“Killers of the Flower Moon” brings together Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro for this poignant tale of calculated murders and the marriage at the center a grubby greedy chess game in Oklahoma in the 1920s. “Killers of the Flower Moon” is cinematically poetic well-told tale of toxic masculinity partially shaped by racism but the complicated racism in Oklahoma is only hinted at in the film.
The film is based on David Grann’s book of the same name, the result of almost a decade of research, and The New Yorker published an excerpt in March of 2017.
Oklahoma is a curious place. You might think of the place of corn as high as an elephant’s eye and beautiful mornings. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s 1944 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning musical “Oklahoma!” was a joyous fantasy with a dark undertone. Scorsese’s Oklahoma is joy buried six feet deep under the faux friendships and the tenuous love between White men and Indigenous women. This is an area where race isn’t simply Black and White.
History
Oklahoma was, in the 1860s, part of the Confederacy. It was home to the Five Tribes (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Seminole and Creek) who also held slaves. A Cherokee Confederate general, Stand Watie, was a wealthy man who owned about a hundred slaves. According to History.com, he commanded a battalion of Creek, Seminole, Cherokee and Osage Native Americans and was the last Confederate general to surrender.
- The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture: Civil War Era
- Osage
- The Last Confederate General to Surrender Was Native American (12 July 2023)
Even though there were East Asians in Oklahoma at that time of the Osage murders, they were few. The first Asians, the Chinese, likely first saw the Oklahoma Territory “when the Southern Kansas Railway (later the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway) constructed its line from Kansas through the Unassigned Lands in 1886-87, or they may have come as cooks or laundrymen with the US Army in 1889” according to “The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture.” In 1920, the estimated Chinese population was 261.
Oklahoma passed a law in 1897 that prevented marriages of “any person of African descent” to “any person not of African descent.” This could be used to void marriages between Blacks and Native Americans (Stevens v. United States 1944). The law was repealed in 1969 which was after the Loving v. Virginia (12 June 1967). This differs from its neighboring states of Arkansas (Blacks, 1838 until 1973), Colorado (Blacks, 1864 until 1957), Kansas (Blacks, 1855 to 1859), Missouri (Blacks and Asians from 1835 to 1969), New Mexico (Blacks, 1857 to 1866) and Texas (All non-Whites, 1837-1969). The film does mention the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Notice that by 1921, marriage between Blacks and White people was legal in Kansas and New Mexico.
There were states that did ban marriages between White people and Native Americans such as Maine (Blacks and Native Americans, 1821-1883), Rhode Island (Blacks and Native Americans, 1798-1881), Washington (Blacks and Native Americans, 1855 to 1868), Nevada (Blacks, Native Americans, Asians and Filipinos, 1861-1959), Oregon (Blacks, Native Americans, Asians, Native Hawaiians, 1862-1951), Georgia (Blacks, Native Americans and Filipinos, 1750 to 1972) and South Carolina (Blacks, Native Americans and Asian Indians, 1717 to 1970). Oklahoma and its neighboring states, with the exception of Texas, did not ban marriages between Whites and Native Americans.
The Osage Nation website explains that the Louisiana Purchase forced the eastern tribes west.
In 1865, we sold our Kansas Reservation lands to purchase a permanent reservation in Indian Territory. In 1871 and 1872, we relocated to a reservation described and confirmed by an Act of Congress approved June 5, 1872, in Indian Territory. The Osage Nation Reservation includes 1,470,559 acres. Contrary to popular belief that it was a gift from the United States Government to the Osage Nation, it was actually purchased from the Cherokee Nation by the Osage Nation. On June 14, 1883, the Cherokee Nation, by its principal chief, conveyed the land by deed to the United States to be placed in trust for the Osage Nation for $1,099,137.41. This amount was paid from the Osage tribal funds representing the proceeds from the sale of the Osage Reservation in Kansas. The lands purchased became the final and permanent home of the Osage people.
While the name “Osage” comes from French, the Osage people use Dhegihan Siouan language and refer to themselvesas 𐓏𐒰𐓓𐒰𐓓𐒷 (Wazhazhe), or “Mid-waters.” They originated “at the Indian Knoll near the mouth of the Green River in Kentucky” according to the Oklahoma History website.
The Osage Bear Clan version of creation has the four winds gathering the flood waters of the earth and draining the water in great rivers. This place was called Ni-U-Kon-Ska or the Middle Waters. Today this is the junction of the Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, Wabash, Arkansas, and Illinois drainage systems. From this the Osage took their real name, Ni-U-Kon-Ska or People of the Middle Waters.
The Osage Reservation is bordered by the Arkansas River, the Kansas-Oklahoma border, and a straight line that starts at the Kansas-Oklahoma border the tends in Tulsa. Osage County is currently 63% White and the largest minority group are the Native Americans (14.9%) with Black or African American 10.8% and Latino/Hispanic only 4.8%.
