A Tale of Murder, Greed, and Oil; the Reign of Terror Against the Osage

For years, a reign of terror rips through a community of the Osage tribe, 50 miles north of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Native Americans died under suspicious circumstances. Larry Potash traveled to Oklahoma and uncovers the backstory of this tale of murder, greed, and oil.
Backstory airs Saturday nights at 7 and Sunday nights at 11 on WGN-TV and on the WGN+ app, available on Amazon, Roku, Apple TV, and any smart TV. Check out the Backstory podcast at WGNtv.com/Backstory via Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[@dontemakesbeats123]

I'm so glad there is gonna be a movie about this wit high profile actors and directors so that this can be brought to more and more peoples attention. Similar to how shows like The Watchman and Lovecraft Country put a spotlight on the Tulsa Massacre. This is just as much American history as the founding fathers and should be more known.

[@righteousbyfaithinChrist]

I agree. I live in Tulsa, and my great-frandfather was full-blòded Osage. You should see the faces of people when i mention my heritage...❤️

[@wiccangoddess_]

My Grandpa's Mom Ella Lou "low Horn" Was Poisoned While Nursing Her Baby Who Also Died . They Claimed in Town, it Was a Suicide as She Was Mourning The Loss Of Her Husband' Who Supposable Shot Himself While Crossing Over a Barbed Wire Fence. Wonder What Right's My Mom Has as She Has More Osage Blood Than l Do. She Suffer's From Anxiety, Worry She Claim's it's Something She's inherited From Her Ancestor's.

[@LoriKasprzak-yk6nc]

Was their water tested for oil extraction toxicity?

[@cescilycurtis4657]

@@LoriKasprzak-yk6ncread the book

[@cantagiousca5220]

They left out the drunks and raping and scalping

[@stopthattrain14]

This needs to be taught in our public high shcools !(( Ive never heard about this till they made a movie, what a shame i had no idea

[@SweetBluebonnet]

Yes, because we know how truthful movies are.

[@stopthattrain14]

@@SweetBluebonnet it was adapted from the Book , what's the matter you don't like the way this movie portrays white people boo hoo 🤣🤣🤣

[@Magsomagpie]

You are absolutely correct. This should be taught at schools. Along with Native American Residential schools and what happened there. It is US history whether it is liked or not. I believe it won't be taught because it will be "wokeism" and now a days people get their panties into a bunch about it. P.S- the book, Killers of the Flower Moon, is really good. Highly recommend it.

[@veroniquefaison]

So much of Americans' dirty history needs to be taught.

[@cantagiousca5220]

Why?? The nazis are closer to 2023

[@karlalphelps9909]

this was happening at the same time the tulsa burning thing happend my great grandparents lived through this time period

[@ccaswick]

Read Killers of the Osage Moon -- excellent -- and WTF did we not learn about this in high school!?!?

[@debbiemann2752]

I just finished Killers of the Flower Moon and I said the same thing! Should be required reading.

[@guzzirob]

That's Killers of the Flower Moon

[@Royalties_]

This is the comment of the century. Same thoughts!

[@angc1456]

Because USA don´t want U 2 know the truth !!!

[@dead01]

Red states would ban it

[@davestark5560]

The Osage are a beautiful people. It rips my heart out that they were slaughtered for greed.

[@Mellow999]

Who else is coming here after seeing the movie?

[@barbarachippel3142]

I saw the movie twice. Long but good.

[@carlyyoung3481]

This was a terrible the way our government treated the Indians. Blacks and Indians were treated so badly. I understand early America was built on the lives of victims, very sad.

[@IAMUNUAMI]

Many believe that the so-called blacks are the true Indigenous Americans Indians, coupled believing that the rabbit’s hole runs very deeply.

[@kenyat6419]

It’s hard for white people to process that they have done wicked things as a group all over the earth. It’s not the US government it’s the white mans government and his ways

[@harmony3279]

I agree. How dare they put someone as a guardian of their own money?

[@ebybeehoney]

Killers of the Flower Moon had me crying almost immediately.

[@m.s.3798]

this is the worst kind of entitlement- no one disserves it - only them.

[@righteousbyfaithinChrist]

I live in Tulsa Oklahoma and my great-grandfather was full-blooded Osage and I remember reading a book called the biography of Sybil Bolton that told about this time in Oklahoma I've always been a little curious and then I moved here in February of 2021 I visited the Osage reservation and was shocked at the disparity between the truth of what they were supposed to have inherited and own and what I saw

[@righteousbyfaithinChrist]

These are those that make up new Nazi Germany and now makeup Neo-Nazi Russia

[@flynn4838]

Check the bank accounts and holdings of the cheifs and councils.....if the situatiion is the same as up in Canada....thats where you will find all the funding...cheif and councils pockets.

