We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion of land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother but his enemy, and when he has conquered it, he moves on. ---Chief Seattle

It is in the darkness of their eyes that men get lost
― Black Elk Speaks:  Being the life story of a man of the Oglala Sioux

"I do not think the measure of a civilization is how tall its buildings of concrete are, but rather how well its people have learned to relate to their environment and fellow man."
- Sun Bear, Chippewa

The spiders, honeybees, yellow jackets, and mud daubers: these insects still speak - a language that is older than humans. The buffalo, elk, wolf, coyote -they still talk too. It's we, the people, who have forgotten how to listen.

--[Osage Spider Story, an Osage Legend, told by Archie Mason, Jr

Some stories have to be told. Yet, they're the stories we try hardest to forget. Even historians are not immune from this disorder. Case in point: the Osage Murders that took place in the early 20th century. You might wonder why these tales so seldom make it into the creative imagination? Well, I don't have an answer to that. Perhaps creators don't think they'll make money.

You would’ve thought by now, that people in film would’ve realized that it’s impossible to make a three hour adaptation of Tolstoy’s War and Peace, or to make a movie documenting the military achievements of Napoleon Bonaparte in less than five hours. Yet, both have been done. Multiple times. But hey...I like a brave (insane) director, who casts Henry Fonda as the son of a Russian nobleman!

I guess the lesson is that there are some stories which don’t translate to film– too many intricacies, too much time passes, etc.  If you have seen Ridley Scott’s Napoleon, you might agree with me. I don’t know why it is that every five years or so Hollywood has to go through its obligatory epic stage. Do you remember the swords and sandals epics of the fifties? 

BTW--don't waste your time...if you must, watch “Ben Hur” or “Spartacus”—they’re the best of the lot.

It's funny (and tragic) that filmmakers stubbornly refuse to recognize the fact that you'll never be able to replicate the Battle of Waterloo.  But enough of this, I'm only speaking of the uneasy relationship between Hollywood, and pageant dramas, to illustrate my 'review' of Killers of the Flower Moon.

I've never written a film review for you, Dear Reader, but I am going to write one now, because I need to clear the air regarding a tragic subject, and pay homage to landmark film maker, Martin Scorsese. .He has (almost always) been able to pinpoint the atmosphere and pathos of certain periods.

I offer for your perusal, Dear Reader, The Age of Innocence:

click me


I know, I'm a bad girl for providing you with this link, but I didn't put it on the web. Anyway, if you're curious, judge for yourself. His use of Joanne Woodward as the narrator (and I always thought the voice as the author Edith Wharton) was a stroke of genius. Also, if you're of a mind, you could try Casino and The Defiant. The list of Scorsese's films is legion, so you have a lot of stuff to romp through. Take your time, and let me know which of his movies are your favorites, if you like.

He is (in my less than humble opinion) a great American filmmaker.




************




Before we take a gander at Killers of the Flower Moon, it's necessary to provide you with some context. Obviously I cannot tell you all, because this is a story that requires careful and intricate detail. So, while I shall refrain from recounting the entire series of events regarding the Osage murders, I am going to give you some other sources, Dear Reader, which you might peruse at a later date.

It is uncomfortable to try and honestly view the past of one's country, particularly if they are patriotic (which I am). In a land and culture that produced John Adams, Cesar Chavez, Malcolm X, Rod Serling, Ray Bradbury, and Star Trek, how could I not? But when it comes to slavery, Japanese American internment, Manifest Destiny, and the near-eradication of  the American buffalo, one must take pause.  But, I neglected to mention the near-genocide of Native Americans, by European immigrants.  Are you familiar with the term ELO (extinction level event)? Well, I think it accurate and appropriate to use, when describing massacres and the fates of individuals such as: Wounded Knee, Tecumseh, and Sand Creek. For one who loves her country, and is an historian to boot, it is necessary to retell such stories, for the obvious reason that we must remember. However, it helps to be realistic: such events will happen again. Unfortunately, humans prey upon one another. Religious conflicts, political revolutions, and violent crime forever indicate this tragic truth.

Even today in the US, just look at the idiocy surrounding Hunter Biden, AKA 'hey! let's all pick on the addict!' Easy prey for the Republican Big Game Hunters!

If envy, suspicion, fear, and hatred are an intrinsic part of human nature, it's also part of our condition to forget. Take it from me, this is not a good thing.  We must honor the dead. All of the dead. We may learn no lessons to take with us, and such memories may shame us, yet still we must honor the dead.


***************

This brings us to the Osage murders. One thing you must know first, is that more than 60 Osage were murdered for the mineral royalties on their allotments. Actually, there is an excellent chance that this number is low.