Oil was discovered in Oklahoma in 1859 on the Grand River in the Cherokee Nation. But the US became involved in the American Civil War (12 April 1861 to 9 April 1865). Cattle herders found oil along Sand Creek in Osage County in 1875. Over 350 oil pools were located in the Osage Nation, the most prolific being the Burbank Field which opened in May 1920. Gray Horse, where the film mostly takes place, is in the western part of the Osage Reservation, not far from Ralston (9 miles) and Burbank (16 miles), but 65 miles from Tulsa.
Killers of the Flower Moon: Movie
The title refers to the first full moon in May, a time of promise when the land is in bloom.
In May, when coyotes howl beneath an unnervingly large moon, taller plants, such as spiderworts and black-eyed Susans, begin to creep over the tinier blooms, stealing their light and water. The necks of the smaller flowers break and their petals flutter away, and before long they are buried underground. This is why the Osage Indians refer to May as the time of the flower-killing moon.
May is also when the Burbank Field opened and May is when the first murder in the family at the center of the film occurred.
- “Flower Moon”
- “Why Tonight’s May Full Moon Is Called the Flower Moon” (5 May 2023)
- “All about May’s Flower Moon and What It Means for Your Zodiac Sign” (5 May 2023)
The film mentions the Five Tribes and explains how the Osage came to Oklahoma. Although the county is named after the Osage, they were latecomers to the territory. Taken from one state to the next, they were finally settled on land that no one wanted. Their children were destined to be stolen away to have their identities erased at White-run boarding schools, but black gold percolates up from the ground, gushing up and raining down upon young Osage men. While tribal land was allotted, mineral rights were held in common and each tribal member was “entitled to one Osage headlight, or one equal share of oil and natural gas royalty.” The sudden wealth attracts national attention, bringing men seeking their fortunes.
The man at the center of this film is not the king or the king maker. He’s a mere pawn with the dim false glimmer of hero-hood: Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio). Burkhart, who served in World War I, is the Texas-born nephew of William King Hale (Robert De Niro). He wasn’t a soldier, but a cook. Yet you can see the well-greased machinations of Hale are building him into something more; he’s still a hero of sorts. And he’s seen dead bodies.
Hale tells him, “The land has oil on it. Black gold. Money flows freely here now.”
Burkhart replies, “I do love that money, sir.”
Hale asks, “You like women?”
Burkhart reports, “That’s my weakness.”
Hale decides, “Well, we mix these families together and that estate money flows in the right direction. It’ll come to us.”
Hale gives Burkhart a book on the Osage from which Burkhart reads, “Move, said the Great White Father. There are many, so many hungry wolves. Can you find the wolves in this picture?” There are many hungry wolves, but Burkhart is more opportunistic alley cat than wolf.
Leonardo DiCaprio’s Burkhart isn’t the quick-witted charmer of “Catch Me If You Can” nor the cocaine-snorting Wall Street jackal from “The Wolf of Wall Street.” Burkhart is a man whose moral compass points toward easy money. If his morality is muddier than a hog wallow, his mind is just as clear. While his uncle has already calculated six moves ahead, Burkhart’s mind is seven steps behind. His brother Byron (Scott Shepherd) is already part of the Hale household.
Although Hale is wealthy, he wants to be king and take back what he believes is his. Hale’s time as King of the Osage Hills will be the most infamous part of “the Reign of Terror” (1921-1926). Hale just doesn’t want to get his hands dirty. Yet Burkhart, isn’t exactly an innocent lamb. In his off hours from earning work as a livery driver, a position like today’s taxi cabbies, he robs wealthy Native Americans and gambles.
While the Wild West (1865-1895) had been tamed, these are still men used to seeing death and dying. The Wounded Knee Massacre (29 December 1890) up north in South Dakota was in 1890, and the Texas-born Hale would have been alive at that time (b. 24 December 1874). He would have been just turned 16. One of the Native American characters in the film recalls being part of the U.S. troops during the Boxer Rebellion (18 October 1899-7 September 1901). Others, like Burkhart, were vets of World War I.
One of Burkhart’s regular customers at the livery service is the quiet, but observant Mollie (Lily Gladstone). Mollie lives on her own and cares for her mother, Lizzie (Tantoo Cardinal) who suffers from diabetes. Mollie’s flirtation with Burkhart progresses (Burkhart asks, “You go nice color skin; what color would you say that is?” and Mollie replies, “My color.”); he even learns the Osage language. In an honest exchange with her sisters Reta (JaNae Collins), Minnie (Jillian Dion) and Anna (Cara Jade Myers), Mollie admits her attraction is to his clear blue eyes. “He’s not that smart, but he’s handsome…He looks like a coyote. Those blue eyes.” She’s marrying a trophy husband, with few marketable legal skills.