[@htth613]

Ushering In the Demise of the West | The Vortex by Church Militant.

[@rachelallen5534]

The Deaths of Sybil Bolton.

[@gingergibbons5513]

I live near Tulsa too. I went to Pawhuska around 2010. I was looking for a store front to start my business. I was shocked at the beautiful ghost town. It was very hard locating someone to talk to. When I did stop at a small store there-I asked why this beautiful town was empty! But they were white and didn’t know. I read the book when it first came out. I cried a lot. I’m not Osage, but I’m Choctaw and understand the loss of heritage and our fading ancestors 😢 I am trying to learn now for the last 20 years about my heritage and passing it on to my grandkids. Everything I can…❤️

[@anneoboyle8447]

In one of Jimmy Stewart's movies, "The FBI Story", this heartbreaking 💔 subject was shown...😓🙏💐

[@dianacazadora360]

Poor Indigenous people! They had no piece anywhere 🥺

[@rgrifferon]

Land, water, gold and oil, if you own these things greedy evil people will conspire to take your possession by any means necessary. Greed and jealousy is a bitch.

[@ignoranceisnotatrend4669]

Greedy 🗣WHITE MEN

[@MelisaDiary]

Coughs* Maui 😔

[@fatherfreddie8512]

"Greed is an Animal" 😔

[@Blackadder153]

@@MelisaDiary Like the saying goes behind every great fortune lies a greater crime. What personality type has the drive and ambition to acquire so much of a resource for themselves with little regard for anyone else. Where does that drive derive from?

[@carlosmacmartin4205]

The Sickness of Greed

[@777dragonborn]

That's the American way

[@audielowe2700]

Do a story on the Drummond ranch and family and how they acquired 430,000 Osage acres and oil head rights …now one of the richest families in Oklahoma.

[@EMVelez]

The Pioneer Woman married into that family.

[@tr3497]

There is a podcast called “In Trust” that kind of dives into how that family acquired so much of the Osage land. It’s definitely worth listening to.

[@shaywilliams3358]

This is so heartbreaking….

[@personalexperience3637]

Thank-you David Grann for researching & writing the book upon which the Scorcesis film is based.

[@rudolphreece3882]

This is what they would call Critical Race Theory and keep it out of schools , so that little Tommie does not feel offended.

[@MrAswinrichard]

Sorry to say as per history - Native Indians have been killed for resources by fellow , non Indian ethnic groups since 16th century. As well US - middle east embargo was also based on the resource [Oil]. I believe this country is ruled by people who have come to power by brutality and greed and that has become new normal and the other ethnic groups have been unfairly sidelined

[@jayhemfindsyou]

Every country and dynasty throughout history was formed by brutality and greed, one group of people conquering and enslaving or wiping out another group, taking their lands, etc. This is not new.

[@priesteresmarietje4772]

Yes, it's true. The colonizers who came to Turtle Island were part of a massive hostile corporate takeover. They had already dispossessed their own people back in the old world so it was easy for them to come to the new world and do the same.

[@Blackadder153]

Yes...Most of the Western governments and oversight world organizations are run by Sociopathic Satanic Pedophiles and have been for awhile. And that's the truth of it.

[@user-uu6eq3vy5x]

"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain."

[@mondotuna]

Chief Bacon Rind approves. The oil story in OK is still unfolding. Some of the royalty checks are still not being paid out properly.

[@aracelisquinones]

Evil atrocities from greed!

[@sjwilloughby-greene8214]

This is heart breaking.

[@marieandresen4060]

Thank You for doing this! ❤

[@daviddisanto9401]

We treated these ppl the way we treat our planet and that's why in another 10 years we probably will not be here anymore. At least most of us and rightfully so.

[@nicolep2151]

That's what the elites want.

[@charliewakefield3312]

Climate Change BS is completely Bogus and 100%Fake....they can't predict the weather for tomorrow and you'll believe him when they're hardly EVER right much less s 100 years from now?

[@sylvianulpinditj4133]

This is important part of the history good thing its made into a movie ❤

[@graysonburkhart]

Heartbreaking 💔

[@tracypolselli1464]

This was a very good book and I just saw the movie preview and that looks good too. I had never heard of these murders before.

