美国国家公共电台 NPR In The 1920s, A Community Conspired To Kill Native Americans For Their Oil Money

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Generations ago, the Osage Indian Nation was forced to move. Not for the first time, white settlers pushed them off their land in the 1800s. The writer David Grann sees in that move the start of an astonishing and tragic¹ story.

DAVID GRANN: When they were being driven off their land in Kansas, they didn't know where to go. And an Osage chief stood up and he said, we should go to this area that would later become northeast Oklahoma because it's rocky and infertile² and the white man will finally leave us alone.

INSKEEP: It turned out the Osage had chosen land that was rich in oil. In the early 20th century, members of this beaten-down Indian nation grew spectacularly wealthy. They bought cars. They built mansions³. They made so much oil money that the government began appointing white guardians⁵ to help the Indians spend it. And then the Osage started to be killed.

David Grann investigated their story for the new book "Killers⁶ Of The Flower Moon." He tells this half-forgotten story beginning with Mollie Burkhart, an Osage woman, in 1921.

What happened to her?

GRANN: So Mollie Burkhart's family - she had four sisters. And one day in 1921, her older sister disappeared. And about a week later, her body was found in a ravine. Mollie's mother, within two months, she, too, had died. And evidence later suggested that she had been secretly poisoned.

Not long after that, Mollie was sleeping in her bed. She heard a loud explosion. And she had another sister who lived not far away. And in the area where her sister's house was, she could see almost this orange fireball rising into the sky. And her sister's house had been blown up, killing⁷ that sister as well as her sister's husband and a servant.

INSKEEP: It's still a little hard to get your brain around how it is that someone could commit all these killings⁸ and then inherit their oil wealth. Who would be in a position to do that?

GRANN: What makes these crimes so sinister⁹ is that it involved marrying into families. It involved a level of calculation and a level of betraying the very people you pretended to love.

INSKEEP: You mentioned Mollie Burkhart.

GRANN: That's exactly what happened to Mollie. She had married a white man. And his uncle was the most powerful settler in the area. He was known as the King of the Osage Hills. And he had orchestrated a very sinister plot played out over years where he directed his nephew, who had married Mollie Burkhart, to marry her so that he could then begin to kill the family members one by one and siphon off all the wealth.

INSKEEP: How was this series of crimes investigated?

GRANN: So it's really important to understand back then that there was so much lawlessness. That was one of the things that shocked me when I began researching the story that even in the 1920s, much of America remained a country that was not fully¹⁰ rooted in its laws. Its legal institutions were very fragile.

Mollie Burkhart beseeched the authorities to try to investigate, to get help. But because of prejudice, they often ignored the crimes. And almost anyone who tried to investigate the killings, they, too, were killed.

One attorney tried to gather evidence. And one day, he was thrown off a speeding train, and all the evidence that he had gathered had disappeared. Another time, an oil man had traveled to Washington, D.C., to try to get help. He was then found stabbed more than 20 times. And finally a very - then very obscure branch of the Justice Department intervened. It was known as the Bureau of Investigation¹¹. And it was what would later be renamed the FBI.

INSKEEP: J. Edgar Hoover.

GRANN: J. Edgar Hoover. He was the new director. And it became one of the FBI's first major homicide cases that it ever dealt with.

INSKEEP: Did the agency that became the FBI solve these murders?

GRANN: The Bureau initially¹² badly bungled¹³ the case. And J. Edgar Hoover was new in the job. And he was very insecure. He had dreams about building a bureaucratic¹⁴ empire. And he turned the case over to a frontier lawman, who put together an undercover team that included one of - probably the only American-Indian agent in the Bureau at the time. They were able, through some dogged investigation, to eventually capture some of the ringleaders.

INSKEEP: Are you telling me that the future Federal Bureau of Investigation established its reputation as great investigators¹⁵ by subcontracting it...

GRANN: (Laughter).

INSKEEP: ...Out to somebody who actually knew what they were doing?

GRANN: He did. They went to an old frontier lawman to help take over the case and they did a good job. But Hoover was desperate to wrap up the case. The Bureau missed a deeper and darker conspiracy¹⁶ that remained unsolved. And I think that's very important to understand.

INSKEEP: How do you know that?

GRANN: Well, many of the Osage began to point me in directions to other unsolved cases within their families going back. What this story really is about - it's not about a story of who did it. It's a story about who didn't do it. When I went to the National Archives in Texas, there was this little booklet. It had a little fabric¹⁷ cover. It - all it was was essentially¹⁸ identifying the name of a guardian⁴ and who - which Osage they were in charge of.

And when I began to look at the names of the Osage under them, I could see written next to many of them simply the word dead, dead, dead. You're beginning to realize you're looking at hints of a systematic¹⁹ murder campaign because there's no way all these people died in a span of just a couple years that defied any natural death rate.

And then when you begin to look into each of those individual case, you start to find trails of evidence of suggesting poisonings, a murder. You start to try to trace the money and where the wealth went. What you begin to discover is something even more horrifying²⁰ than the Bureau ever exposed.