Minnie warns, “He wants our money.”
Mollie replies, “Of course, he wants money, but he wants to be settled. He’s not restless. His uncle has money.”
Reta defends Burkhart, saying, “It’s not money he wants; he loves you.”
What Mollie doesn’t tell Burkhart is that she was previously married; Mollie’s first husband was an Osage, Henry Roan (William Belleau), the man who picked up Burkhart at the station when he arrived and drove him to his uncle’s place.
After Mollie and Ernest Burkhart marry, the wildly partying Anna is murdered in May of 1921. Two months later, Mollie’s mother, Lizzie dies. Rita and her White husband William Smith and Henry Roan are murdered. Mollie, herself, seems to be wasting away.
Mollie will be one of the voices asking for federal assistance in the investigation which will bring the Bureau of Investigation (BOI), the predecessor of the FBI, into town led by Tom White (Jesse Plemons). And not all of the investigators (Pat Healy John Burger and Michael Abbott Jr. as Frank Smith) are White. Amongst them is Texas-bornJohn Wren (Tatanka Means), the first man of Native American heritage to work for the FBI. Henry Roan’s death becomes focus of the federal investigation.
Scorsese doesn’t focus on the gore although some horrific corpses are shown. What we see in this screenplay by Eric Roth (“Forrest Gump,” “Munich,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Dune”) is the integration and the disintegration of family as Ernest Burkhart falls under the influence of his father-figure, Hale, and Mollie and Ernest become a couple and have kids. People in love do stupid things, and you can’t blame stupid people for doing stupid things. When you know one of the couple married for money, the danger is in believing that a lasting happiness can be bought and a higher bidder won’t come around. Ultimately, Ernest Burkhart must decide what and who is family.
Gladstone’s Mollie is the rock of her family, a woman with quiet strength and a real love for her husband although from what the audience sees, she barely knows him at all. Yet we really don’t know Mollie or her family. Gladstone’s performance is one of quiet dignity that is ultimately crushed by the revelation of who her husband really is.
While it’s easy to consider this a film about a White person’s view of the matter, the 80-year-old Scorsese was born during World War II (17 November 1942. The film mentions the Boxer Rebellion (18 October 1899-7 September 1901) in China, but in the US, that was a time period when Italian Americans were being lynched. In 1891, eleven Italian Americans were lynched in New Orleans. The man who would become president, Teddy Roosevelt, said the lunching was “a rather good thing” and the man who was elected governor of Louisiana in 1911 described Italian Americans as “just a little worse than the Nebro, being if anything filthier in their habits, lawless, and treacherous.” Closer to the time frame of this film, was the infamous 1921 trial of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti who were tried for a 15 April 1920 robbery and murder in Massachusetts. Modern historians believe their death sentence was heavily influenced by anti-Italian, anti-immigrant and anti-anarchist sentiments.
For fans of true crime and murder mysteries, this Scorsese film will earn every one of its 206 minutes. There are some faults such as the jail confrontation between Ernest Burkhart and Hale, but then there’s the delight of the summation of the trial and crimes. As someone who was a big Law & Order franchise fan and has watched NCIS, and all iterations of CSI along with true crime documentaries,”Killers of the Flower Moon” was an engrossing tale.
While there has been some criticism of the film by a prominent Native American, there was approval from the Osage, including a descendant of Mollie and Ernest Burkhart.
Devery Jacobs is a First Nation actor born in Quebec, Canada of the Mohawk people. This is not her history. The woman who plays Mollie Burkhart with reserved dignity, Lily Gladstone, was born in Montana and grew up on the Blackfeet Nation reservation. She is part Piegan Blackfeet and Nez Perce with European ancestry. No doubt that “Killers of the Flower Moon” isn’t Mollie’s story. That has yet to be told and I wouldn’t pick director Martin Scorsese nor writer Eric Roth (with Scorsese) to do such a project. Scorsese’s muses have been men: DeNiro and DiCaprio, not women.
While Scorsese doesn’t pointedly tells us how this applies to our world today (e.g. Spike Lee’s film “Da 5 Bloods”), the film should remind us that even today, the murders of Native American women are often overlooked.
- Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Crisis (Bureau of Indian Affairs)
- Murdered & Missing Indigenous Women (Native Women’s Wilderness)
- Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (Native Hope)
Hale died in Phoenix, AZ 15 August 1962. Ernest Burkhart (11 September 1891-1 December 1986) died in Pawnee, Oklahoma. Mollie kept her mineral rights and passed them on to her children. Mollie Burkhart, who divorced Ernest and remarried, died in 1937 at age 50.
“Killers of the Flower Moon” premiered on 20 May 2023 at the Cannes Film Festival and had its Los Angeles premiere on Monday, 16 October 2023 (with a drum performance prior to the screening). The film was released in US theaters on 20 October 2023.
The Dragon Lady Files 