Book number 5 for 2023; 5/5 stars
This is a hard review to write. Not because I didn’t like the book, because I did. I really, really liked it. I had been looking forward to reading this, and in when it was returned to the library, and there were no holds on it, I jumped at the chance.
David Grann has done a magnificent job of chronicling a series of crimes that I had never heard about. This was not something I ever heard about in any history classes (or at least I don’t remember it). Mr. Grann compiled hours and hours of research, much of which required him to travel and find people, interviewing them to find what they remembered.
In the early twentieth century, crimes were perpetrated against the Osage Native Americans, all to steal the rights to the oil under their land. In the late nineteenth century, the Osage were forced to leave their lands in Kansas and were relegated (as was done to so many Native Americans) to a small plot of land in Oklahoma. Ironically, that land turned out to have the richest oil reserve in the country underneath it, and the government had to pay the Osage for it, which made the Osage some of the wealthiest people in the country. White men couldn’t stand that, so they (one, in particular) set out to finagle a way to steal that money from them.
David Grann has written an excellent narrative about these crimes. It is a jarring story, which, at times, caused me to be ashamed to be a white man. The bigotry and rampant greed, with not even a hint of morality, is disgusting and shocking. But I guess when you don’t consider a race of people to even be people, morals aren’t required.
Grann even helped to solve a couple of the crimes that had remained unsolved, through the years, through his relentless research. It was, of course, too late to bring any justice, as the people involved were long dead, but it provided some answers to lingering questions.
Through this narrative, we also get a glimpse of the beginnings of the FBI, under the leadership of J. Edgar Hoover. I found that to be fascinating as well. The Feds had to be brought in because the local and state governments were just as involved in the corruption as the individuals who were committing the crimes.
I now plan to watch the movie that came out last year, to see how it compares.
TTFN, y’all!
The Constant Reader 