[@OklahomaBoi]

I am a part of the Osage Nation, I'm not full blood, but I do know for one thing that i am related to those people. It makes me cry, knowing the fact that my ancestors were killed, just for a couple of bucks. I don't usually cry at all, but hearing about this makes me wanna burst into tears and hoping we may get our revenge another time...

[@brandondarrin4947]

Sounds remencent of what happened to the Lakota Sioux Tribe because of yellow rocks on their land.

[@v.a.993]

Thank you for this report. I can't wait for the film to come out.

[@mackattack8627]

Thanks for sharing my father migrated with this tribe told me all about this and 1921 Oklahoma my dad was born in 1912 died in 2006 my grandfather was born in 1881 Oklahoma/Texas region im 54 years young dad took a wife 30 years younger to have me nevertheless I was born on the blade's of the past while surving for the Future 💪✊👨🏿‍🔧✌️

[@nicolep2151]

Check my response to (@righteousbyfaithinChrist) in this thread.

[@jblaze1336]

GREAT STORY ARE YOU SINGLE 😊

[@guzzirob]

An American tragedy. Shameful and horrible actions by the white man. A story that surely should have been taught in school.

[@righteousbyfaithinChrist]

Not just the white man there was indigenous conspiracy as well involved in this

[@zachbask]

Yeah, but you say "White Man" as if all white men including myself are to blame. (I'm mostly White but have some cherokee blood). No one is guilty by association, that's like blaming all police officers for what bad officers do. I think the men who killed these people are worthy to be burned at the stake but not all European Americans are to blame.

[@ignoranceisnotatrend4669]

These DEVILS don't want the world to know what they did

[@alanise3454]

Along with residential school victims and survivors

[@ignoranceisnotatrend4669]

@@alanise3454 feel me in, it's mind blowing BEYOND comprehension what white people did to gain advantage over Indians, blacks and Mexicans.

[@1bush053]

my god after everything that was done to them and then that, evil people

[@thatonejulian]

If the darkness sheds good, how great is that darkness.

[@GiancarloFloyd]

You can’t have that much money around a white man and not share it and if you wanna share it, they’ll take it. They did it with the Osage and they did it with the blacks in Oklahoma.

[@MrWalterclemmons]

This is not the only time and place this has occurred in the USA with this murder spree being a very large scale project with many of the perpetrators escaping the so called long arm of the law, ie color quota.

[@nikkib7442]

Tulsa Race Riot and Osage

[@jojotexasgal]

Sending my Chickasaw Family❤ to the Osage Family ❤'s

[@OklahomaBoi]

Thank you very much...

[@mzzstone]

wow... I wonder how the people on the other side of that circle are living today ...karma is real the universe must always balance back out ...no one has ever escaped this ... a story we forget to tell ...the bad never prosper long

[@rachelallen5534]

There are stil non-native families that get payment from these stolen headrights, and some of the decendants live in the same community where it ll took place.

[@72CrossingRS]

Then someone isn't doing their job correctly, letting it still take place makes them just as criminal as those whom committed the murders by not correcting it.

[@rheeryder2524]

The Pioneer Woman lives on this land. Rhee Drummond. 👀

[@cstone3178]

Land of greed, Home of corruption.

[@dionehackworth1767]

Funny how Pioneer Woman and her husband "own" so much of this land???

[@nicolep2151]

Thought the very same thing!!! Makes me look different to them - not that this is their fault.

[@purplepeople9298]

So sad

[@jparker59able]

Shameful America. You never change.

[@bryanwelton1442]

Crazy history in this country no one really knows about when I do learn about it makes me mad how we can be so greedy sickens me they destroyed the natives way of life and they keep on abusing there power still to this day I am tired of living in this system

[@user-qw8zj3wn1x]

Similar to what’s going on in Maui they started fires because they can’t just shoot everyone like they did in Oklahoma

[@KristinaTurnerAquarius]

They did the same in Yugoslavia and Ukraine.

[@emiliobello2538]

RIP the victims

[@user-en5kx3ks1i]

Hale was a segregationist and an influential member of the Democratic Party in Osage County. He had considerable influence over the local Osage County prosecutor. During his election campaign, the prosecutor sought Hale's endorsement and after receiving it won every precinct near Hale's ranch.

[@mandy7131]

Wow😢

[@ogathingo8885]

Very sad story of the USA and tainted past of the promised land! I hope the modern citizens of the USA will never forget such shameful past!!! Unfortunately such inhuman things are happening even today in many parts of this planet, where soulless greedy colonial powers are wiping the First Nations of Asia like Tibetans, Uyghurs in China or other First Nations peoples around the world, which shows that most dangerous of predators are us humans…

[@brianroesch3259]

And the 2022 book, Harvest of Empire by Juan Gonzalez of Democracy Now, recounts much of the ongoing resource control by US corporations and government in South America and Central America.

