November 22, 2022 • 10 mins
From 1920 to 1930, after the indigenous Osage people struck it rich with oil on their land, grifters scammed them out of millions -- and murdered a number of them in the process. Learn more in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/osage-tribe-murders.htm
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.
Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here just a heads up.
This episode deals with an important story of crime and
violence against Indigenous people. We don't get supergraphic, but if
you're not up for that today, go on and skip
this one and take care of yourself. Okay. At the
(00:25):
turn of the twentieth century, the sum two thousand members
of the O s Age Nation were some of the
wealthiest people in America, after being forcibly removed from their
homeland decades earlier and resettled on land no one else wanted. Twice,
the O s Age had struck it rich in the
Rocky Hills of what's now Oklahoma when oil was discovered
on their land. But what should have been a triumph
(00:48):
became a tragedy in its own right. From in what's
now known as the Reign of Terror, corrupt local officials
teamed with grifters and scam artists defraud the O Sage
of millions of dollars, and they murdered dozens or perhaps
even hundreds of Native people in the process, in order
to exploit inheritance laws. The investigation was handled by the
(01:12):
relatively new Bureau of Investigation or b o I. Under
a young JEdgar Hoover, this department would become the FBI,
But to this day, the O Sage are still seeking
justice for their ancestors who disappeared or died under mysterious
circumstances during this dark period. Like virtually all Native American people's,
(01:33):
the Oh Sage were driven from their ancestral lands, which
included large swaths of what's now Oklahoma. In the eighteen hundreds,
they were forced to relocate first Kansas and then ironically
back to Oklahoma, known then as Indian Territory. The forced
removals were devastating and many people died, but the O
(01:54):
Sage managed to buy their land in the territory with
money from the sale of their reservation in Kansas, and
when cattlemen from Texas needed grazing land to fatten their
herds on the way to Kansas City, the O s
Age leased them grasslands, providing excellent revenue. The O Sage
were the only Native group in the territory that wasn't
(02:14):
required to comply with the eight seven DAWs Act. It
divided reservation lands into allotments, and most of which were
sold off to white colonists, but then oil was discovered
on O Sage land in when Oklahoma became a state
a decade later, allotment was forced upon the O Sage,
but by that time they had money and bargaining power.
(02:38):
For the article this episode is based on How Stuff Works.
Spoke with Tera Dameron, who is Osage herself and program
director of the White Hair Memorial Learning Center. As she said,
as much as they could, our leaders were trying to
fight for the rights of our people because we had
seen what had happened to the other tribes in Oklahoma
who were completely decimated. The leaders negotiated allotments of six
(03:01):
hundred and forty acres for each of the two thousand,
two hundred and twenty nine registered O Sage people, without
any surplus land sold to white settlers, and critically, they
retained mineral rights for all oil, coal, and other resources
beneath their land, the profits from which would be shared
collectively among tribal members. Each share was called a head
(03:23):
right and could only be inherited, not sold. The O
Sage auctioned off oil drilling rights to the highest bidder
and collected a percentage of all oil revenue. The tribe
was soon earning ten million to thirty million dollars a year,
which is nearly four hundred million in today's money, quickly
making millionaires of each individual owner of an O Sage
(03:43):
head right. A common sentiment reported in nineteen twenties newspapers
was that the O Sage were the richest group of
people per capita on Earth. All of this made land
that white Americans hadn't wanted look a lot more. Tempting
outsiders warmed into Oklahoma boom towns like Fairfax, where they
could either make money drilling for oil or by squeezing
(04:06):
cash directly from the O s Age themselves by any
means necessary. White merchants charged higher prices to OH Sage members.
Doctors and pharmacists got their O Sage patients hooked on
expensive medications. The lawyers descended on Oklahoma in droves, charging
exorbitant fees to assist the O Sage in their business dealings.
