(...the Osage murders and the birth of the FBI " by David Grann.
A very notable read, right off the current best seller lists.
In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were the members of the Osage Nation, who after many forced moves, ended up being planted by an all-seeing and all-knowing US Government on some rocky land in what is now Osage County, and soon found themselves sitting on a huge oil field. They became instant multi-millionaires almost overnight. At that time, 1 in 11 adult Americans owned a car; and the average Osage adult owned 11 cars, complete with chauffeurs! They built lavish homes, had servants, (some of whom were whites), travelled extensively to places like London and Paris.
They were horribly exploited and slaughtered for their money. The levels of corruption, the depth of the cover-up are hard to accept. At this time, a young FBI and its brash young eccentric leader, J. Edgar Hoover was in its infancy. This turns out to be its biggest case of the times, yet most, if not many Americans and few Oklahomans are really aware of the events. How did this happen? Were things in this country really so bad then; were politicians and law makers really this corrupt? Haven’t we learned anything from things like this?
Did you know about this in our history before? It’s rarely taught, as it’s not a pretty picture of the good ‘ol USA. And after all, History is written by the winner. (ask the Aztecs, if you doubt that to be true)
It’s a damn good read. It’s true, and much of the material is straight out of old FBI Files, real historical newspaper articles, letters, prison interviews, testimony, and a heck of a lot of deep, well-thought out and organized research. It will chill you to the bone to see how our nation, our law men, how some of our grandfathers even, acted here in Oklahoma back then. It was a little less than 100 years ago...not that far back, in the big picture. And it happened right here, right damn here in Oklahoma I tell you! Why, some of you may even live in Osage County, sitting right now on top of countless trusting, innocent, yet murdered Osage Indians’ forgotten graves.
This makes any modern black-face matter dug up in some politicians old yearbook pale in comparison. This even outdoes Fallin's daughter backing her trailer-park rig up to plug into the State Capitol's electricity.
(***Edited: I'm not going to go into any more details, as I don't want to spoil the book or the story should you choose to read it. This should be a must-read for every U.S. American High School Student, at the very least, IMO. One usually can't improve without acknowledging one's mistakes, and endlessly repeating the same old action over and over while hoping for a different result usually doesn't work out to well either).
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A very notable read, right off the current best seller lists.
In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were the members of the Osage Nation, who after many forced moves, ended up being planted by an all-seeing and all-knowing US Government on some rocky land in what is now Osage County, and soon found themselves sitting on a huge oil field. They became instant multi-millionaires almost overnight. At that time, 1 in 11 adult Americans owned a car; and the average Osage adult owned 11 cars, complete with chauffeurs! They built lavish homes, had servants, (some of whom were whites), travelled extensively to places like London and Paris.
They were horribly exploited and slaughtered for their money. The levels of corruption, the depth of the cover-up are hard to accept. At this time, a young FBI and its brash young eccentric leader, J. Edgar Hoover was in its infancy. This turns out to be its biggest case of the times, yet most, if not many Americans and few Oklahomans are really aware of the events. How did this happen? Were things in this country really so bad then; were politicians and law makers really this corrupt? Haven’t we learned anything from things like this?
Did you know about this in our history before? It’s rarely taught, as it’s not a pretty picture of the good ‘ol USA. And after all, History is written by the winner. (ask the Aztecs, if you doubt that to be true)
It’s a damn good read. It’s true, and much of the material is straight out of old FBI Files, real historical newspaper articles, letters, prison interviews, testimony, and a heck of a lot of deep, well-thought out and organized research. It will chill you to the bone to see how our nation, our law men, how some of our grandfathers even, acted here in Oklahoma back then. It was a little less than 100 years ago...not that far back, in the big picture. And it happened right here, right damn here in Oklahoma I tell you! Why, some of you may even live in Osage County, sitting right now on top of countless trusting, innocent, yet murdered Osage Indians’ forgotten graves.
This makes any modern black-face matter dug up in some politicians old yearbook pale in comparison. This even outdoes Fallin's daughter backing her trailer-park rig up to plug into the State Capitol's electricity.
(***Edited: I'm not going to go into any more details, as I don't want to spoil the book or the story should you choose to read it. This should be a must-read for every U.S. American High School Student, at the very least, IMO. One usually can't improve without acknowledging one's mistakes, and endlessly repeating the same old action over and over while hoping for a different result usually doesn't work out to well either).
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