David Grann's Killers Of The Flower Moon

During the formation of the United States of America, the values that were set into place for an American society shunned the recognition of anyone who was not of a certain race or gender. This continued with the fruition of the enlightenment ideals as these were also developed with a select few in mind, which were mainly privileged white males. These untold standards of being an “American” lead to the direct pre-meditated murders of hundreds of the Osage which is recounted in the book, “Killers of the Flower Moon” by David Grann. Since the Osage were benefiting from the needs of White people, in operating their land within a within a capitalist system, this fact was threatening to white society who were “supposed to” benefit from the enlightenment

The Ward system which mandated guardianships among the Osage, was a direct attempt to curtail their monetary success, as if they had no ability to manage their own wealth. It is only when Mollie Burkhart is forty-four years old that she is declared “competent” to manage her own affairs, “‘…the said Mollie Burkhart…is hereby restored to competency and the order heretofore made adjudging her to be a incompetent person is hereby vacated’”(Grann 229). All this ward system accomplished was to communicate to others that Osage were not considered “true” Americans and therefore could not mange their own wealth. This attempt to limit the disbursement of their profits is an attempt to infantilise the Osage, which is essentially a form of slavery. With all forms of racial infantilism, there comes a racial depiction of the “simple” form of the race and that these people must be “protected” from their naïveté. This was shown with African American depictions in the media in the 1900’s through characters that were displayed as “simple,” and “uneducated.” Similarly, Native Americans have been cited by the media as unable to mange “real” money because of their drinking habits, something that is a general stereotype. In this particular instance, a perfectly competent adult woman is being kept from the money that is rightfully hers without any mind of what would be constitutionally