To make a really lengthy story barely shorter, the Osage definitely didn’t come upon the oil by sheer luck. Whereas it’s true that the land they had been pressured to reside on was seen as nugatory within the eyes of many white officers, the Osage shortly noticed indicators of potential oil and mineral deposits when scouting their new house. Between these indicators and their information of how different tribes had beforehand been mistreated by the federal government, the Osage leaders made some extent of negotiating for mineral rights when discussing the phrases of their transfer to the land. What was doubtless seen as a largely meaningless provision turned extremely vital when oil was found on the Osage’s land within the late 1800s.
On that very same topic, the film doesn’t fully seize simply how helpful the oil discover was. From 1901 to 1950, the Osage tribe acquired roughly $300 million from their mineral rights, which might be the equal of about $4 billion today. For additional context, that makes the Osage oil discovery extra helpful than all of the gold found throughout the US gold rush.
The Variety of Osage Murders and Murderers
Although Killers of the Flower Moon definitely doesn’t shrink back from portraying scenes of violence (it’s a Martin Scorsese film, in spite of everything), the movie arguably undersells the variety of Osage tribe members and related allies who had been most likely murdered because of the oil earnings.
It’s been popularly urged that around 24 people had been murdered through the so-called “Reign of Terror” (the occasions portrayed within the movie which largely came about between 1921 and 1926). Nevertheless, that quantity has lengthy been the topic of some debate. As a result of secretive nature of lots of the murders (lots of them had been made to seem like pure deaths), inherent flaws within the reporting/investigation course of at the moment, and old school corruption and racism, it’s doubtless that the initially reported variety of murders was wildly inaccurate. Renewed stories counsel that there have been doubtless greater than 50 Osage and Osage-related murders throughout that point interval. Others (together with Killers of the Flower Moon creator David Grann) argue that hundreds of Osage had been murdered between the invention of oil within the late 1800s and the Nineteen Fifties.
On that word, the Killers of the Flower Moon e-book ends with a haunting epilogue that sees Grann attempt to choose up the case, so to talk, and examine the murders with the assistance of recent sources and historic context. His findings not solely lead him to imagine that we had beforehand drastically underestimated the variety of murders however the variety of murderers as nicely. Not solely does Grann determine extra culprits who might have instantly participated within the Reign of Terror murders and bought away with it, but in addition a number of William Hale-like energy brokers who might have orchestrated murders from afar. The movie seemingly hints at that revelation through the scene through which Leonardo DiCaprio’s Ernest Burkhart is confronted by a room stuffed with males through the occasions of his trial. The implication appears to be that every of these people was both concerned within the murders or in any other case nonetheless stood to learn from them and allowed them to proceed.
The Fledgling Early Days of the FBI
One of the vital variations between the Killers of the Flower Moon e-book and movie is the e-book’s deal with the early days of the FBI and the way the investigation into the Osage murders reshaped the group. In reality, the complete title of the e-book is “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Start of the FBI.” To summarize, a large portion of the e-book follows FBI agent Tom White and is actually informed from his perspective. Not solely does that format provide us extra perception into the main points of the investigation however it permits Grann the possibility to higher discover the politics of the FBI’s origins.