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Finished reading "Killers of the Flower Moon" by @DavidGrann. The Osage, a First Nation whose original lands stretched from what today is Missouri and Kansas in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west, were cornered by the #USA government into a rocky, barren patch in
Oklahoma. Shrewdly, the Osage's negotiators succeeded in securing mineral rights in the territory, and, a few decades later, revenues from oil drilling were distributed to members of the nation as "headrights." In the period 1910s & 1920s, income from these headrights made
members of the Osage Nation wealthy. However, the #USA government transferred many members' rights to control this money to guardians, most of whom were white Anglos. Grifters of all types, bankers, con artists, forgerers, settled among the Osage to steal their money. More
seriously, many murdered members of the Osage Nation to gain control of more and more headrights, with the cooperation of local doctors, judges and police, and #whitesupremacy shielded nearly all of these criminals from consequences.
failed. Nevertheless, @DavidGrann showed that nobody ever properly investigated the crimes against the Osage Nation, but the author did not address why @FBI didn't widen the investigation, despite indications from its investigators that criminal acts went beyond the actions
of those who were convicted. The likely explanation was that J Edgar Hoover used the limited Osage murder investigation to shore up his agency's image & enact internal changes. Once that objective was realized, he saw no need to seek justice for people he likely despised.
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