INSKEEP: When you've been poking²¹ around in this and revealing this information about a bunch of people's ancestors, what have people said to you?

GRANN: So one of the things that you realize when you spend time in Osage County is that the descendants of both the victims and descendants of the murderers still live there. They often live down the street from each other. And one Osage woman told me we try not to hold them accountable for what their ancestors did. Part of that is the story of America, this intertwining and this kind of reckoning with this original sin that is part of our formation of a country.

And I would say this, I spoke²² with some of the descendants of the husband of Mollie Burkhart and the uncle who was one of the masterminds of the plot. And they were remarkably²³ candid²⁴. And after I finished the book, I received a note from one of the descendants who said, I'm so ashamed that this is part of our history. And please, if you see the Osage, will you please tell them that?

INSKEEP: David Grann is author of the new book "Killers Of The Flower Moon: The Osage Murders And The Birth Of The FBI." Thanks very much.

GRANN: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF BRIAN BLADE AND THE FELLOWSHIP BAND'S "STATE LINES")

1 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

2 infertile   

adj.不孕的；不肥沃的，贫瘠的

参考例句：

• Plants can't grow well in the infertile land.在贫瘠的土地上庄稼长不好。
• Nobody is willing to till this infertile land.这块薄田没有人愿意耕种。

3 mansions   

n.宅第，公馆，大厦( mansion的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Fifth Avenue was boarded up where the rich had deserted their mansions. 第五大道上的富翁们已经出去避暑，空出的宅第都已锁好了门窗，钉上了木板。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• Oh, the mansions, the lights, the perfume, the loaded boudoirs and tables! 啊，那些高楼大厦、华灯、香水、藏金收银的闺房还有摆满山珍海味的餐桌！ 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

4 guardian   

n.监护人；守卫者，保护者

参考例句：

• The form must be signed by the child's parents or guardian. 这张表格须由孩子的家长或监护人签字。
• The press is a guardian of the public weal. 报刊是公共福利的卫护者。

5 guardians   

监护人( guardian的名词复数 )； 保护者，维护者

参考例句：

• Farmers should be guardians of the countryside. 农民应是乡村的保卫者。
• The police are guardians of law and order. 警察是法律和秩序的护卫者。

6 killers   

凶手( killer的名词复数 )； 消灭…者； 致命物； 极难的事

参考例句：

• He remained steadfast in his determination to bring the killers to justice. 他要将杀人凶手绳之以法的决心一直没有动摇。
• They were professional killers who did in John. 杀死约翰的这些人是职业杀手。

7 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

8 killings   

谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发

参考例句：

• His statement was seen as an allusion to the recent drug-related killings. 他的声明被视为暗指最近与毒品有关的多起凶杀案。
• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。

9 sinister   

adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的

参考例句：

• There is something sinister at the back of that series of crimes.在这一系列罪行背后有险恶的阴谋。
• Their proposals are all worthless and designed out of sinister motives.他们的建议不仅一钱不值，而且包藏祸心。

10 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

11 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

12 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

13 bungled   

v.搞糟，完不成( bungle的过去式和过去分词 )；笨手笨脚地做；失败；完不成

参考例句：

• They bungled the job. 他们把活儿搞糟了。
• John bungled the job. 约翰把事情搞糟了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

14 bureaucratic   

adj.官僚的，繁文缛节的

参考例句：

• The sweat of labour washed away his bureaucratic airs.劳动的汗水冲掉了他身上的官气。
• In this company you have to go through complex bureaucratic procedures just to get a new pencil.在这个公司里即使是领一支新铅笔，也必须通过繁琐的手续。

15 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

17 fabric   

n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织

参考例句：

• The fabric will spot easily.这种织品很容易玷污。
• I don't like the pattern on the fabric.我不喜欢那块布料上的图案。

18 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

19 systematic   

adj.有系统的，有计划的，有方法的

参考例句：

• The way he works isn't very systematic.他的工作不是很有条理。
• The teacher made a systematic work of teaching.这个教师进行系统的教学工作。

20 horrifying   

a.令人震惊的，使人毛骨悚然的

参考例句：

• He went to great pains to show how horrifying the war was. 他极力指出战争是多么的恐怖。
• The possibility of war is too horrifying to contemplate. 战争的可能性太可怕了，真不堪细想。

21 poking   

n. 刺，戳，袋 vt. 拨开，刺，戳 vi. 戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢

参考例句：

• He was poking at the rubbish with his stick. 他正用手杖拨动垃圾。
• He spent his weekends poking around dusty old bookshops. 他周末都泡在布满尘埃的旧书店里。

22 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

23 remarkably   

ad.不同寻常地，相当地

参考例句：

• I thought she was remarkably restrained in the circumstances. 我认为她在那种情况下非常克制。
• He made a remarkably swift recovery. 他康复得相当快。

24 candid   

adj.公正的，正直的；坦率的

参考例句：

• I cannot but hope the candid reader will give some allowance for it.我只有希望公正的读者多少包涵一些。
• He is quite candid with his friends.他对朋友相当坦诚。