Bloodland: A Family Story of Oil, Greed and Murder on the Osage Reservation (Part Two and up to Chapter 8)

FM:  I found this section of the book to be much more appealing.  The odd juxtaposition of family-history-biography and regional-anthropology-history is not as jarring here.  Some short segments resemble the style of writing that has made me think I dislike History as a subject for most of my life; an endless listing of names, dates, places and battles that I forget almost as soon as I have read them.  But through most of this narrative, the author takes the time to flesh out and humanize an assortment of high points that are thus made more interesting.   

CJ:  His description of the bastardization of Missouri could not have been more articulate. My familiarity with Interstate 44 brought visions of each of the places he described and my own contempt for the mistreatment of the beauty of the land. We all have some mental image of what our homelands are supposed to look like. His disappointment must have been monumental as he drove past all the hillbilly crap and adult movie stores. He is correct, not one sign of the Osage Tribe is visible on the Osage Trace across Missouri.  

FM:  The somewhat detailed description of one of Custer’s important victories is a refreshing change of pace from the thread of historical investigation into the past that the author is re-living.  He seems to sense when the reader – at least this reader – is getting impatient for something new, and manages to present a nice variety of approaches to his subjects.  What does the Custer story have to do with the main subject of the book?  He was led by Osage scouts, who were essential to his success; an example of how resourceful and effective the Osage Indians were in these situations.  Okay, a bit of a stretch, but intriguing reading, anyway! 

CJ:  I agree with FM, the transitions in the author's style do keep the read engaged. The Custer story held bits of information omitted from the Oklahoma History books we hand our youth. The Tribes of North America did not all hold hands and sing kum-ba-yah before Europeans arrived. The Osage were fierce rivals of neighboring tribes and did serious damage to the Old Cherokee Settlers who moved onto their land. Because of their close relationship with the French traders and command of several languages including English, the Osage were often used by whites as scouts. 

FM:  McAuliffe’s writing craft is more impressive in this section.  I liked: “A few moss-covered stones have rolled creekward, giving lie to the adage.”  I had to look at that a second time before I got it.  “I drove into a thunderstorm, or it drove into me.”  Nice descriptive phrases like this are sprinkled throughout.  Only occasionally does he drift off in an attempt to be a little too flowery in his prose.  The attempt is appreciated.  

CJ:  I like the way the author's Osage blood seems to be rising throughout the book. It brings an understanding of the passion that Natives have for saving their cultures.

FM:  His “sleuthing” work is a little more suspect.  He’s trying to justify his hunch that the “suicide” he’s investigating years after the event was really a murder. The woman (his grandmother) left her home in Kansas City and visited her old home in Pawhuska, Oklahoma.   “When a woman goes somewhere, what is the one thing she never fails to take with her?  Her jewelry.”  Setting aside for a moment the accuracy of this statement, he uses it to show that she was planning to return to Kansas City – where she had left her jewelry; and if she was planning to return, she wasn’t planning to commit suicide while she was away.  He misses the point that a woman planning suicide would likely be an exception to the “rule” to begin with, knowing that you can’t take it with you.  He makes the common error of using logic to support his theory, but ignoring it when it doesn’t. 

CJ:  The barbs thrown at the Phillips have piqued my interest. I have to do more research, but the history I've always been fed painted Frank Phillips as a friend of the Osage who treated them fairly in business deals and even helped provide some legal protection of their mineral rights. After all, Frank Phillips is the reason they have oil royalties. He drilled the first commercial well in the territory with a lease on Osage land. I have to wonder if the author has crossed into the realm of hate all whites from all generations. 

FM:  His research continues to be superb, however, bringing in not only historical facts but bits from other disciplines as well.  He reminds us that, in the movies, when someone shoots someone and wants to make it look like a suicide, they place the gun in the victim’s hand.  In reality, this is rarely what the scene would look like.  “Pistols of suicide shooters have been found a good twenty-five to thirty feet from the body”  due to the recoil of the shot at the same moment as the reflexive spasm of the arm and hand upon death.  One of those amazing little facts that might never have occurred to me, but seems so obvious after reading it!

CJ:  We are now at a point where the author describes places that I know intimately. It is interesting to hear them described through the eyes of an "outsider". To me Bartlesville is vibrant place full of history and legend, but his description gives it an air of corporate greed and sadness.  I have a feeling the sadness will deepen even more when he arrives in Pawhuska. My assumption is the pictures he has seen all come from the boom times of the 1920's. The town now is a reflection of the Osage Tribe and the injustices it has endured.

Next week's Segment: Chapters 8 and 9.