A couple of years ago a bunch of Hollywood stars came to Osage county Oklahoma to film the movie “Killers of the Flower Moon.” There were all sorts of pictures and videos of the movie stars around Tulsa. Leonardo DiCaprio was seen visiting the Outsiders house one day in Tulsa. Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese and a few others could be seen around the state. The movie is set to release on October 20.The movie is based on the book by David Grann. It was first published in 2017. The book tells about the Osage murders that occurred during the oil boom of the 1920s. I read the book before the movie stars came to Oklahoma. It is one of the best books I’ve ever read. The Osage people called this time of murders, “The reign of terror.”The FBI was a fledgling government organization during the time of the Osage murders. The FBI got its start under president Teddy Roosevelt, the “founding” date for the FBI is July 26, 1908. Corruption was rampant in local politics during these times. Tammany Hall was in full force back then, corruption and good ole boy political patronage jobs were a normal thing all over the nation. Cities in the United States had grown due to industrialization, both local governments and large industries had issues with how the common people were treated. Al Capone, Baby Face Nelson and many other gangsters became famous for their lawlessness. The nation needed a federal police force to handle the new wave of crime and corruption.Most of how the five civilized tribes were treated has not ever been told. The systematic murder and oppression of the Osage people during the 1920s is astounding. It was and still is hard for me to comprehend the level of cruelty the Osage endured. The local city, county and even state level government did very little to help the Osage families that were being murdered. It took the FBI to put a stop to the murders and it took years for it to end.I lived in Washington County, near Bartlesville, Oklahoma when I was just out of college. I worked for the US Department of Agriculture. Osage county is just west of Washington County where I lived and worked. I worked on just about every large ranch in the area. I worked on one big ranch that is over 10,000 acres. It’s also owned by a family with the same last name of the main character in the book.I can remember asking a ranch hand one time how in the world does someone make enough money to buy a 10,000 acre ranch. The ranch doesn’t have a single public road that divides it, it’s literally a 10,000 acre tract that’s never been split up. The ranch hand never answered my question about how someone could afford to buy such a huge chunk of land at once. I specifically remember I thought he was being kind of rude. Now after reading the book I’m left wondering about the history of that ranch I worked on. I have heard several of the names that are mentioned in the book and I have more questions than answers. I doubt I will ever know the entire truth.At the Tulsa horse show this past week I met a couple that live near Burbank, Oklahoma in Osage County. The husband is a member of the Osage tribe. His great -great grandfather was murdered back when all of the bad stuff was going on. He said his grandma doesn’t want to hear anything the book or the movie , it’s all bad memories for her.Listening to him tell about the sadness his family faced the book became real to me and I remembered a passage from the book. Near the end of the book on page 291 there is a sentence that simply says, “There were a lot more murders during the reign of terror than people knew about, a lot more.” I hope the movie, Killers of the Flower Moon gives an honest insight as to what happened, I’m looking forward to watching it. It premieres on October 20.James Lockhart lives near the Kiamichi mountains in southeast Oklahoma. He writes cowboy stories and fools with cows and horses.
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