By Chris Vineis
Fall 2017
Have you ever started a scrapbook for a vacation, but never finished it? The FBI archive for the Osage Indian Murders seemed a lot like that to me. Today the FBI is one of the most well-respected investigatory organizations in the world, but its effort to document its first major investigation of a homicide was disappointing. This paper provides a cursory view of this tragic event and a more in-depth examination of the FBI’s Osage Indian Murders archive, including discussion of the archive’s purpose, presentation, and how the technology and perspective of the time resulted in a less-than-comprehensive view of this tragic event.
Examination of this tragic event reminds me of the saying that money is the root of all evil. That may or may not be true, but what is true is that money can make the greedy among us commit the most evil of acts. The Osage Indian murders, which occurred from 1918 to 1925, were such acts. During this period, innocent Osage Indians were mercilessly targeted for their newfound and extraordinary wealth, which was generated from the royalties on the headrights to the crude oil under their land. By 1920 the Osage people were among the richest per capita in the world. According to the FBI, by the mid-1920s, no fewer than 24 members (some sources put this number closer to 60) of the tribe had been either shot, poisoned or blown up in what is best described as a “Reign of Terror” to extract such wealth from the Osage people (Jefferson, “Digging Up a Tale of Terror Among the Osages”).
It was and is widely believed that the Reign of Terror was orchestrated by William F. Hale, perhaps appropriately self-proclaimed as the “King of Osage Hills.” Resources in addition to the archive reinforce that Hale was indeed a very evil man. Despite allegations and evidence of Hale’s involvement in several murders, the FBI’s investigation resulted in his murder conviction for arranging “only” the murder of Henry Roan, and this only after numerous trials with deadlocked juries, appeals, and overturned verdicts. Hale and his accomplices were sentenced to life imprisonment but were later paroled despite protests from the Osage (May, “Osage Murders”).
While the conviction of Hale and his accomplices was a victory of sorts for the Osage people and the FBI, it is difficult to believe that the results would have been so limited had the victims had been Caucasian instead of Native Americans. The racial bias against Native Americans was only exasperated by white society’s jealousy of the Osage people’s wealth and lavish lifestyle. Osage Indians were employing poor white folks as servants . . . god forbid. Although this narrative is critical of the FBI’s Osage Indian murder archive, I am thankful that it raised my awareness of this event, especially as I see the continued injustices experienced by Native Americans today.
The FBI’s archive for the Osage Indian murders is part of the FBI’s Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, library referred to as The Vault. The Vault is a collection of nearly 7,000 FOIA documents and other media that have been scanned into digital copies to make such materials easily accessible to the public. The Vault is well organized and users can locate records by keyword search or browsing its various categories such as civil rights, popular culture, unusual phenomenon, and violent crime. The Osage Indian archive can be found by browsing the violent crime category or entering a keyword search for “Osage Indian murders” (“FBI Vault”). Unfortunately, The Vault’s organization and usability does not extend to the archives inside it. Instead, the material in the Osage Indian murder archive appears to have been randomly scanned into the archive devoid of any rhyme or reason. Such lack of organization made it difficult to work within the individual archive. So, while The Vault allowed the FBI to accomplish its goal of making certain FOIA documents easily accessible to the public, it falls short of providing the individual archives and the content therein, in an organized, easy to use form.
Lack of organization aside, the content of the FBI’s archive is remarkably non-bias and factual, which is laudable given the ill will and prejudices of the time. The limited nature of the archive does not seem to be an effort to bury the past but more the result of the narrow focus of the FBI investigations, which was to solve the murders. The Osage Indians paid the FBI over $20,000 to cover this case, and it appears the FBI investigators respected the Osage people (Stephey, “The Osage Murders: Oil Wealth, Betrayal and the FBI’s First Big Case”). As the Bureau’s first major murder case investigation, they had much on the line and to fear from making a bad “first impression,” redacting sections of sensitive or potentially offensive information. The archive’s investigator reports reveal that they probably did the best they could with resources available at that time.
