The Osage Native American tribe was unwillingly displaced and settled in the rocky lands of Oklahoma. Prospectors soon discovered that the reserve was based on a huge oil field. Murders and disappearances follow.
The wind blows through the Gray Horse Cemetery on the lands of the Osage Native American people in northern Oklahoma. As eagles soar in the sky, Margie Burkhart points to the graves of her ancestors murdered a century ago. The tragedy that struck his family forms the plot of Martin Scorsese’s film Killers of the Flower Moon, taken from the bestseller of the same name. Mollie Burkhart, Margie’s grandmother, played on screen by Native American actress Lily Gladstone, saw members of her family – her mother, her sisters, her brother-in-law – murdered in the 1920s. one after the other. “They methodically chose who to kill,” asserts Margie Burkhart, jet-black hair and piercing gaze. The responsibles ? Mollie’s own husband, Ernest Burkhart, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, and her uncle William Hale (Robert De Niro). Two white settlers, eager to seize the oil exploitation titles of this Osage family.
“It was just greed”
If today a few pump jacks still dot the yellowed pastures of the village of Gray Horse, it is nothing compared to the boom at the turn of the 20th century when derricks covered the prairie for kilometers. At the time, one of the largest oil fields in the United States had been discovered on the reservation. And the Osages held the exclusive rights to exploit this windfall. They could not be transferred or sold, only inherited. “The Osage were considered the richest people in the world”, says Kathryn Red Corn in the house built by her Osage great-grandfather in Pawhuska, the seat of today’s tribal government. Which aroused covetousness, particularly from white pioneers.
People started coming and marrying tribesmen for their money, continues the octogenarian with the square face and silver earrings. “They had them murdered and then they inherited their possessions,” she adds, in her living room decorated with Osage art and black-and-white photos of her ancestors. His grandfather, Raymond Red Corn senior, also Osage, suspected his second wife, a White woman, of poisoning him. He died overnight in the early 1920s, when he was in his 40s and in good health, according to Kathryn. No investigation was carried out.
“They took my great-aunts”
At Margie Burkhart, the anger and suffering are always palpable. Feelings revived by viewing Martin Scorsese’s film during a private screening this summer. “They took my great-aunts from me. I could have had a big family. I could have had lots of cousins, nieces, nephews, but I grew up without them,” she emphasizes, her throat tight. “William Hale didn’t need to do that. He was one of the richest men in Osage County, he had a lot of cattle. A lot of money,” adds Margie. “It was just greed“.
“Simply because they were Native Americans, their lives had less value,” bitterly summarizes Jim Gray, whose great-grandfather Henry Roan was assassinated in 1923. A murder also orchestrated by William Hale to benefit from a life insurance policy. Only 5 percent of Osage killings during this period were the subject of a federal investigation, estimates Jim Gray, who served as chief of the Osage Nation from 2002 to 2010. “These stories have not been told, there has been no justice for these families,” he says in Skiatook, north of Tulsa. Jim Gray admits to being seized with anxiety when he learned that Hollywood was interested in this painful past. “Were we going to become supporting players in our own story?”
“It’s not in our history books”
“Imagine our surprise when Scorsese contacted us, spoke with us, listened to us and rewrote large parts of the script,” he assures. The script was initially supposed to focus on the federal investigation but ultimately focused on the Mollie-Ernest couple. “You’re going to see this movie and you’re going to feel the Osage influence,” explains Jim Gray. He hopes that the release of the feature film will raise awareness about “people who have been trampled” so that the United States becomes “what they are today”. “People probably don’t want to talk about it. It’s not in our history books,” he continues. “But we must know our past, especially its mistakes, so as not to repeat them.”
Margie Burkhart also hopes that the drama experienced by the Osages will not be forgotten. “In two, three years, when the film is no longer in the news, I hope people will continue to talk about it”she concludes.