American Racism. The plunder and murders of the Osage Nation

Osage and "white" people 1924

Much against their will (of course)  the Osage Nation was forcibly removed from their ancestral lands in Kansas to what was then called the "Indian Territory"  (modern day Oklahoma).

They were alloted land which was utterly unsuitable for agriculture, but rich in grazing land which they leased to "white" ranchers, providing the Osage with necessary income.

The Osage leaders were wise and tough and had won for themselves the rights to minerals on their Oklahoma land.  This was of little account until the discovery of oil.  Those same wise Osage leaders negotiated with the oil explorers for royalties should the "black gold" be found.  Those royalties amounted to $30 million in 1923 dollars.  Wealth indeed.

So much wealth: (Osage people built fine mansions, owned luxurious autos, employed white servants etc).

All this was too much for "the powers that be"  in the County and in the Territory.  They thought and said "Why should these  minority native American peoples be more prosperous than we?"

In the face of Osage prosperity the "whites" employed very same canard which is the stock in trade of racists everywhere.  viz: They are lazy, violent, ignorant, cheaters, drunkards, filthy people.

Thus began what the Osage still call "The Reign of Terror", spearheaded by one William "King of the Osage Hills" Hale.

Hale, a wealthy business man, was the spider at the centre of an evil web which by foul means and foul every effort was made to deprive the Osage of their wealth and property.

Local law enforcement (such as it was) was unwilling to effect justice for the Osage.

Meanwhile back in Washington D.C. the young J. Edgar Hoover was anxious to notch a success for his embryonic  F.B.I. 

His special agent Tom White was the man for the job.  His dogged and painstaking work brought Hale and others to justice.  Not that Hoover cared about justice.  His chief concern was to burnish his own reputation.  Years later he would preside over another and national reign of terror.

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None of which I have written above is a product of my imagination.   It is rooted in a splendid book called "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Gramm, (on loan to me me from my friend Ashley Lloyd).

Gramm faithfully records the the Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, but he moves beyond the FBI/William Hale case to his own contemporary investigations into what William Hale missed, and the broader story which must be told.

Please get this book if you value one untold story of American Racism  -  a shame to us even now.

Killers of the Flower Moon  - The Osage Murders and the birth of the FBI.  David Gramm, Vintage Books, 2017