The Tragic Story Of Osage Indian Tribe Whose Members Were Killed After Oil Was Discovered Underneath Their Land

The members of the Osage Indian tribe became rich when the oil was discovered under their reservation in Oklahoma in the early 20th century. The Osage tribe became dominant in the region in the early 19th century, and the majority of their descendants live in Oklahoma. After the discovery of oil, their members suffered manipulation and numerous murders by whites eager to take over their newly discovered wealth. In 1923, when more than two dozen people of Osage tribe were murdered, the case was assigned to the FBI. It was among the first major homicide investigation for the FBI.

The killings started in May 1921, and the first victim of the massacre was 25-year-old women Anna Brown. Her decaying body was discovered in a ravine by the hunters. She had been shot between the eyes. The same day Anna’s cousin Charles Whitehorn’s dead body was found, and two months later, her mother, Lizzie Kyle, was also murdered. These killings were not confined to family, and another woman was found dead on her lawn. A sympathetic local lawyer was also thrown from a speeding train. The estimated death toll of Osage member was over a hundred, but some of these killings were not reported or covered up. The FBI estimated 60 Osage Indians died violent or suspicious deaths. The FBI found several murders in one family, committed by a gang led by William “King of Osage Hills” Hale. His goal was to gain the oil royalty rights and wealth of several tribe members, including his nephew’s Osage wife, the last survivor of her family. Most of the murders remained unresolved.

To prevent further crimes and to protect the members of the Osage tribe, congress passed a law prohibiting non-Osage from inheriting headrights from Osage, who had half or more Native American ancestry in 1925. In 2011, the US government settled with the Osage for $380 million, which was the largest settlement with a tribe in US history.

Here below are some photos of the members of the Osage Indian tribe members.

#1 Mollie Burkhart, right, with her sisters Anna and Minnie. They were part of the Osage Native American tribe, who were killed one by one in a murder mystery.

Mollie Burkhart, right, with her sisters Anna and Minnie. They were part of the Osage Native American tribe, who were killed one by one in a murder mystery.

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#2 Mollie became a prime target after it was revealed her people were living on land where there was oil underneath.

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#3 Chief Bigheart ensured that the wealth of the Osage would stay only among tribe members.

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#4 Anna Brown was one of the first victims of the Osage killing spree.

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#5 The Osage tribe were among the richest people in the world and often rode in chauffeur-driven cars.

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#6 The fourth sister Rita with servant.

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#7 Another woman of Osage tribe who killed in 1921.

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#8 The Osage nation native Americans were among the richest in the world but were eventually forced into a new reservation.

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#9 The ravine where Anna Brown’s body was found.

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#10 The Al Spencer Gang jokingly hold up others in their crew. All gangsters in the local area were under suspicion of carrying out the murders.

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#11 Lawmen seize illegal moonshine in Osage County in 1923 at the time of the murders.

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#12 William Hale competing in a roping contest when he was a cowboy.

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#13 A pair of Osage women in 1921.

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#14 The Osage Council and tribal representatives in Washington D.C.

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#15 Rita Smith whose death triggered a federal investigation.

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#16 A trial document connecting the various murders back to the ringleader of the murder spree.

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#17 FBI Chief J. Edgar Hoover, right, brought in Tom White, left, a stetson-wearing, Texan lawman to solve the case.

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#18 The FBI team included a former Texas Ranger who was said to be sutied for ‘any element of danger’.

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#19 Killer Bill Hale.

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#20 Eventually, Detective Tom White traced the start of the crimewave to Anna Brown’s brother-in-law, a white man called Ernest Burkhart and his domineering uncle Bill Hale.

Eventually, Detective Tom White traced the start of the crimewave to Anna Brown’s brother-in-law, a white man called Ernest Burkhart and his domineering uncle Bill Hale.

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#21 Devil in the detail.Part of a panoramic 1924 photo of the Osage tribe before this left-hand section with evil Bill Hale, circled, was removed.

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Written by Benjamin Grayson

Former Bouquet seller now making a go with blogging and graphic designing. I love creating & composing history articles and lists.

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106 Comments

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Anastasiya says:

September 22, 2023 at 09:08 Copy Link of a Comment

You won’t learn about the finer details of American history there.