[@olefella7561]

"Slavery, Colonialism, Colonization and Genocide" are all evil things done by evildoers. 😔 For plain truth, pls read the informative, insightful, multi-pages comment by 'Lonely Alaskan' at, "Complete History Of Indigenous America Before Colonialism/Chronicle"... It's on KZbin.

[@pifffgames]

THIS IS YOUR AMERICA !🤦🏽‍♂️🤦🏽‍♂️

[@rebbyy95]

Nah, it’s not. Good to learn about though.

[@Chulitatr]

We've been fighting terrorism since 1492, when Indian's Discovered Christopher Columski.☆!

[@muffassa6739]

This happened in Pawhuska Oklahoma where poineer

[@carlcarlson1369]

Throughout history the Indians were treated like garbage. Marlon Brando would have loved this movie. Also the movie hostiles. The evil of money

[@michaelbocchino584]

It's about time the truth comes out God bless the great Indian people take back there oil and land

[@gziggy]

Here after watching the trailer for 'Killings Of The Flower Moon'

[@CaliComputerGirl]

Why don't we require that the money and land be returned to the Osage that was stolen?

[@christinamorales6887]

The movie 🎥 was really good

[@charliewakefield3312]

Wordy Scorcese movie ever...a real stinker...all Leo DiCaprio did was scowl

[@joyl3321]

Yes Loved the movie & see why Scorsese got 9 minute standing ovation @Cañes film festival when it ended!

[@marcreyes7474]

Weird that no one considered this when they changed the name of the Cleveland Indians to Cleveland Guardians.

[@jblaze1336]

WOW THATS A STAB IN THE BACK ,A BIG OLE TAKE THIS 😮, I NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT

[@charliewakefield3312]

Racist changed the names

[@MelisaDiary]

This still happens today coughs * maui

[@donjuaaan8329]

I would love to hear how the Dallas Cowboys ownerJerry Jones family ties into this Osage story!?! 🤔

[@yvonnekneeshaw2784]

Excellent video…poignant comment that once the oil was no longer than happiness would return. Since the beginning of time humans often look to the wrong things for happiness.

[@sherricoffman]

MuchLoveLoves ❤LoveChick ❤🎉NThank You ❤😢😢😢 ✔ ✅

[@user-pm7ld8xe1s]

He's still crushable to me. Please 🙏 Lord, hope to see and meet Lio

[@latifah-1968]

😢😢😢😢 no comment, how human beings could be worse than any animal on the earth, but Dear God is big , they will pay the price 🙏 front of the DEAR GOD.AMIN 😢😢😢😢

[@lisashapiro4714]

💯🥺🤯😱😭😳🤕

[@chrisfrancis8446]

😞

[@whatknotcovfefe]

After watching *The Killers of The Flower Moon* watch the movie *August in Osage County*

[@ann8765]

❤

[@markbrown375]

Brig. Gen. Stand Watie (CSA) principal Chief Native American Slave ownership Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole "Five Dollar Indian"

[@mylindacasbarro777]

❤😊

[@samuelcantley5500]

What about what was what was done to the Seneca Tribe when they took our land and built a dam on their call Kinzua Dam high-priced business benevento steel companies in Pittsburgh high price businessman Pittsburgh that stole our land land land

[@jblaze1336]

Happens all over the world people have to get over it move on 😮, We are now all Americans in a way , We need to live in peace in our great land of America

[@hlacoille]

Well I guess we know how the movie turns out.

[@victoriac1011]

We should know about the facts before a movie, anyway.

[@whatknotcovfefe]

Mollie was forced into these relationships.

[@sophieb24]

I dont know why this reminds me of the girlfriends of athletes' NBA, especially.

[@Amal757]

Who owns the oil wells/land now?

[@nicolep2151]

Not the Osage Nation.....

[@tanjat1707]

USA government or corporations, can't be nobody else.

[@rheeryder2524]

The Pioneer Woman on the Food Network, her husband's family. 👀

[@nicolep2151]

@@rheeryder2524 I thought so too. We just signed my husband and son with the Osage Nation. When I saw where the land was, I saw Rhee's property. That sickens me.

[@canocano5480]

This needs to be a motion picture.

[@nicolep2151]

It is.

