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A young reader edition of the New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist about one of history's most ruthless and shocking crimes, the Reign of Terror against the Osage people. In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe. Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. As the death toll surpassed more than twenty-four Osage, the newly created F.B.I. took up the case, in what became one of the organization's first major homicide investigations. An undercover team, including one of the only Native American agents in the bureau, infiltrated the region, struggling to adopt the latest modern techniques of detection to bring an end to the deadly crime spree. Together with the Osage they began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history. In this youngification of the adult bestseller, critically acclaimed author David Grann revisits the gripping investigation into the shocking crimes against the Osage people. It is a searing indictment of the callousness and prejudice toward Native Americans that allowed the murderers to continue for so long and provides essential information for young readers about a shameful period in U.S. history.
A young reader edition of the New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist about one of history's most ruthless and shocking crimes, the Reign of Terror against the Osage people. In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe. Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. As the death toll surpassed more than twenty-four Osage, the newly created F.B.I. took up the case, in what became one of the organization's first major homicide investigations. An undercover team, including one of the only Native American agents in the bureau, infiltrated the region, struggling to adopt the latest modern techniques of detection to bring an end to the deadly crime spree. Together with the Osage they began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history. In this youngification of the adult bestseller, critically acclaimed author David Grann revisits the gripping investigation into the shocking crimes against the Osage people. It is a searing indictment of the callousness and prejudice toward Native Americans that allowed the murderers to continue for so long and provides essential information for young readers about a shameful period in U.S. history.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
Excerpts-
From the book
IN APRIL, MILLIONS OF TINY FLOWERS SPREAD OVER THE blackjack hills and vast prairies in the Osage territory of Oklahoma. There are Johnny-jump-ups and spring beauties and little bluets. The Osage writer John Joseph Mathews said that the galaxy of petals makes it look as if the “gods had left confetti.” In May, when coyotes howl beneath an unnervingly large moon, taller plants, such as spiderworts and black-eyed Susans, begin to creep over the tinier blooms, stealing their light and water. The necks of the smaller flowers break and their petals flutter away, and before long they are buried underground. This is why the Osage Indians refer to May as the time of the flower-killing moon. On May 24, 1921, Mollie Burkhart, a resident of the Osage settlement town of Gray Horse, Oklahoma, began to fear that something had happened to one of her three sisters, Anna Brown. Thirty-four, and less than a year older than Mollie, Anna had disappeared three days earlier. She had often gone on “sprees,” as her family called them: dancing and drinking with friends until dawn. But this time, one night had passed and then another, and Anna had not shown up on Mollie’s front stoop as she usually did. When Anna came inside, she liked to slip off her shoes, and Mollie missed the comforting sound of her moving, unhurried, through the house. Instead, there was a silence as still as the plains. Mollie had already lost her sister Minnie nearly three years earlier. Minnie’s death had come with shocking speed, and though doctors had named it a “peculiar wasting illness,” Mollie had her doubts. Minnie had been only twenty-seven and had always been in perfect health. Like their parents, Mollie and her sisters had their names inscribed on the Osage Roll, which meant that they were among the registered members of the tribe. It also meant that they were worth a fortune. In the early 1870s, the Osage had been driven from their lands in Kansas onto a rocky, presumably worthless reservation in northeastern Oklahoma. Decades later, they discovered that this land was sitting above some of the largest oil deposits in the United States. And to get that oil, prospectors had to pay the Osage. In the early twentieth century, each person on the tribal roll began receiving a quarterly check. The amount was initially for only a few dollars, but over time, as more oil was tapped, the payments grew into the hundreds, then the thousands. And virtually every year, they received more and more, until the tribe members had collectively accumulated millions and millions of dollars. (In 1923 alone, the tribe took in more than $30 million, which would be worth more than $400 million today.) The Osage were considered the wealthiest people per capita in the world. “Lo and behold!” the New York magazine Outlook exclaimed. “The Indian, instead of starving to death . . . enjoys a steady income that turns bankers green with envy.” The public had become transfixed by the tribe’s prosperity, which contradicted many of the images of American Indians that could be traced back to the brutal first contact with whites—the original sin from which the country was born. Readers were fascinated by stories about the Osage’s brick mansions and chandeliers, their diamond rings and fur coats and chauffeured cars. One writer marveled at Osage girls who attended the best boarding schools and wore sumptuous French clothing. At the same time, reporters seized upon any signs of the traditional Osage way of life, which seemed to stir in the public’s mind visions of “wild”...
About the Author-
David Grann is a staff writer at the New Yorker and the bestselling author of The Lost City of Z, which was chosen as one of the best books of the year by the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other publications and has been translated into more than twenty-five languages. He is also the author of The Devil and Sherlock Holmes and Killers of the Flower Moon. His work has garnered several honors for outstanding journalism, including a George Polk Award.
