The murders of her Osage relatives for their oil wealth still reverberate in the life of Margie Burkhart, granddaughter of a central character in the new movie.
Updated: 16 minutes agoMargie Burkhart, who lives in Tahlequah, Okla., is the granddaughter of Mollie Burkhart, an Osage Nation member whose siblings and mother were among dozens murdered for their oil wealth during the 1920s. The family tragedy is at the center of the movie"Killers of the Flower Moon."
Amplifying Margie’s family tragedy was the revelation that Margie’s grandfather Ernest Burkhart — Mollie’s white husband — was in on the plot. At the turn of the century, with the U.S. government eager to form the new state of Oklahoma, Osage tribal leaders used their leverage to cut a deal. Instead of the 160 acres allotted to members of other tribes, the Osage land was divided into 657-acre parcels to be owned exclusively by the Osage people. They also managed to include what would turn out to be a very lucrative provision: All oil, coal, gas and minerals beneath the lands would be owned by the tribe.
Tribal members, some of whom had a flair for fashion and a penchant for fine cars, became the target of white American envy. Journalists wrote often outlandish, racist stories about Osage who “discarded grand pianos on their lawns or replaced old cars with new ones after getting a flat tire,” Grann writes.
“I’d be wondering if it’s going to happen again,” she said. “As a child, it was just a really eerie feeling.” James quit drinking when Margie was 15. By then, she knew from her mother, also named Margie, about the trauma he had been trying to forget.James was about 9 when his father, Ernest, was tried and convicted of conspiring with Ernest’s uncle, a rich and powerful businessman and landowner named William Hale, to kill many of the Osage, siphoning their wealth into the network of white guardians and other nefarious actors.
Her father was still haunted when Ernest was released from prison in 1959 and later moved in with his brother, Margie’s great-uncle Bryan Burkhart, in nearby Cleveland, Okla. Margie was a teenager when her father brought Ernest to the house in Gray Horse and introduced them. She was struck by how harmless Ernest — a man who had helped destroy entire families, including her own — appeared. He was slight, with fluffy white hair and bright blue eyes.
As she grew older, Margie watched television airings of “The FBI Story,” a 1959 movie starring Jimmy Stewart that showcased the murders. She also began seeking out information on her own. Gradually, she came to understand the full dimensions of racism and greed that drove the conspirators, as well as the removal, oppression and cultural theft endured by her ancestors. “Native American history just hurts me so bad,” she said.
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