Unity club learns about Osage oil murders

Iola Unity Club members discussed "Killers of the Moon" at their Feb. 23 meeting. The book discusses the notorious murders surrounding oil deposits on land owned by the Osage tribe.

Around Town

February 27, 2020 - 10:09 AM

At their Feb. 23 meeting, Unity Club members discussed the book “Killers of the Moon” by David Grann, a work nominated for the 2017 National Book Award.

According to Unity readers, in the early 1870s the Osage people had been driven from their lands in Kansas onto a rocky, presumably worthless reservation in northeastern Oklahoma, only to discover decades later that this land was positioned above some of the richest oil deposits in the United States.

To obtain that oil, prospectors had to pay the Osage for leases and royalties.

Related
March 11, 2020
February 1, 2019
March 28, 2018
October 5, 2015