And it all involved mineral royalties from Native American allotments.   ??   OIL, Dear Reader,.  Black Gold.  Texas Tea.  A motive.

What are allotments? To understand this, we must begin with an evil word:  assimilation.

no, I'm not talking about the "Borg" 

For this term, we have to thank Thomas Jefferson, for his synthesis of this despicable policy. Let's take a quick gander at this passage, from Notes on the State of Virginia, where Tommy-kins breaks down his views on the biological basis for differences between the races:

The first difference which strikes us is that of colour. ... They have less hair on the face and body. They secrete less by the kidnies, and more by the glands of the skin, which gives them a very strong and disagreeable odour. This greater degree of transpiration renders them more tolerant of heat, and less so of cold, than the whites. Comparing them by their faculties of memory, reason, and imagination, it appears to me that in memory they are equal to the whites; in reason much inferior, as I think one could scarcely be found capable of tracing and comprehending the investigations of Euclid: and that in imagination they are dull, tasteless, and anomalous.








Yeah, for me Jefferson has indeed become Frankenstein.

Assimilation had earlier roots than Jefferson, and it was an idea that refused to die. I think that this was because whites had been acculturated into thinking themselves as the 'top of the pops.' Later, assimilationists considered themselves 'benevolent'.  'Reformers'  (cough. hack). Consider this infamous 'nugget' from Cpt. Richard Pratt in his address to the National Conference of Charities and Correction, in 1892: Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.

What a pillar of society Pratt was, eh?

Any investigation into Indian Allotment, begins with the work of Angie Debo.




I urge you to take a look at this documentary, because it is the logical starting point for any consideration of this subject. Angie Debo was one of the first historians to steadfastly investigate the aftermath of allotment, in the latter years of the nineteenth century. Yet, her research additionally focused on the thefts and murders of individual allotment holders in the 20th.

Debo's works are classics:

And Still the Waters Run: The Betrayal of the Five Civilized Tribes (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1940; new edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1984)

From Creek Town to Oil Capital (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1943).

The Historical Background of the American Policy of Isolation, by J. Fred Rippy & Angie Debo (Northampton, Mass.: Smith College Studies in History, 1924).

Now (bear with me), let us return to our history of  this wholesale land grab.  The Dawes Severalty Act was passed in the late 1880s, in a really weird congressional atmosphere:  an unholy mixture of reformers and bigots found agreement in robbing Native Americans of their reservation lands--which had been granted them in various treaties with the federal government.  The "idea" behind 'severalty', was that the Indian should be turned into a farmer, and anglicized.  They should speak English;  they should be Christians;  they should acculturate themselves into the lifestyle of white anglo-saxon protestants.  So, how did the Severalty Act work?  Let's say that X amount of reservation acreage would be assigned to one individual, or one family, gradually including every person living on it.  Once done, you've got a lot of extra land left of the original reservation holdings, and a federal government that thinks 'yipee!! Look at all the land left over for white farmers and ranchers!!!

The new lands opened up in many western states, including Oklahoma (which had been previously named "Indian Country" by the federal government--lands that would belong to the Indians, "as long as the rivers ran" (gag).  Unfortunately, whites soon wanted the fertile land in OK as well.  This has been partially memorialized by director Ron Howard in the film Far and Away starring newlyweds Tom Cruise (eeeeeeek! the evil Scientologist!) and Nicole Kidman.  Director Howard wanted to culminate this love story, by portraying one of the 'land races,' where whites from all walks of life raced towards "open land."  Ye Olympian Gods.  One cannot help but wonder if the land once belonged to a larger reservation (s).  

Check this out:

Forgive me, but I just lost my lunch.

                                                             ********

And, now, let us consider another Dickensian horror in the fabled land of Oklahoma:  the discovery of oil on Indian land.  Can you guess what happened next, Dear Reader? I guess you can;  it's all so depressingly familiar.  First, whites stole the land for farming and ranching, and next they'd steal the mineral rights.  And, that's precisely what happened.

You might ask the question:  if the allotment belonged already to a Native American individual or family, then how could whites get their hot little hands on it? 

.And, the answer is, in every way their evil little minds could devise.  One logical place to start is the "stewardship."  This occurred, when the state government in Oklahoma declared an Indian individual to be incompetent to handle their allotment money, and only whites were legally entitled to administer mineral royalties generated from oil drilling on the land.  Additionally, allotments were also "rented out" to whites who wanted to farm or ranch the land--the rental proceeds also had to be managed by whites, who would then theoretically pay them to the Indian owner.

.