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- Jack Sparrow says:
  
  September 22, 2023 at 09:15 Copy Link of a Comment
  
  Then people complain about the poor native Americans on reservations. Yeah, all the valuable land was seized and the less farmable, less resource-rich land was turned into reservations. By the way, it is still ongoing. There is no doubt that the DAPL pipeline was an example of that. An oil-tied judge rules in favor of the oil companies, who just take the land. Coal companies proposed building a coal export terminal (basically a port for coal) on Lummi nation land in the PNW. Some anti-indian lobbyists showed up to argue against decertifying the Lummi nation as a tribe. That wasn’t their plan, but it fits with the process: remove tribe status, and suddenly the land is available. This little project comes at the perfect time. The coal industry and anti-indian lobby lost that fight, but it was interesting to see how it occurs today. This is also how the Oneida tribe in upstate New York lost their land. The anti-indian lobby advocates decertifying the tribe. The court rules in favor of the plaintiff. the tribe loses its land – and then timber barons buy the land for logging. Several decades ago, that happened.
  
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  - Armin Salem says:
    
    September 22, 2023 at 09:15 Copy Link of a Comment
    
    It’s almost as if people who have wealth shouldn’t be allowed to run the government or something.
    
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Sophia Luna says:

September 22, 2023 at 09:08 Copy Link of a Comment

Since Native Americans had lived on that land for 14 million years, it is literally impossible that they would murder someone else for it. Is that right?

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- Tucker Soft says:
  
  September 22, 2023 at 09:15 Copy Link of a Comment
  
  Is this supposed to be a justification? Is your logic really “murdering people is fine because they may have been murdered before”?
  
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  - Sophia Luna says:
    
    September 22, 2023 at 09:16 Copy Link of a Comment
    
    No, absolutely not. However, it is perfectly reasonable not to feel the intense guilt this post was intended to evoke.
    
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    - Tucker Soft says:
      
      September 22, 2023 at 09:16 Copy Link of a Comment
      
      If you defend murderers to spare your own feelings, you probably should feel guilty. What are the alternatives? Do you want to erase all the bad memories from your past?
      
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    - Norman Oliver says:
      
      September 22, 2023 at 09:16 Copy Link of a Comment
      
      That wasn’t its purpose. Your reaction to actual history is your own fault if you react so defensively. It’s not necessary to reflexively defend your long-dead ancestors with whataboutisms. My ancestor hunted native scalps for bounty. Recognizing that history does not harm me.
      
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- Otis Peterson says:
  
  September 22, 2023 at 09:17 Copy Link of a Comment
  
  The sad thing is you don’t even know how stupid you are.
  
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- Theodore Roy says:
  
  September 22, 2023 at 09:17 Copy Link of a Comment
  
  After being removed from their own land, that tribe bought that land fair and square. Those aren’t the original lands of this tribe.
  
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- Lydia Edison says:
  
  September 22, 2023 at 09:17 Copy Link of a Comment
  
  As early as 14,000 years ago, the earliest known north American settlers were Japanese; then the land bridge people wiped them out.
  
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  - Polina Volkov says:
    
    September 22, 2023 at 09:18 Copy Link of a Comment
    
    They were never compared to Japanese, only that they likely had a common ancestor with the Ainu who settled Japan before the Japanese we know today. Native Siberians share a common ancestry. Although they came in different waves, there was enough land for them all. In history, wiping out an entire people and replacing them has not been the norm. America was the exception, not the rule, when it came to what happened 500 years ago. The majority of populations just assimilate into one another. Only one pre-colonial exception is the Dorset culture, which is still a mystery (because none of their genes survived within the Thule/Inuit which replaced them).
    
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Valentina Garin says:

September 22, 2023 at 09:08 Copy Link of a Comment

When people reject the concept of money once and for all, every single money problem could be solved.

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- Mikhail Ivan says:
  
  September 22, 2023 at 09:18 Copy Link of a Comment
  
  Even if you remove all the money, the concept of value remains…
  
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  - Valentina Garin says:
    
    September 22, 2023 at 09:18 Copy Link of a Comment
    
    That’s fine, we can value other things instead. We have a short time here on this rock, just like life.
    
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    - Mikhail Ivan says:
      
      September 22, 2023 at 09:19 Copy Link of a Comment
      
      Absolutely, but whenever there is a constrained resource (food, space, water, the fancy house at the end of the street, etc) there will be a question of how to divide it, via money, trade, violence, or equal kindness among all parties…
      
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      - Dmitriy Egor says:
        
        September 22, 2023 at 09:20 Copy Link of a Comment
        
        In order to end scarcity of resources, you build infrastructure. It’s already feasible.
        
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Belle Martin says:

September 22, 2023 at 09:08 Copy Link of a Comment

There is no need for the word to appear. There were legal guardians for all Osage Indians deemed incompetent by courts. These were prominent white men in the area who then killed their charges in order to inherit the land titles. As a result of Hoover’s leadership, it was one of the FBI’s first big cases.

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Cynthia Ila says:

September 22, 2023 at 09:08 Copy Link of a Comment

Exasperating example of European aliens’ insatiable greed and corrupt morals.

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