53 pages • 1 hour read
David GrannKillers of the Flower Moon (Adapted for Young Readers): The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
Nonfiction | Book | Middle Grade | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context: David Grann
David Grann, a bestselling author and renowned journalist at the New Yorker, is known for his meticulous research and compelling storytelling. With master’s degrees in creative writing and international relations, Grann understands the importance of journalism as a recorder—and reshaper—of history. His other books include The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder (2023) and The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon (2009), a New York Times number one bestseller. A number of his true-crime essays for the New Yorker were compiled in The Devil and Sherlock Holmes. Grann is a frequent speaker on the “importance of historical memory to the dangers of complicity in unjust systems” (“About David Grann.” David Grann). By researching and sharing important history through engaging storytelling, Grann brings little-known (but dramatic) historical events to life. Through this adaptation for young readers, Grann ensures that this significant historical event is accessible to a broader audience, fostering an understanding of complex issues from an early age.
Grann’s investigative work on Killers of the Flower Moon involved searching the National Archives and “painstaking research […] (often looking for just a single name) to find a wider pattern that eventually revealed ‘hints of widespread murder’ in Osage” (Thoet, Alison. “David Grann reflects on the painstaking research that sparked his true-crime book.” PBS NewsHour. February 22, 2018). One of his most important sources was a “tattered, fabric-covered logbook from the Office of Indian Affairs” that listed white guardians and Osage “wards”—far too many of whom who were listed as deceased (Thoet). Grann said, “There was a culture of complicity. I spent close to five years researching and writing the book, and no record was as important as this simple logbook” (Thoet).
Cultural Context: Adaptations of the Original Book and Their Impact
This book is a deep dive into the Reign of Terror on the Osage Nation, born of greed, systemic racism, and injustice. Killers of the Flower Moon highlights the need for conversations around the often ignored violence and injustice perpetuated against Indigenous people in the United States. Additionally, in 2023, Martin Scorsese adapted Killers of the Flower Moon into a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert DeNiro, and Lily Gladstone. The film received many accolades, and Gladstone became the first Indigenous woman to win a Golden Globe for Best Actress and the first Indigenous woman to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. The critically acclaimed movie continues to bring this story to the forefront of the cultural conversation. Lily Gladstone’s performance and the story itself fostered conversation around the often hidden history of injustice and racism experienced by Indigenous peoples in the United States. By adapting the original book into a film and a version for young readers, Grann has made the story accessible to a broad audience. People of all ages can experience the story and take part in the conversation surrounding the experiences of Indigenous people.
Historical and Geographical Context: The Osage Nation
Land is an integral character in this story. Set in the rugged terrain of Oklahoma, the book opens with a vivid description of the Osage Territory. In the spring, the land is covered in wildflowers, but under the full moon in April, larger plants spring up and strangle the flowers. The Osage people call this the time of the flower-killing moon.
The Osage tribe originally hailed from “land now known as Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, and Oklahoma” (“About the Osage Reservation.” Osage Nation). The US government took control of that land with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803; at that time, there was a large band of Osage people in Oklahoma. As the Cherokee people (who had been removed from the Southeast) went to Oklahoma, they clashed with the Osage. The Osage saw the Cherokees as invaders, while the Cherokees saw the Osage tribe as occupying land that had been promised to them. In an attempt to ease tensions, in 1839 the US government removed the Osage people to a small area in southeastern Kansas. Over the next several decades, white settlers continued encroaching on Osage land. Then, an act of Congress in 1870 “forced [the Osage] to sell [their] land in Kansas to the U.S. government for $1.25 an acre” (“About the Osage Reservation”). For the third time in less than 50 years, the Osage people were removed, this time back to present-day Oklahoma. Using the money from the sale of their land in Kansas, the Osage tribe purchased land in northeast Oklahoma from the Cherokee. This removal was very difficult for the Osage people; they had lost 90% of their lands and would lose 95% of their population (many women and children) during the removal due to “starvation, disease, and other factors” (“About the Osage Reservation”).
Because the Osage Nation owned the Oklahoma reservation outright (it wasn’t held in trust by the US government), the Osage had some control over what happened to their land. Each member received a farming allotment from the US government, but the tribal leadership also evenly split the remainder of the land “so that in 1906 each Osage was given a total of 657 acres” (“Osage County History [A Brief Overview of Our Heritage].” Osage County, Pawhuska, Oklahoma).
Crude oil had been discovered beneath the Osage Nation Reservation in 1894 (when Mollie was about 10), and by 1920, each enrolled member was receiving lucrative oil royalties (headrights, which could be inherited but not sold) based on their ownership of the land. They quickly became the wealthiest group of people per capita in the world.
With its unpredictability but potential for monetary gain, the rugged land attracted rough and rugged folks. Everyone from bootleggers to outlaws to oil tycoons flocked to this barren landscape, and boomtowns flourished. The distance from the nation’s capital and the more established East Coast furthered the atmosphere of lawlessness. The government was created as the land was settled, and the influential folks, rugged enough to attempt to settle the “Wild West,” were often corrupt.
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