Introduction
The history of Native Americans in the United States is fraught with injustice, exploitation, and violence. One particularly dark chapter is the “Reign of Terror” against the Osage people in the early 20th century when numerous Osage were murdered as part of a plot to steal their oil wealth. This paper will provide historical background on the Osage Nation, describe the context of the Osage oil boom in the 1900s and the government regulations that enabled exploitation, recount the spate of murders and subsequent investigations from 1921-1926, analyze the motivations and reprisals, and reflect on the significance of this grievous chapter in Native American history.
Background on the Osage Nation
The Osage Nation originated in the Ohio River valley but was forced to cede land and move westward throughout the 19th century. In 1870, they purchased their current tribal land in present-day Oklahoma, which was thought to be useless to white settlers at the time (Dorsey, 1902). However, significant oil deposits were discovered on Osage land in 1896, which dramatically changed their fortunes. In 1906, the U.S. government allotted reservation lands to individual Osage members under the Osage Allotment Act. Importantly, the Osage retained collective mineral rights, meaning they earned royalties on all oil extracted from their lands (Stoecklein, 2018).
By the 1920s, Osage County had become one of the largest oil producers in the country, earning the Osage enormous wealth. In 1923 alone, the tribe collected over $30 million in oil royalties. The typical Osage allottee received a “headright” or share of the royalties, with many inheriting multiple headrights from deceased relatives. The income enabled the Osage to build mansions, hire servants, and live lavish lifestyles. An Osage Indian was considered the richest person per capita in the world at the time (Jagtap, 2023).
U.S. Regulations and Non-Native Greed
The mineral wealth of the Osage created plenty of jealousy and greed among non-Indians in the surrounding areas. Settlers saw opportunities to swindle Osage out of their fortunes. The U.S. government even instituted corrupt regulations to allow non-Natives access to Osage oil rights (May, n.d.). One egregious rule was that upon an Osage allottee’s death, their valuable headrights would transfer to their legal heir – and this heir did not have to be Osage. Therefore, greedy non-Natives began targeting Osage members to marry into families to gain inheritance rights to the headrights upon their spouse’s death. Unscrupulous outsiders also schemed to have Osage list them as beneficiaries so they could inherit fortunes.
Another corrupt regulation was the institution of “guardians” to manage the affairs of any Osage deemed legally incompetent to control their own money. The guardian would collect the oil royalty payments on an Osage’s behalf, often secreting away or skimming off funds in the process without consent (Stoecklein, 2018). These paternalistic government rules treated Osage members as inferior and justified robbing them of autonomy over their money. The blatantly corrupt and discriminatory regulations systematically allowed non-Natives to steal and defraud Osage people of their oil fortunes legally.
When even more nefarious individuals realized killing Osage allottees with valuable headrights was an even faster path to seize their wealth, the stage was set for the “Reign of Terror” to commence on the reservation. The federal rules and lack of oversight effectively condoned and enabled the murderous plot against the Osage people by making it so profitable. White settlers saw a chance to expediently claim Osage oil fortunes through sinister means, whether through manipulative marriages, fraudulent financial schemes, or, ultimately, murder. The federal government’s corrupt bureaucratic system overseeing the Osage set the stage for ruthless outsiders to swindle and kill Osage members with few repercussions.
The Osage Murders: 1921-1926
In 1921, the first Osage with a valuable headright was found dead under suspicious circumstances. Her name was Anna Brown. In May 1921, the 25-year-old Anna had gone to gather flowers with her cousin when two men approached them in a car. Anna told the girls to stay while she went to confront the men, but shortly after, a gunshot rang out, leaving Anna dead with a pistol placed in her hand to make it appear self-inflicted. The girls discovered Anna’s body hidden callously in the brush. However, local officials ruled it as a drunk Osage shooting herself despite no evidence that Anna drank or owned a gun, and her family insisted she was murdered (Jagtap, 2023). This cold-blooded killing was one of the first deaths in what would become a years-long spate of murders targeting wealthy Osage Indians with profitable oil headrights. Within a few years, dozens of Osage members had been killed under suspicious and unsolved circumstances.