Reviews-
October 15, 2021 A young readers' adaptation of the 2017 title by the same name tells the story behind a series of murders in 1920s Oklahoma. Opening with the murder of Anna Brown, a 34-year-old Osage woman, readers are led through the chain of evidence as well as being introduced to critical background information such as the seizure of much Osage territory by the U.S. government and the consequences for Osage people of finding oil on their land. By the time FBI special agent Tom White was put on the case, an Osage man had been murdered and Anna's mother had died under mysterious circumstances, contributing to feelings in the community that they were being targeted for their wealth. The book evokes the atmosphere of the time through photographs and the quoting of sensationalistic newspaper headlines, but the author handles the material respectfully and does not go into graphic detail about the deaths. Each chapter uncovers a new layer of exploitation and corruption in a system that required the Osage to have White guardians who dictated how and where they could spend their money. The bureau's undercover operatives used the latest forensic and investigative techniques to confirm alibis and reveal false identities. The story unfolds in a gripping way, allowing readers to piece together what happened with the information given. This compelling page-turner highlights criminal exploitation of Osage people and the work of the modern FBI. (who's who, glossary, note on sources, sources, notes, illustration credits, index) (Nonfiction. 10-14)
COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Starred review from October 10, 2016 New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Lost City of Z) burnishes his reputation as a brilliant storyteller in this gripping true-crime narrative, which revisits a baffling and frightening—and relatively unknown—spree of murders occurring mostly in Oklahoma during the 1920s. From 1921 to 1926, at least two dozen people were murdered by a killer or killers apparently targeting members of the Osage Indian Nation, who at the time were considered “the wealthiest people per capita in the world” thanks to the discovery of oil beneath their lands. The violent campaign of terror is believed to have begun with the 1921 disappearance of two Osage Indians, Charles Whitehorn and Anna Brown, and the discovery of their corpses soon afterwards, followed by many other murders in the next five years. The outcry over the killings led to the involvement in 1925 of an “obscure” branch of the Justice Department, J. Edgar Hoover’s Bureau of Investigation, which eventually charged some surprising figures with the murders. Grann demonstrates how the Osage Murders inquiry helped Hoover to make the case for a “national, more professional, scientifically skilled” police force. Grann’s own dogged detective work reveals another layer to the case that Hoover’s men had never exposed. Agents: Kathy Robbins and David Halpern, Robbins Office.
June 5, 2017 Three voice actors divvy up the task of narrating the audio edition of Grann’s saga of the mysterious murders of at least two dozen members of the wealthy Oklahoman Osage Indian nation. Actor Lee reads the first third of the book, entitled “The Marked Woman,” which largely focuses on the story of Mollie Burkhart Lee, an Osage woman whose family was killed off one by one in the early 1920s. Unfortunately her pacing is so slow that the grammatical structure of sentences is often lost, and she uses the same tone whether the subject is serene scenery or vicious murders. Luckily Patton picks up the pace when reading the middle portion of the book, entitled “The Evidence Man,” which chronicles FBI agent Tom White’s struggles to investigate the case. Campbell ultimately steals the show in the third section, “The Reporter,” which follows the man who uncovered the plot to steal the oil-rich Osage territory. He reads in a voice as gruff as the man the chapter is based on, while clearly communicating the complex plot twist that ends this fascinating chunk of American history. A Doubleday hardcover.
Starred review from November 1, 2021 Grades 6-9 *Starred Review* There is currently a wave of telling history as it truly was--of reinking erasures and repairing narratives to their less glamorous but more honest selves. This young-reader's adaptation of Grann's adult best-seller fits this trend perfectly. The author not only exposes the covert but systematic murders of Osage Native Americans living in Oklahoma during the 1920s, he overturns stereotypical views of Indigenous communities by highlighting the extreme wealth of the Osage due to their oil-rich land and brings to light the outrageous levels of corruption operating at every level of the white-established government and justice system. It is upsetting, to put it mildly, to see how the Osage were oppressed, swindled, and killed with ease and how the "Osage Reign of Terror" has been blotted from history books. Grann gives these historical figures new life, painting a clear picture of victims and villains alike--aided by many archival photos and an appended "Who's Who" list (bookmark it!)--while maintaining the story's intrigue and suspense. Adding to this is his incorporation of the newly formed FBI's role in cracking the case. Grann also includes an eye-opening section about his experience researching the book, adding yet another perspective to this story and how history is documented. An eye-opening, challenging, and thoroughly sourced saga that will open the door to many necessary conversations.
COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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