[@charliewakefield3312]

Worst Scorcese movie ever

[@mikeheap7978]

Things never change, the reign of terror simply moves to target other people. Native Indians, African Americans, Vietnamese, Iranians, Iraqi's, Afghanistani's and now look at the Palestinians who suffer.

[@jonathangenao6796]

¿Veis los lobos en esta imagen?

[@All_forthelove]

Wow at least they got paid eventually

[@henrysantos121]

Matatan, Ribirin H-S,

[@lewisbrown5003]

I guess they still doing this to blks

[@pontip3262]

Just watched Killers of the Flower Moon and I just had to look for the actual documentaries about it coz it was so disturbing how this could have been allowed to happen for years. White settlers have always been despicable and exploitative but this was pure evil. Its sad that these people will never really have the justice they deserve.

[@davanmani556]

This is British East India company.

[@bold810]

I'm 50 miles north-easy of Tulsi Gabbard. yay. #🎉

[@Robert-eg2oy]

You know I saw the movie and liked it, my concern is the $200 million price tag. There weren’t any large expensive production scenes, the movie was filmed in Oklahoma in a radius of about one mile, and the movie was mostly dialogue, $200 million ?

[@EMVelez]

Costumes, sets, A list actors, many extras and a huge crew. $200 million actual sounds on the low side to me.

[@shirleymahoney8761]

Library WarrAcres

[@HELLBENTFORIT-vd3gw]

I myself I'm a man a white man I'm Irish and I have a little bit of Indian in me also and I love Indians and I they were here first actually is most people smart people know and that craziness with that man with the glasses that white man going around having people killed and all this stuff that guy was a terrible man and then he finally gets put in prison for a little bit of time and then because his daughters married to a powerful man he gets that out how ridiculous is that he should have got capital punishment they're lucky that I wasn't living there in that area if that time things would have been a little bit different than how they turned out she let me tell you something I'm not sure why I'm not scared nobody bothers me I don't care how big you are or any of that stuff it doesn't matter to me and if I love somebody or a high-level people and somebody's messing with that people then I would I would handle it in a very stealth and secretive way and I would just never tell anybody about whatever I did or do that would be my little secretand all they had to do is take that little short little guy with the glasses take him out and then things would have been a lot better in that area and if anybody else rose up and started doing some craziness the same thing you just go behind the person in the dark whenever they're coming out of someplace like a bar or whatever and just come up and stealthy do a little something and then it's a wrap it's all over with and then you just walk away their innocent done deal with problem is over with and it's amazing that none of those Indian men stood up for their people not one of them stood up and handle business like they were supposed to do none of them and then there was no white man over there in that area stood up and said hey I got to handle this there's people getting killed for nothing and a large majority this one little man with a pair of glasses coke bottle glasses and he needs to go and then anybody else is seeing his footsteps need to go after him and then in that area it would be completely much better nicer of a place and everything if the law does not handle what they're supposed to handle then you've got to do it

[@EMVelez]

Did she remarry another white man?

[@righteousbyfaithinChrist]

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 [13]But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. [14]For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. [15]For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. [16]For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. [17]Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. [18]Therefore comfort one another with these words.

[@bobbymoss6160]

Don't you just love the US government?

[@servantsmith4589]

Easy who owns there oil and land deeds now

[@dalyah7700]

Reincarnation is real!!!! Nobody gets away with murder!!!!

[@whatknotcovfefe]

🍉🍒🍎 Why is this post insinuating that these poor abused people 2thousand away from total extinction are said to have more money them anyone when the masonic ran courts and masonic ran concentration reservation camps or prisoner holding area. Listen they was told they owned 100% but only was allowed to receive < 4% of the net profits

[@user-nr7vz5jw3w]

Jlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllklkllll lol

[@_otuht]

They tried to take the indians sw

[@lexkaye1989]

I'm here for the true story not a Hollywood version turned into a false love story

[@kathrynstewart-mcdonald]

WVa worst

[@charliewakefield3312]

Worst Scorcese movie he ever made

[@samuelcantley5500]

The Democrat Party is doing this

[@user-rl3io8nj6t]

Try again.

[@ignoranceisnotatrend4669]

White men are doing this

[@weaponsofwarfare9537]

​@@user-rl3io8nj6tThe democratic party back then and slave days were what the republican party is today

[@briancanfield5658]

Correct

[@briancanfield5658]

Every Native American massacre every scar on our great republic was perpetrated by the Democrats

[@jenniferrider-nx4wl]

You associate with anyone who is of a different ethnicity than white you're not a bit more I think I can get to the point where I don't think I would have been the same to be honest