The Osage wealth was enormous, and pictures of Osage families with cars, fancy clothing and so on, angered and bemused, in equal measure, White America. Native Americans were not supposed to be well off, never mind extraordinary rich. However their wealth was not their own. The US government ensured that Osage's were appointed Guardians who controlled whether or not the Osage could spend, and being in control of such wealth made them rich too. It is clear that a whole industry arose to leech off the Osage - shopkeepers sold goods and enormously inflated prices, a not particularly hidden criminal underground ensured that Guardianships fell into the hands of a small number of people, and, most shockingly, white people got themselves embedded into Osage families through marriage.
Chad E. Pearson's recent book Capital's Terrorists looked at the centrality of violence to ruling class attempts to maximise profits in the United States in the 19th century. This easy recourse to violence is also clear in the Osage case, because what takes place is the systematic murder of individual Osage people in order to concentrate wealth into the hands of particular family members through inheritance. These people, who happened to be married to whites, could then be stripped of their wealth.
As the number of brutal murders grew, it became clear that most law enforcement officials were too corrupt to identify the killers. Which is why the Bureau of Investigation (forerunner of the FBI) became involved. J.Edgar Hoover was keen to ensure that the BoI recovered from earlier problems - including corruption of its own - and threw resources and agents into solving the Oklahoma murders. There is no doubt that the agents involved were dedicated and principled individuals, particularly Tom White. Grann details the investigations and the difficulties the agents had in getting convictions.
This is not the place to discuss the convictions. Readers will likely want to learn that as they read the book. Grann writes well and the book is a compelling true life "whodunnit". But I did want to briefly note problems with it.
The book lacks context. In particular there is no real discussion of the genocidal policies of the United States government against Native American people. This is the background that enables us to understand why whole communities could treat the Osage as they did - to the brutal violent conclusion. Secondly, there is a tendency to depict the US government itself and particularly the FBI as the arbitrators of freedom, law and democracy. There's no doubt that some agents, White for instance, did their best to solve the crimes and stand up for the Osage people's rights. But the FBI, and certainly not Hoover, were and are not the defenders of freedom that they are portrayed at here. Hoover's record, for instance, in overseeing the persecution of left-wingers etc is well known and was a central part of the FBI's role.
David Grann's book essentially treats the killings as a violent detective Western. As such it is an enjoyable read. But it doesn't really get to the heart of the story that he draws out, which is about a country predicated on racism and violence. Telling this story gives an insight into another great crime, but doesn't really tell us anything about why.
Related Reviews
Estes - Our History is the Future
Pearson - Capital's Terrorists: Klansmen, Lawmen & Employers in the Long Nineteenth Century
Tully - Crooked Deals and Broken Treaties
Cronon - Changes in the Land
McMillan & Yellowhorn - First Peoples in Canada
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