(04:29):
Things went from bad to worse in when Congress passed
a law requiring all O Sage to pass a competency
test to see if they were able to manage their
own finances. Under this insulting law, Dameron says Virtually all
full blooded oh Sage were automatically deemed incompetent and in
signed a guardian to handle their money. Guardianships over O
(04:54):
Sage people were assigned by corrupt local judges who gifted
the positions to relatives, cronies, end political supporters. These guardians
often swindled their wards out of their head rights or
spent the oil money themselves while giving the ward of
pittance as an allowance. There were even cases where an
O Sage ward had to borrow money from their guardian
(05:14):
and fell hopelessly into debt. Marriage was another way that
outsiders could make a claim at a head right, especially
if the O Sage spouse unexpectedly died, which started to
happen with shocking frequency. Dammon said, you have these intelligent,
healthy people who all of a sudden die from poisoning
(05:36):
or from these really vague diseases like consumption. Jim rone Gray,
a former OH Sage chief, set in a PPS documentary
that a full blooded Oh Sage with money was basically
walking around with a target on their back. A quote.
The sense of fear must have been horrible. Local police
(05:57):
and judges were often involved and thus no help. So
the leaders took their pleas to Washington, d C. Where
they were able to convince the Butting b o I,
led by twenty nine year old Jager Hoover, to take
on its first murder investigation. The victims in question were
several members of an extended o s age family. Anna Brown,
(06:18):
a young and vivacious woman, was the first to be killed,
her body found by hunters with a gunshot to the
back of her head. Brown's death had been ruled accidental
by local authorities. Not long after, Brown's mother died from
suspected poisoning. Then her cousin, Henry Rowan was also shot
and killed. That left just two of Brown's surviving sisters,
(06:41):
Rita and Molly, with all of the family's valuable head rights. Then,
on March tenth, an explosion ripped apart Rita's home, killing
her and her family. Molly was now the sole survivor.
What she didn't know was that her white husband, Ernest Burkhardt,
was slowly poisoning her. Burkhart was the submissive nephew of
(07:05):
an influential and charismatic cattleman named William K. Hale. Through
undercover agents, the b o I learned that Hale had
ordered the killings of Anna Brown and her family so
that his nephew would inherit all of their head rights
were worth half a million dollars a year. When Burkhart
and other accomplices confessed, Hale was convicted of ordering Henry
(07:26):
Rowan's murder and sentenced to life in prison, but due
to his powerful connections, Hale was paroled in ninety seven,
and Burkhart, despite pleading guilty, was fully pardoned by Oklahoma's
governor in n and Damren reminds us quote that was
just one family and one conviction. All of us O
(07:48):
Sage have family stories about relatives dying or disappearing under
mysterious circumstances. Estimates of the total number of O s
Age killed in the nineteen twenties ranges from twenty four
into jewels to several hundred. The truth Dammaron says is
that there's never been any closure, There's never been any justice. Furthermore,
(08:10):
the descendants of the corrupt guardians and scam artists who
stole O Sage head rights back in the nineteen twenties
are still collecting royalties on O Sage oil and gas
revenue by O Sage, accounting of the head rights owners
are non O Sage. In law finally made it illegal
for non O Sage people to inherit head rights, but
(08:31):
some of those head rights were gifted to churches, universities,
and other institutions that have no descendants per se. Damaron
says that the O Sage Nation is strong and because
of its mineral wealth and leadership, the O s Age
have been able to help other Native peoples and sustain
their own future. She said, there are a lot of
(08:52):
successful O Sages. We overcame the terror of the nineteen twenties,
but we're still fighting to get back what's rightfully ours.
In the U. S Government agreed to a three hundred
and eighty million dollar settlement with the os Age Tribe
for a mismanagement of funds. Also in the Native American
(09:12):
Rights Fund donated twenty acres of ancestral land back to
the os Age Nation. And at the very least more
people know the story. Some of my colleagues at iHeart
Radio and Bloomberg published an eight episode podcast mini series
this fall diving deep into the history and present of
the O s Age Nation. The podcast is called in Trust,
(09:35):
and journalist David Graham published a book in eighteen about
the Brown family's plight called Killers of the Flower Moon.
It's now being made into a movie by Martin Scorsese.
Today's episode is based on the article Reign of Terror,
The Forgotten Story of the os Age Tribe Martyrs on
(09:55):
house toff works dot com, written by Dave Rooves. If
you'd like to learn more, check at the podcast in Trust,
available wherever you get your podcasts. Brain Stuff is production
of ire Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff works
dot Com, and its produced by Tyler Klang. Four more
podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.
Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here just a heads up.
This episode deals with an important story of crime and
violence against Indigenous people. We don't get supergraphic, but if
you're not up for that today, go on and skip
this one and take care of yourself. Okay. At the
(00:25):
turn of the twentieth century, the sum two thousand members
of the O s Age Nation were some of the
wealthiest people in America, after being forcibly removed from their
homeland decades earlier and resettled on land no one else wanted. Twice,
the O s Age had struck it rich in the
Rocky Hills of what's now Oklahoma when oil was discovered
on their land. But what should have been a triumph
(00:48):
became a tragedy in its own right. From in what's
now known as the Reign of Terror, corrupt local officials
teamed with grifters and scam artists defraud the O Sage
of millions of dollars, and they murdered dozens or perhaps
even hundreds of Native people in the process, in order
to exploit inheritance laws. The investigation was handled by the
(01:12):
relatively new Bureau of Investigation or b o I. Under
a young JEdgar Hoover, this department would become the FBI,
But to this day, the O Sage are still seeking
justice for their ancestors who disappeared or died under mysterious
circumstances during this dark period. Like virtually all Native American people's,
(01:33):
the Oh Sage were driven from their ancestral lands, which
included large swaths of what's now Oklahoma. In the eighteen hundreds,
they were forced to relocate first Kansas and then ironically
back to Oklahoma, known then as Indian Territory. The forced
removals were devastating and many people died, but the O
(01:54):
Sage managed to buy their land in the territory with
money from the sale of their reservation in Kansas, and
when cattlemen from Texas needed grazing land to fatten their
herds on the way to Kansas City, the O s
Age leased them grasslands, providing excellent revenue. The O Sage
were the only Native group in the territory that wasn't
(02:14):
required to comply with the eight seven DAWs Act. It
divided reservation lands into allotments, and most of which were
sold off to white colonists, but then oil was discovered
on O Sage land in when Oklahoma became a state
a decade later, allotment was forced upon the O Sage,
but by that time they had money and bargaining power.
(02:38):
For the article this episode is based on How Stuff Works.
Spoke with Tera Dameron, who is Osage herself and program
director of the White Hair Memorial Learning Center. As she said,
as much as they could, our leaders were trying to
fight for the rights of our people because we had
seen what had happened to the other tribes in Oklahoma
who were completely decimated. The leaders negotiated allotments of six
(03:01):
hundred and forty acres for each of the two thousand,
two hundred and twenty nine registered O Sage people, without
any surplus land sold to white settlers, and critically, they
retained mineral rights for all oil, coal, and other resources
beneath their land, the profits from which would be shared
collectively among tribal members. Each share was called a head
(03:23):
right and could only be inherited, not sold. The O
Sage auctioned off oil drilling rights to the highest bidder
and collected a percentage of all oil revenue. The tribe
was soon earning ten million to thirty million dollars a year,
which is nearly four hundred million in today's money, quickly
making millionaires of each individual owner of an O Sage
(03:43):
head right. A common sentiment reported in nineteen twenties newspapers
was that the O Sage were the richest group of
people per capita on Earth. All of this made land
that white Americans hadn't wanted look a lot more. Tempting
outsiders warmed into Oklahoma boom towns like Fairfax, where they
could either make money drilling for oil or by squeezing
(04:06):
cash directly from the O s Age themselves by any
means necessary. White merchants charged higher prices to OH Sage members.
Doctors and pharmacists got their O Sage patients hooked on
expensive medications. The lawyers descended on Oklahoma in droves, charging
exorbitant fees to assist the O Sage in their business dealings.