The brutal killings targeting Osage Indian headright owners began escalating through 1921 and beyond, with Osage allottees shot, poisoned, or blown up one by one. However, local authorities showed little interest in thoroughly investigating the suspicious deaths. It is estimated that between 1921 and 1926, at least two dozen Osage members were killed under mysterious circumstances, though some estimates range as high as 60 unsolved murders. The indifference shown by local law enforcement allowed the deaths to continue mounting over several years as Osage families desperately sought answers but found no justice (May, n.d.). Wealthy Osage lived in fear, knowing a murderer was at large but feeling unprotected. Still, the mysterious deaths increased despite no stop to the violence.
One prominent early case demonstrating the pattern of violence was the 1921 death of Osage tribal elder Lizzie Kyle and her family members. Within just months of each other, Lizzie, along with daughters Anna Brown and Rita Smith, all died – Lizzie of an apparent poisoning and Rita in a house explosion, killing her, her husband, and a housekeeper. Their systematic murders meant that the lucrative Kyle family headrights were inherited entirely by Lizzie’s one surviving heir, her daughter Mollie Kyle. Even Mollie herself became mysteriously sick and nearly died before the larger murderous plot was revealed (Jagtap, 2023). The coordinated killings picked off Lizzie’s heirs one by one until only Mollie was left, making her the next target.
As the death toll of Osage Indians rose through 1922 and 1923, with local officials failing to solve any of the murders, the Osage Nation grew more vocal in demanding federal intervention and investigation. The Osage had seen dozens of their people killed under suspicious circumstances over a 2-3 year period without a single murderer being brought to justice by local authorities who showed little motivation to investigate the deaths seriously. In 1923, after urgently appealing for help, the FBI finally began an extensive probe of the mounting crimes upon request from the Osage council, soon uncovering a sinister conspiracy orchestrated by prominent white ranchers and business people. Their scheme involved marrying or otherwise gaining control of Osage headrights only to methodically eliminate the Osage owners one by one and collect the inheritance (Stoecklein, 2018). Nevertheless, without the Osage relentlessly raising the alarm and demanding action, the FBI may never have become involved, as local officials had ignored the deaths and showed no urgency to solve the reservation murders devastating the community. The Osage ultimately forced outside intervention after multiple failures of justice locally, leading to the exposure of the murderous plot against them.
Exposure of the Plot and Perpetrators
The mastermind of the murderous plot was a powerful local rancher named William K. Hale, who orchestrated the scheming, exploitation, and killings of Osage to access their oil fortunes. Hale manipulated his nephew Ernest Burkhart into marrying Mollie Kyle so that they could eventually inherit her headrights once her family members were killed off one by one. To carry out the killings, Hale paid a gang of criminals, including the shady Henry Grammer, rancher John Ramsey, and known brute Kelsie Morrison, among others (May, n.d.). Hale exploited his connections and influence in the community to assemble accomplices and design his plan to eliminate Osage’s heirs for their money. His network carried out the systematic elimination of Osage’s headright owners so the inheritance would transfer to Hale’s conspirators.
The FBI investigation gradually gathered insider testimony and corroborating evidence establishing the guilt of Hale, Burkhart, Ramsey, Morrison, and others in several of the murders. Ernest Burkhart admitted to federal agents that his uncle Hale had directed him to marry Mollie Kyle solely so they could profit from her headrights once her family was out of the picture. Multiple informants and witnesses tied Hale directly to ordering the murders of specific victims for money. Despite initial denials, gang members Ramsey and Morrison eventually confessed to law enforcement that they had been hired guns paid by Hale to kill certain Osage victims. By January 1926, FBI officers had arrested ringleader Hale, his nephews Ernest Burkhart and Byron Burkhart, Ramsey, and Morrison for orchestrating or carrying out the murders (Stoecklein, 2018).
The main perpetrators were eventually brought to justice through a series of state and federal trials spanning from 1926 to 1929. Ernest Burkhart pleaded guilty to murdering Osage member Willie Smith and turned state’s evidence against his co-conspirators Hale and Ramsey. Ramsey initially admitted to federal investigators that he had killed several Osage on the direct orders of Hale, though he later recanted his confession. Regardless, multiple convictions established Hale and his network’s undeniable role in methodically masterminding and executing the murderous plot. Ringleader Hale received a life sentence in 1929 for orchestrating the murders but was outrageously paroled after serving just 18 years despite his central role (May, n.d.).
