Tag: moon-s-flower • BookLikes

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text 2019-07-17 22:30

A very few NF history selections

Abandoned by user

Everybody Was So Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy: A Lost Generation Love Story - Amanda Vaill

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America - Tony Goldwyn,Erik Larson

Killers of the Flower Moon - David Grann

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon - David Grann

I don't read a lot of NF, but I really enjoyed these.

Vaill, Amanda: Everybody Was So Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy: A Lost Generation Love Story. Set during the 1920's at Villa American in the south of France.

Larson, Erik: Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America: set during the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago.

Grann, David: Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI: Oklahama, 1920s.

and The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon. Explorer, 1925, London, NY & the Amazon.

crowdsourced essential history

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review 2018-02-07 15:32

Infuriating tale of greed, violence and inhumanity

Abandoned by user

So far my NF reading project is going beautifully, with two amazing reads up front. This book was riveting and infuriating. I finished it last night, and I'm still pissed about the systemic failures that enabled what could justifiably be called an attempted genocide fueled by malice and greed. I think it was Char's review that mentioned that if this had been a novel, I would've found it overheated and unconvincing.

It's books like this that honestly make me question whether or not humanity ought not just be allowed to die. The conspiracy to fleece the Osages of the wealth which they only obtained by sheer unadulterated luck after being forced out of their native lands by a greedy government that wanted their lands for white settlers, onto a remote, worthless pile of rock was deplorable. The powerful white community that conspired to effectuate this is shocking. Not content, however, to just defraud them, the white community engaged in an apparent wide-ranging conspiracy to gain their property through murder.

Everyone of those men and women who married for gain, murdered for gain and buried for gain likely thought of themselves as fine, upstanding Christian men and women. These were the pillars of society - the lawyers, the judges, THE FUCKING DOCTORS (first, let us do no harm apparently doesn't apply if one is treating Native Americans), the police - they murdered dozens, maybe hundreds, of Osage tribe members.

The only explanation for this that makes sense is that, by this time, the Native Americans had been so dehumanized through popular culture and government policy that they were not recognized as human beings, and these people didn't think of what they did as murder. This isn't an excuse, rather it is an indictment of an entire culture that allowed this to flourish under its watch. The intergenerational trauma that has resulted from this horror can only be profound.

There was literally no one who got in their way. The entire community either participated or ignored what was happening to their Osage neighbors. It makes me sick to think of it.

The team that was assembled to solve the murders was interesting, and many of the men were quite admirable, but that section of the book pales in comparison to the story of the victims.

text 2018-02-05 22:19

Reading progress update: I've read 157 out of 320 pages.

Abandoned by user

This book is fucking infuriating.

"The more White investigated the flow of oil money from Osage headrights, the more he found layer upon layer of corruption. Although some white guardians and administrators tried to act in the best interests of the tribe, countless others used the system to swindle the very people they were ostensibly protecting. Many guardians would purchase, for their wards, goods from their own stores or inventories at inflated prices. (One guardian bought a car for $250 and then resold it to his ward for $1,250.) Or guardians would direct all of their wards’ business to certain stores and banks in return for kickbacks. Or guardians would claim to be buying homes and land for their wards while really buying these for themselves. Or guardians would outright steal.

One government study estimated that before 1925 guardians had pilfered at least $8 million directly from the restricted accounts of their Osage wards. “The blackest chapter in the history of this State will be the Indian guardianship over these estates,” an Osage leader said, adding, “There has been millions—not thousands—but millions of dollars of many of the Osages dissipated and spent by the guardians themselves.”

The white community used the so-called "incompetence" of the wealthy Osages to mandate guardianships, and then proceeded to bleed them dry.

"Some of the schemes were beyond depraved. The Indian Rights Association detailed the case of a widow whose guardian had absconded with most of her possessions. Then the guardian falsely informed the woman, who had moved from Osage County, that she had no more money to draw on, leaving her to raise her two young children in poverty. “For her and her two small children, there was not a bed nor a chair nor food in the house,” the investigator said. When the widow’s baby got sick, the guardian still refused to turn over any of her money, though she pleaded for it. “Without proper food and medical care, the baby died,” the investigator said.

The Osage were aware of such schemes but had no means to stop them. After the widow lost her baby, evidence of the fraud was brought before a county judge, only to be ignored. “There is no hope of justice so long as these conditions are permitted to remain,” the investigator concluded. “The human cry of this…woman is a call to America.” An Osage, speaking to a reporter about the guardians, stated, “Your money draws ’em and you’re absolutely helpless. They have all the law and all the machinery on their side. Tell everybody, when you write your story, that they’re scalping our souls out here.”

Rage

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review 2017-10-11 00:00

Killers of the Flower Moon

Skulls and Coffee

This has been the hot book of Tulsa this summer. Probably the most butchered title also. As a librarian, I have gotten really good at figuring out that our customers wanted this book when they ask for "Flower Killers," "Moon Flowers," or "Flower Killer Moon."

"Killers of the Flower Moon" is the story of Osage Indians being murdered for mineral rights or headrights in Oklahoma. However, the story is deeper and darker then that. It's about white man's greed, systematic injustice towards the Osage, and the lack of justice. It's also about the beginning of the FBI and how Hoover parlayed the agents' case into a national spotlight on the burgeoning FBI.

This was right in my wheelhouse as it was a great combination of true crime and history. Add to that description it happened not far from where I currently live and it definitely felt like history was close enough to touch.

Recommended if you enjoy true crime, history...I would recommend this to anyone. Toss it in their hand and say, "You must read this. We must do better than our history."

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review 2017-08-24 00:00

Killers of the Flower Moon

Fangirl Moments and My Two Cents

This book is about the Osage murders. Oil was found on the Osage land. They became beyond wealthy. A big conspiracy to take their wealth away from them came in to play. They were appointed guardians and then murdered. The book does a good job of trying to figure out the tangled web. It's very interesting and majorly tragic.