well. he tells me that to understand what happened, you have to start at the beginning. long before henry roan, the osage controlled a massive territory that covered most of the midwest. here they hunted buffalo on the great open plains. when the white man came, the osage were forced to give up more and more of their lands. and in the 1870s they made a strategic decision. to buy a rocky piece of lands in oklahoma. that no one wanted. the conventional wisdom of the day was if we moved here, they wouldn t want anything to do with us. because the land isn t suitable for farming. it s kind of amazing to look out and think about the fact that 150 years ago the osage people settled here because they
and a vote. they worked tirelessly to rebuild the tribe. and soon, families who left during the reign of terror started moving back. to help recover what was lost. so, the osage language was all but dead until the new constitution committed resources to adults and kids learning how to speak a language that might have been lost forever. so it s really beautiful what s happening behind me. today, nearly 10,000 osage are living in oklahoma. carrying on the traditions of their ancestors. how do you say it? what is that? it s a dance.
sitting on a gold mine. some of the largest oil deposits in north america. in the 1920s the oil wells littered this landscape. they were everywhere. as far as the eye can see. that s what brought people from all over the world to this part of oklahoma. the oil tycoons all descended. and they bid for leases. to drill osage oil. and the osage became incredibly wealthy. over the next two decades the nation would produce more wealth than all of the american gold rushes. combined. and little towns not much more than a trading post at the center of the reservation, were transformed. this was it before oil. and after oil was discovered
i m headed to oklahoma to learn more about the osage. how they became so rich. the rush was on. and who wanted them erased from their towns. she was 21 years old. and ultimately from american history. america was built on the graves of indians. they didn t care if we died. they didn t care if our children died. it wasn t okay then. it s not okay now. murder is murder .
reporters around the country flocked to oklahoma. filing sensational stories of indescribable wealth. they were writing about spending habits and lavish lifestyle. making us look like cartoons. like story of the osage had a brand new car and drove it until it ran out of gas and left it. like we were just idiots that fell into this money. and we deserve to have it taken away from us. who is benefitting from the osage? back then? the bankers. they would charge fees for loans. store owners charge osages ten times more than non-osage. simply cheating the osage wouldn t make you rich. there was a lot of money to be made and a way to do it that could set someone up for the rest of his life. osage could die down the