Killers of the Flower Moon tells the story of the Osage and the Reign Of Terror. If you don’t know what that is, like I didn’t, then admit we receive white-washed, watereddown history in school.
As the history goes, we forced the Osage like all other native Americans, off their native lands. They resettled in Oklahoma. Unlike other tribes, they negotiated a deal with the US Government. They would forever retain the rights to what lay under the land. Even if they sold the land. So when oil was found in Osage Territory, they became some of the richest people in the world (think Qatar today).
This set the stage for what became known as the Reign of Terror.
Killers of the Flower Moon starts by focusing in on one person, Mollie Burkhart. In the first part or chronicle, we meet many people in Mollie’s orbit and learn of the tragedies that befall different members of her family over and over. We also learn of the horrid treatment of the Osage not just from local white people but the state and federal government. Honestly, I struggled to get through this part of the book because it was so heart breaking to me. It makes me wonder how many other stories are out there like this we do not know.
In the second part of the book, the focus of the story switches to Tom White, the federal agent sent by J. Edgar Hoover to investigate the killings among the Osage. At this point the story becomes almost pure detective novel and my heart break switches to utter outrage. For as the first part took me a week to get through the first part, it took only two days to get through parts 2 and three.
The third part switches to the author’s perspective. We go with him as he goes to present day Oklahoma. He visits with some of the descendants, combs through newspaper clippings and archives. It’s here we learn the extent of the Reign of Terror. Or at least as much as we can learn without witness testimony and investigations. Truely horrific.
To me, reading this is likereading Night by Elie Wiesel. You’re not going to say you enjoyed it. Who enjoys reading about genocide? But it’s a compelling story, if you can keep the names straight, and one that I think everyone should know. Definitely 4 stars for me.