Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

Gray Horse, Oklahoma

TW: Intense Racial Violence, Murder

In the early 1870’s the Osage people were forcibly moved from their home in Kansas to a reservation in Oklahoma. The Osage specifically chose this area (with what little choices they had during that time) because it was too hilly and rocky to be commercially plowed. The land appeared worthless, so the Osage thought that white people wouldn’t want it and wouldn’t fight them for it later on. However, in the early 1900s, oil was discovered on the reservation. Due to a legal technicality that actually benefited the Tribe, the land couldn’t be sold, just leased to drilling companies. The members of the tribe became incredibly wealthy - in 1923 the tribe took in more than $30 million, which corresponds to more than $400 million today. Despite this good luck, the Osage people started dying at higher rates than normal (especially considering their higher wealth and higher quality of life). With Mollie Burkhart as the quasi-main character of this book, Grann investigates the murders of her family as well as other members of the tribe (about 24 murders). He juxtaposes this with the creation of (what will become known as) the FBI and some of the early employees in the organization. Surprisingly, I had never heard of these murders until the release of the 2023 movie by the same name as the book.

The story of the Osage people is a demonstration that even when people of color “win” or “get lucky” in the US, they can never get ahead; much like “Black Wall Street” that was taken out during the Tulsa Race Massacre, which happened around the same time period. Perhaps the most damaging system that contributed to the hardships and loss of life during this time was the guardian system. The federal government decided that the Osage could not be trusted with their wealth and appointed guardians to help them manage it. But this led to the Natives needing permission from their appointed (white) guardian for every cent they spent. And guardians could manage the funds with no oversight from the government, which unsurprisingly led to these guardians lining their pockets. When guardians could manage life insurance funds and appropriate inheritances, it also incentivized murder. It is a little comforting to know, though, that in 2011, the Osage people were given a $380 million settlement to make up, in part, for the mismanagement of oil funds. 

—----------------------------- Spoilers Ahead —--------------------------------------

After some time, we learn that Hale, the land and cattle baron beloved by whites and Natives alike, orchestrated many of the murders. After he was convicted of three of the murders, the federal goverment was comfortable ending the investigation and essentially blaming him for all of them. And though Hale was truly and evil man, and he deserves to be remembered in history as such, I appreciated that Grann took the time to continue the investigation and describe how essentially the entire town was at fault for these murders. As Grann chronicles on page 307 that from 1907 to 1923, 605 Osages died, averaging about 19 per 1,000. The national (white) death rate in the 1920s averaged 12 per 1,000. But because of their higher average wealth, you would expect the Osages to have a lower death rate than the national average during that time. There were tens or perhaps hundreds of guardians that benefitted greatly from the deaths of the people they managed. Almost every white person in the town covered up for Hale or turned their noses up at the investigation because they thought the Osage Indians deserved it for being so wealthy. Even though their was (at least one) mass murderer on the loose, more people were upset by the amount of resources going in to solving the crime. Grann does a good job of showing pervasive racism was amongst this community and beyond, which allowed the Reign of Terror to go on for so long. 

So I appreciate that this story was told, and I am glad that I read this book. However, I am giving it a relatively low rating because this was not a particularly enjoyable story to read (even for a subject matter that you don’t expect to enjoy). There were SO many characters and SO many twists and turns and SO much confusion, that it made it difficult to comprehend what was going on. I assume that this was at least in part intentional to showcase how the investigators at the time must have felt, but, for me, it made the book difficult to get through. And I am someone who really enjoys non-fiction. Also the unreasonable number of quotes and how they were integrated into nearly every sentence really took me out of the story that Grann was telling. And we did not need nearly as much detail about the creation of the FBI that was included. If I had to guess, I think Grann’s publisher told him it wasn’t long enough with just the Osage content, so he added 50 pages about the FBI to make it a proper “book.” But it was incredibly drawn out and superfluous, and frankly, I couldn’t care less about any of those men (side note: a lot of the employees were shown in a good light - then the end of the book briefly mentions that the director we hear so much about is actually corrupt). 

In short: this is an important period in history to talk about, and I think Grann did a good job with that content. But the structure of the book was distracting and a good amount of it could have been edited out. I haven’t watched the movie yet, but I have a feeling that most people will get more out of the movie than they would reading the book.

Review by the Numbers

Overall: 3/5

Writing: 2/5

Message: 3.5/5

Plot: n/a

Character Development: n/a

Challenges Satisfied

- Oklahoma (Reading My Way Around the World Challenge)

- A Book About Native People (Shelf Reflection’s Disney Animated Movies Reading Challenge)