(04:29):
Things went from bad to worse in when Congress passed
a law requiring all O Sage to pass a competency
test to see if they were able to manage their
own finances. Under this insulting law, Dameron says Virtually all
full blooded oh Sage were automatically deemed incompetent and in
signed a guardian to handle their money. Guardianships over O
(04:54):
Sage people were assigned by corrupt local judges who gifted
the positions to relatives, cronies, end political supporters. These guardians
often swindled their wards out of their head rights or
spent the oil money themselves while giving the ward of
pittance as an allowance. There were even cases where an
O Sage ward had to borrow money from their guardian
(05:14):
and fell hopelessly into debt. Marriage was another way that
outsiders could make a claim at a head right, especially
if the O Sage spouse unexpectedly died, which started to
happen with shocking frequency. Dammon said, you have these intelligent,
healthy people who all of a sudden die from poisoning
(05:36):
or from these really vague diseases like consumption. Jim rone Gray,
a former OH Sage chief, set in a PPS documentary
that a full blooded Oh Sage with money was basically
walking around with a target on their back. A quote.
The sense of fear must have been horrible. Local police
(05:57):
and judges were often involved and thus no help. So
the leaders took their pleas to Washington, d C. Where
they were able to convince the Butting b o I,
led by twenty nine year old Jager Hoover, to take
on its first murder investigation. The victims in question were
several members of an extended o s age family. Anna Brown,
(06:18):
a young and vivacious woman, was the first to be killed,
her body found by hunters with a gunshot to the
back of her head. Brown's death had been ruled accidental
by local authorities. Not long after, Brown's mother died from
suspected poisoning. Then her cousin, Henry Rowan was also shot
and killed. That left just two of Brown's surviving sisters,
(06:41):
Rita and Molly, with all of the family's valuable head rights. Then,
on March tenth, an explosion ripped apart Rita's home, killing
her and her family. Molly was now the sole survivor.
What she didn't know was that her white husband, Ernest Burkhardt,
was slowly poisoning her. Burkhart was the submissive nephew of
(07:05):
an influential and charismatic cattleman named William K. Hale. Through
undercover agents, the b o I learned that Hale had
ordered the killings of Anna Brown and her family so
that his nephew would inherit all of their head rights
were worth half a million dollars a year. When Burkhart
and other accomplices confessed, Hale was convicted of ordering Henry
(07:26):
Rowan's murder and sentenced to life in prison, but due
to his powerful connections, Hale was paroled in ninety seven,
and Burkhart, despite pleading guilty, was fully pardoned by Oklahoma's
governor in n and Damren reminds us quote that was
just one family and one conviction. All of us O
(07:48):
Sage have family stories about relatives dying or disappearing under
mysterious circumstances. Estimates of the total number of O s
Age killed in the nineteen twenties ranges from twenty four
into jewels to several hundred. The truth Dammaron says is
that there's never been any closure, There's never been any justice. Furthermore,
(08:10):
the descendants of the corrupt guardians and scam artists who
stole O Sage head rights back in the nineteen twenties
are still collecting royalties on O Sage oil and gas
revenue by O Sage, accounting of the head rights owners
are non O Sage. In law finally made it illegal
for non O Sage people to inherit head rights, but
(08:31):
some of those head rights were gifted to churches, universities,
and other institutions that have no descendants per se. Damaron
says that the O Sage Nation is strong and because
of its mineral wealth and leadership, the O s Age
have been able to help other Native peoples and sustain
their own future. She said, there are a lot of
(08:52):
successful O Sages. We overcame the terror of the nineteen twenties,
but we're still fighting to get back what's rightfully ours.
In the U. S Government agreed to a three hundred
and eighty million dollar settlement with the os Age Tribe
for a mismanagement of funds. Also in the Native American
(09:12):
Rights Fund donated twenty acres of ancestral land back to
the os Age Nation. And at the very least more
people know the story. Some of my colleagues at iHeart
Radio and Bloomberg published an eight episode podcast mini series
this fall diving deep into the history and present of
the O s Age Nation. The podcast is called in Trust,
(09:35):
and journalist David Graham published a book in eighteen about
the Brown family's plight called Killers of the Flower Moon.
It's now being made into a movie by Martin Scorsese.
Today's episode is based on the article Reign of Terror,
The Forgotten Story of the os Age Tribe Martyrs on
(09:55):
house toff works dot com, written by Dave Rooves. If
you'd like to learn more, check at the podcast in Trust,
available wherever you get your podcasts. Brain Stuff is production
of ire Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff works
dot Com, and its produced by Tyler Klang. Four more
podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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