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The Osage and Reparation

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March. 1, 2019

Introduction

David Grann, one among the best authors in His book, Killers of the Flower Moon describes the horrific happenings of the Osage Indian oil reserve, the emerging face of terror and the J Edgar Hoover's efforts to provide solutions to the ongoing evils and save the image of the bureau of investigations. In this role, the federal government placed reputable white people to be in charge of the community in the reserves. However, these people, drowned in greed and lust for selfish gains resorted to dire corruption, exploiting, killing and looting the people's money. It was believed that William Hale, the so-called the "King of the Osage Hills" was the mastermind of the Osage people killing and denying them of their oil rights.

When the killings hit an alarming number of twenty-four people, Hoover, the chief of the investigation agency sent Tom white, the only Indian American in the agency to investigate the issue. Working closely with Whites, he accumulated enough information to prosecute Hale with the murder charge, although, this was a larger conspiracy with some of the criminals of the conspiracy. The legal process granted Osage people compensation of approximately four hundred million dollars. The principal focus of this article is to outline on the theme of past injustice and the accompanying all investigation, whether the Osage 380-dollar settlement reparation was justified or not? various ways in which the government's guardian program opened the door to exploitation, the contrast of its intention versus the outcomes, how the government allows them to make money through casinos and how this is perceived as inequality to those communities going through similar circumstances (Sachs and Stephen, 28.3).

The Osage community is one of the ancient foreign communities in the Us that walked in the ruthless path of discrimination, injustices, and torture. Although it was a humane, kind act and an intent to promote human dignity for the whites give out the Osage reserve for the Indians, the noble act, was in a real sense covering a wolf in sheep's skin. The belief that this land was a valuable present is skewed and misplaced as the whites gave out the land because on their perception it wasn't fit for any white to settle in. Therefore, it was just the selfish act of disposing of what did not matter to them. But again, this was an insult and discrimination to the foreigners. However, the discoveries of minerals and oil in the reserve made the community become among the wealthiest in the whole world (Sachs and Stephen, 28.3).

The government’s guardian program opened the door to exploitation and murder by the whites to the Osage reservation. With the Osage people becoming very rich, however, the government didn't trust them with all that money and this laid the basis for the initiation of the guardian program since the government had declared the people were not worthy of their using their own money wisely. Due to this, the whites were placed in charge of family’s money, and they were to receive ward allowances as well as allocating large payment for offering their business knowledge. this decision by the federal government facilitated many thefts and it left many questions than answers since the wealth attracted known outlaws, such as gangs, fugitives, banks, and robbers. Why on earth should a foreign person be put in charge of a person’s money affairs? After this, many woes and wrangles emerged which resulted in a series of killing. In the book, Minnie Smith, 27-year-old, and later a mother died out of peculiar wasting disease, suspected to be poisoning while Brown was shot. Smiths sister died through a bomb attack three years later. It followed that many other extortions, poisoning beating, and stubbing and ruthless killing took place in the reserve which raised the number of murder and lead to the reporting of the “Reign of Terror” by media houses in 1925.

Even though the guardian program ended up hurting the Indians, the government intentions were actually good and they just wanted to protect the Osage. Guardians, who came from the most prominent figures in Osage, took advantage of their power, position and they defrauded their wards by buying items from their own stores at an elevated price directing businesses and outright stealing. The escalated graft and exploitation continued despite the Indian right association protests. The laws on the land ownership provided that the land could not be bought, it could only be acquired through inheritance, which involved the headlights or the mineral rights of the oil-rich land, and it was all made to protect the Osage. However, this was where the horrible tale of the US original sin originated, the planned killing and oppression of the people in search of the headlights begun. In order for the white people to inherit the headlights, they were left with only marrying the tribe then wish their spouse would die or cause them to die so as to inherit the property. This explains the cause of death for several Osage family members, however, the victims behind the death of these figures such as Hale were prosecuted through FBI investigations lead by Tom White. Although this was a good move to restore the image of the investigative agency and bring justice to Osage community, Gann faulted this process to have masked the real situation as the death toll went to hundreds and there are many of unsolved murder cases. in addition, most of the victim’s descendants do private investigations with no end, with suspect being dead relatives, old family friend or guardians (Ess and John, 221).

The government allowed the people to make money through casino long ago, a thing that continues up to now. Despite these efforts, the community is said to be having big problems, lack of homes and the inability to effort houses makes the community broke. The CEO of the of the casinos admitted being the source of financial resource for the community as it provided for scholarship, housing, and medical cover money. This shows the community still wallows in poverty and the problem is deep-rooted. The CEO further says that was a big burden to carry and was a limiting factor for success as people would ex-communicate you from the tribe as they wouldn’t talk to you. The federal laws had prohibited gambling in most areas and the gaming in this area is that it had three competing tribes (Grann, 224).

Even though the government allows them to generate money from the casino, the government has taken more from the Indians. First, not all the tribes that had casinos and could generate income. Despite these casinos being managed by the Indians, seventy-five percent of the jobs generated went to non-Indians employees with the unemployment rate among Indians hitting 11.3% which is greater than the nations 6.9%. in addition, games at the gaming casinos were low paying and were much behind the national wage for a similar group of workers. Furthermore, the profits of casinos were regulated to be used in the community development projects rather than helping the individual owners which further validates this fact. Thus, the idea that money just flows into the Indians is a fantasy and the idea of funding the community discouraged youths from completing schools.

The civil rights of these Osage were completely violated. Making them go to Catholic schools is completely unconstitutional. The right to worship was under siege in the existing federal law that did not allow them to exercise their religious rights and ceremonies. The Americans started by educating the natives on the Christian religion. Thus the president gave churches the responsibilities of managing Indian agencies, with the Catholic church being the first to be established in the reserves. The Dawes law saw the tribal land divided into an individual allotment to provide 160 acres for religious organizations to support their mission. The traditional medicine men once caught exercising the traditional exercises was convicted. The people were forced to take studies from Catholic schools. These acts were a total violation of people's rights.

With the many ancient mistreatments of the native Indians in the Osage community, the federal law court under the Obama administration granted them compensation of 380 million dollars to settle their long existing disputes. Some observed that this part is a fair and honorable resolve to the historical grievances over the mismanagement of the tribal trust funds, trust lands and non-monetary trust resources that too long has brought conflict between the natives and the government. however, this is just offering a blind eye on the real situation. This compensation, for instance, will not bring back those who were killed. If we say then this an event of the past, will those wounds in the descendants of the victim be healed by the compensation? Although this could be a good move by the government by ensuring those vices in the past are not projected and that healing is achieved for the victims, many will agree that this native community deserves more than this compensation.

In conclusion, the native Indians at the Osage went through various torture under white leadership. The reign of terror as demonstrated in the Osage community is still evident in the present. The FBI investigations of back then are what has developed the current powerful body. Both federal and state laws have been amended to remove loopholes that have been used in the past to instill injustices and execute other vices without necessarily being at the verge of prosecution (Ess and John, 221). This has played a critical role in achieving justice and shaping of today's society, the way governments handle native foreigners has really seen the preservation of their rights and upholding of human dignity.

Work cited

Ess, John R. "Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, by David Grann." (2018): 221.

Grann, David. Killers of the flower moon: The Osage murders and the birth of the FBI. Vintage, 2017.

Mazzarella, Arturo. "Il male necessario." estetica sulla scena contemporanea, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri (2014).

Sachs, Stephen. "Review of David Grann" Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI"." Indigenous Policy Journal 28.3 (2018).