, which other Indian tribes enviously regard as a demi-paradise, into a Golgotha and field of dead men's skulls....The perennial question in the Osage land is, ' who will be next?'"      -reporter from Daily Oklahoman, 1929

After viewing the film "Killers of the Flower Moon" I was told I should read the book which I had not heard of before. Supposedly it held much more background information and I found that to be true. The book was thoroughly researched with about 40 pages of notes, references and bibliographies. Our Page Turners had read The Lost City of Z by this author in 2015. I gave it a 3 and the group's rating was 2.9 with most agreeing it was well-researched but not exactly a page-turner. I will rate this one a 4; it was a bit more of a page-turner. I can't say I enjoyed it since it made me sad and angry, but I do think good literature makes you feel something. The topic of abuse of our indigenous people is one I am familiar with but the treatment of the Osage in this story was especially heinous.

The story is set in Gray Horse, Oklahoma, an Osage settlement, in the 1920s where oil had been discovered years before making most of the Osage very wealthy, and sadly, many whites very covetous of their land and oil rights. By 1923, 24 tribe members had died mysteriously or violently. This included many of Mollie Burkhart's family---mother, 3 sisters and brother-in-law. Most law enforcement and others in authority were in the pocket of William K. Hale, known as "King of the Osage Hills," and did nothing toward solving what many had determined were murders. When the newly formed FBI became involved, Agent Tom White and his team eventually had some success. He is seen as a hero by the Osage.

Having seen the movie before reading, the characters seemed more vivid and the story more personal. Some like Mollie were easy to feel sympathy and sadness for and others were easy to hate. No spoiler here! I really liked that numerous photographs were included, not always the case with nonfiction. 

Grann is the author of the current bestseller The Wager, which I have on my want-to-read list.