The Osage Indian Murders

Murder Files Unsealed

The Osage Indian murders were a series of killings that took place in Osage County, Oklahoma, during the 1910s and 1920s. The murders were motivated by the Osage tribe's wealth, which came from oil royalties. The killings targeted Osage people who had headrights to oil leases, and the perpetrators, often white people, hoped to inherit the wealth. The murders led to a federal investigation by the Bureau of Investigation, which uncovered a complex network of corruption and crime. Despite some convictions, many of the murders went unsolved. The government eventually passed a law to prevent non-Osage from inheriting headrights from Osage with half or more Native American ancestry. In 2011, the Osage Nation settled a lawsuit against the Department of the Interior for $380 million over the mismanagement of its trust assets. The events of the Osage Indian murders have been characterized by some as an act of genocide due to the intentional targeting and killing of Osage people to gain control of their wealth and resources.