What’s something you learned from reading this book?

Although I feel like I know a decent amount of history, I had not heard of any of the events covered in this book. That 24 people were so ruthlessly targeted and killed, and it’s not covered as a part of history books in school is a tragedy. And the fact that there were so many others not included in that body count makes it even more horrifying. I also didn’t know much about the early history of law enforcement or how the FBI came to be, so that part of the book was also interesting and new info for me.

I know very basic things about how our government has treated Native Americans, but the horrors that the Osage dealt with was more detail for me. It  was mentioned that Hale only got a life sentence vs death, because Indians weren’t considered humans. You want to think that’s horrible, but it’s not surprising when you think about our history. The whole guardianship thing was something I learned, but again, that wasn’t too surprising either.

I live in Minnesota, but in the late 70s I spent a fair amount of time in Oklahoma. I heard that there were reservations on oil fields.  I thought “Well isn’t that the best.  The US sent the Natives off to desolate places that were undesirable until they weren’t!” I should have known better.  That the Whites would find a way to cheat the Natives out of even that advantage!

I read this book several years ago, but it might be time to read it again. I think this information is so important.  I hope the movie does it justice.

The depth of corruption spooled out.  The saddest for me was the husband killing his wife.  The contrivance of guardianship so the natives weren’t in control of their finances was a new one for me.