Even after the convictions, many Osage lived in fear, knowing not all perpetrators had been caught and that masterminds like Hale got off lightly. The uneven justice showed the continual corruption in the system, failing to protect them.
Motivations and Reprisals
The mass murder of Osage Indians in the early 1920s was motivated by greed, racism, resentment, and opportunity on the part of non-native settlers in the reservation area. White ranchers like Hale deeply resented the immense wealth, lavish lifestyles, and elite status the Osage achieved through oil profits. Hale and his network devised an elaborate scheme to simply steal the lucrative Osage oil headrights through predatory marriages and methodical murder of Osage heirs. Additionally, Hale exploited weaknesses in the federal oversight system regulating Osage affairs, which left openings for non-Natives to swindle and kill Osage for their fortune freely. The ongoing indifference towards investigating the deaths shown by local white authorities enabled the murders to go unchecked for several years, signaling tacit approval.
Ultimately, belated exposure of the plot by the FBI and dogged federal prosecutions delivered a measure of justice years later. However, irreparable damage had already been done, as dozens of Osage lost their lives, families, stability, and sense of safety at the hands of callous killers like Hale. Many lived in terror as the death toll mounted. Sentences for the ringleaders were uneven and minimal, as masterminds like Hale ultimately got off lightly with lenient parole despite orchestrating up to 60 murders. Meanwhile, surviving Osage, like Mollie Kyle, endured lasting trauma and fear even after the trials, knowing not all the killers had been apprehended or punished. The Osage murders remain one of the darkest and most tragic episodes of exploitation and abuse against Native Americans by colonial settlers in the reservation era.
As a direct result of the “Reign of Terror,” the Osage Nation organized to lobby Congress to pass a law prohibiting non-Osage individuals from inheriting headrights from anyone over half Osage’s blood. This helped prevent outside opportunists from profiting off the tribe’s oil rights in the future. The Osage killings also prompted the establishment of one of the first tribal court systems in the country on the reservation, giving the tribe greater autonomy over local criminal justice matters and sending a strong message that they would no longer tolerate unchecked murder on their land (May, n.d.).
Conclusion
The calculated murder of dozens of Osage tribal members in early 20th century Oklahoma stands as one of the most disgraceful chapters and glaring injustices in Native American history. Driven by rapacious greed over oil beneath Osage lands, prominent white settler businessmen like William Hale orchestrated an elaborate and shockingly effective murder-for-inheritance plot to eliminate Osage’s headright owners one by one and seize their valuable oil dividends and wealth. The callous scheme revealed the extremes of violence that white colonizers would unleash in illegally confiscating Indigenous resources. Hale and his network’s crimes decimated the Osage community through the systematic loss of entire Osage families. The death toll wreaked profound generational trauma. Yet, due to the indifference shown by local white authorities, the killings escalated unchecked for years in the prime of the oil boom. Only through the Osage Nation’s vocal protests did the FBI finally intervene, though justice was uneven at best, even after federal prosecutions of the ringleaders. Masterminds like Hale escaped serious punishment, demonstrating the continuation of corrupt systems failing to protect Indigenous lives. The historic Osage murders illuminate the innate criminality of settler colonialism and the damage inflicted through the reservation process under U.S. control. Examining this inadequately recognized violent suppression of Native rights and independence underscores why Indigenous advocacy and tribal sovereignty are vital today. The legacy of violence and racism against the Osage people deserves thoughtful reckoning, awareness, and rectification. Their resilience through ceaseless injustice is a model of Indigenous perseverance and resistance against exploitation.
References
Dorsey, G. A. (1902). The Osage mourning-war ceremony. American Anthropologist, 4(3), 404–411.
Jagtap, A. (2023, November 15). Martin Scorsese’s “killers of the Flower Moon:” The Osage, oil, and the reign of terror. The Princetonian. https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2023/11/princeton-prospect-entertainment-film-osage-native-american?ct=content_open&cv=cbox_featured
May, J. D. (n.d.). Osage murders. Oklahoma Historical Society | OHS. https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=OS005
Stoecklein, M. (2018). Native narratives, mystery writing, and the Osage oil murders: Examining Mean Spirit and The Osage Rose. American Indian Culture and Research Journal, 42(3), 137-154.
Did you know? Osage murders. Osage Nation. (2021, May 6). https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/news-events/news/did-you-know-osage-murders
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