4.5/5

I read this to coincide with the release of Martin Scorsese’s theatrical take on the book. While the film and book choose to tell this story in two entirely different ways, both masterfully illustrate how a nation founded on white supremacy could cultivate institutions and systems that would allow such senseless and callous evil to be carried out with shocking ease and no fear of consequences. The have-nots who had everything taken from them suddenly came to inherit the earth, and a country that had viewed them as savages for centuries began to circle like vultures.

As heartbreaking and downright terrifying a story as you’ll ever read. It says more about where we are as a country and how far we still have to go that this is not required learning for every student in America. I know I had zero knowledge of it until very recently. Many thanks to David Grann and Marty for bringing these stories to the forefront, and even more thanks to the Osage for refusing to let the memories of the lost die despite so many efforts to silence them.