This was great. Yesterday I decided I needed a break from the dense history/economics book I’ve been failing to make any progress on for a month. This had been on my list for a couple of years, and I’m very glad that I finally got to it.
Grann tells the absolutely appalling story of the Osage murders—murders that I’m ashamed to say I had no idea even occurred—in a way that is both engaging and inquisitive. I started the book Sunday morning and, feeling like I was reading a mystery novel, barely put it down all day long. I finished Monday after work, and I learned a ton. While I had of course heard that Native Americans were badly abused in the U.S., this story’s focus on the Osage Indians made this sink in for me in a way that it hadn’t before: they were truly not seen as human. Grann’s effort to become intimately familiar with the individuals in the story, visiting the towns in the story repeatedly and meeting descendants of Mollie and the many other victims, is extremely valuable here—as is the effort those descendants have put in over the decades to document and share their history.
Killers of the Flower Moon was eye-opening and exciting, and I believe that it is extremely important, as many try their hardest to re-normalize a culture of hate in our country, that we remain aware of the atrocities committed by powerful people just a single lifetime ago. I absolutely recommend this book to anyone.