{"id":3882,"date":"2023-09-21T14:36:52","date_gmt":"2023-09-21T20:36:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/?p=3882"},"modified":"2023-09-22T08:43:04","modified_gmt":"2023-09-22T14:43:04","slug":"the-devil-the-osage-and-a-cruel-conspiracy-author-shines-light-on-dark-history-at-ssc-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/the-devil-the-osage-and-a-cruel-conspiracy-author-shines-light-on-dark-history-at-ssc-event\/","title":{"rendered":"The Devil, The Osage and a Cruel Conspiracy: Author Shines Light on Dark History at SSC Event"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\"Pictured,
Hundreds gathered in SSC\u2019s Jeff Johnston auditorium to hear Grann present on his work.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Pictured,
Prior to his presentation, Grann met with SSC faculty and students at a reception in the Boren Library.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\u201cKillers
\u201cKillers of the Flower Moon\u201d author David Grann presents on his writing and research at Seminole State College on Sept. 21.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Grann
Grann (right) autographs a copy of his nonfiction novel for SSC Student Government President Benjamin Parker (left).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"SSC
SSC President Lana Reynolds (left), Grann (center) and Seminole Nation Chief Lewis Johnson pose for a photo following the event.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKillers of the Flower Moon\u201d author David Grann presented his research and writing process to a capacity crowd inside Seminole State College\u2019s Jeff Johnston Auditorium on Sept. 21. The event was sponsored by the Native American Serving Non-Tribal Institutions federal grant program. Students, employees, tribal leaders and community members listened as the writer spoke about the journey of crafting the book, which began with a tip from a historian friend about the Osage Nation Museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

While touring the museum in Pawhuska, a chance encounter altered the course of Grann’s life, steering him toward the narrative that would later become his nonfiction novel “Killers of the Flower Moon.” It was a pivotal moment, the kind that storytellers and journalists often dream of\u2014a moment when the veil was lifted, revealing a glimpse at a history so shocking that it demanded to be brought to light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While taking in the museum\u2019s photography collection, Grann fixated on a large panoramic photograph. The photograph, taken in 1924, captured a group of Osage members standing alongside white settlers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt looked very innocent,\u201d Grann said. But then he noticed a portion of the photograph was missing. He asked then-Director of the Osage History Museum Kathryn Red Corn what had happened to the missing piece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe said it contained a figure so frightening that she decided to remove it. She pointed to the missing panel\u2014and I\u2019ll never forget her voice\u2014she said, \u2018The devil was standing right there.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The devil, in question, was William Hale, a white cattle rancher who had amassed a fortune through insurance fraud and unfair trade with the Osage. He had deep political connections, and, in 1921, he conspired with his nephews, Ernest and Bryan Burkhart to murder several Osage people for their oil headrights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, The Osage Nation sat atop one of the largest oil deposits in the country. Under tribal law, each member received a headright, or a share of the mineral trust. In the early 1920s, the Osage were the wealthiest group of people in the country per capita, but members of the tribe were often deemed \u201cincompetent\u201d by the government and forced to enter guardianships, where their own money was controlled by their white neighbors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newspapers at the time called the string of unsolved Osage murders the Reign of Terror. Upwards of 60 full-blood Osage members were reported killed from 1918 to 1931, with many historians believing the number to be much higher, given the misreporting and coverups that occurred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the beginning of the process, the question for me wasn\u2019t, should I write this book? The only question was, could I write this book?\u201d Grann said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The writer recognized that crafting the story required a substantial foundation of underlying materials, oral histories and documents. So, he embarked on a five-year-long journey, tirelessly collecting every fragment of evidence and insight he could find. Freedom of Information Act requests, tribal records, court records, Department of Interior records, prison records, correspondence and establishing connections with descendants were all part of the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most daunting obstacles Grann encountered was that the scale of the tragedy was met with deliberate obscurity\u2014records were neglected, hidden or never documented. In these cases of suspicious deaths, the victims had long since passed away, but so had the suspects, eyewitnesses, and even proper investigations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaps in historical documentation underscored the vital importance of interviewing the descendants of those who had endured the Osage murders. Grann recognized that without their firsthand accounts and oral histories, the full scope of the story would remain incomplete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe descendants of both the murderers and the victims, many of whom still live in the same neighborhoods side by side, talking to them really drove home to me how recent these killings were. You see how these crimes just devastated the families, how this history still reverberates today,\u201d Grann said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the imminent release of the film adaptation of \u201cKillers of the Flower Moon,\u201d directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone, Grann is grateful that this often-overlooked aspect of history will be shared with a broader audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I hope will happen is that more and more people will learn about this history. The movie, the book, all these things should just be beginnings of conversations,\u201d Grann said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked if the upcoming film had any changes on his personal life, Grann responded, \u201cFor at least two days, my kids thought I was cool. If you have teenage children, that\u2019s pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the book\u2019s release, Grann has made many return trips to Oklahoma for speaking events and to catch up with friends. He admires how vibrant and thriving the Osage Nation is today despite the cruelty the tribe has endured and the efforts to erase important parts of their history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t fully erase history. It is always there. It\u2019s up to us to decide how we want the past to shape us. We all need to be historians, to be inquisitive. We all need to learn from our past, both personally and nationally, to become the people we want to be in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cKillers of the Flower Moon\u201d author David Grann presented his research and writing process to a capacity crowd inside Seminole State College\u2019s Jeff Johnston Auditorium on Sept. 21. The event was sponsored by the Native American Serving Non-Tribal Institutions federal grant program. Students, employees, tribal leaders and community members listened as the writer spoke about … Continue reading The Devil, The Osage and a Cruel Conspiracy: Author Shines Light on Dark History at SSC Event<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,6,87],"tags":[130],"class_list":["post-3882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-http-www-sscok-edu-media-events","category-news","tag-september-2023"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3882"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3892,"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3882\/revisions\/3892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}