That said, while the content of the archive is narrow, it does have depth. In fact, from a content perspective, the main appeal of the archive is its account of the murders of Anna Brown, Charles Whitehorn, and Bill Smith. These were perhaps the most well-known of the murders and have received widespread coverage in books such as Killers of the Flower Moon The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann 2017, an excellent account of the Osage Indian Murders and the role of the FBI. The archive provides accounts of the discovery of Anne Brown’s body in a remote ravine (the death was ruled as accidental). It also describes that on the same day, the body of Charles Whitehorn – Anne Brown’s cousin – was found and whom had been shot and that two years later, Bill Smith – Anne Brown’s uncle – died from injuries from the bombing of his house. The narrow focus of the archive deprives the reader of relating details: the death of Lizzie Kyle – Anne Brown’s mother – who had also been shot, Henry Roan – Anne Brown’s cousin – found shot in a car, and Rita Smith – Anne Brown’s aunt – who also died in her house’s bombing. These details are important as they demonstrate that the entire family was being targeted and killed. It was the murder of Henry Roan for which Hale and his cronies were eventually convicted. Ultimately, during the Reign of Terror there were nearly 60 other murders of Osage Indians that are not detailed or even mentioned in the archive. The omission from the archive of such relevant information was disappointing to say the least.
As the content of the archive was disappointing, so too was the quality of the materials and usability of the archive. After only a few minutes of exploration of the archive, I realized that working with the archive would be difficult. The archive’s presentation is haphazard and sloppy. The is no index or table of contents. Instead, the archive is simply a compilation of 65 scanned documents containing the notes and reports of the FBI’s murder investigation. The poorly scanned pages, which are marred by discolorations and black printer-scanner- splotches are clearly distressed. Many of the pages are scanned such that the dimensions of the original page are reduced and take up only fraction of the resultant scanned page. Considerable effort is required to read the documents as one must “zoom in” and” zoom out” to compensate for the varying sizes and types of fonts. Anyone who has had such an experience knows the eye strain and such magnification frequently blurs the words to beyond recognition. A simple transcription or Google search would’ve gotten the job done. Quite frankly, there were several instances where the reader is simply not able to decipher key words in the archive. Like a jigsaw puzzle with pieces missing, it is difficult to get a complete picture of the event when key portions of the archived materials are not readable. The fact that materials in the archive appear to have been randomly added to the archive without any type of sequencing only makes the whole experience more frustrating and the archive less appealing. Although some of these shortcomings are a function of the technology available when the original documents were created and cannot be easily addressed, others such as the quality of the scanning and sequencing of the documents could be fixed easily. With a little effort, the quality of the materials could be improved and the archive made a much more valuable resource.
It is easy to be critical of the lack of breadth and quality of the FBI archive, but some of these shortcomings also give the archive a rustic touch and certain charm. The typewriter-created documents brought a sense of realness to it all. The reader is transported back in time in a way that would not occur if the documents were recreated using today’s technology. If these pages of the archive were re-created and stored with today’s technology, they may be more easily read, but would not have the same impact on the reader. Yes, my face wouldn’t have been as close to the computer screen but my imagination would not have stretched as far back in time. Seeing a copy of J. Edgar Hoover’s signature at the bottom of a nearly hundred-year-old document lends an air of authenticity to the archive and allows the reader to gain a better grasp of the tone and tenor of the FBI’s investigation. That said, even a meager amount of research reveals that the FBI had information at their disposal that could easily have been included in the archive. Through other resources I found that the FBI had excellent pictures that they could’ve included! How ironic that I found this archive within the “Oklahoma Postcards Collection” and yet it did not include a single photo, despite the FBI having such photos. Inclusion of relevant vintage photos from the period would have provided valuable content to the archive without diminishing its authentic feel.
The authentic feel of the archive creates an emotional void for the reader. The focus of the investigation was clearly on solving the murders, but the documents in the archive rarely focused on actual murders or the victims. Instead the reports were made up primarily of accounts of the investigators’ experiences, reading more like a diary entry to their daily lives, not an account of the murders. I get the importance of such documentation as it helped enforce the integrity of each investigation the way body cameras on police today can be used to substantiate proper (or improper) policing after the fact. The day-to-day activities of the investigations, logistics of traveling to and from crime scenes, and scheduling of a meeting or interview, all leave the reader wanting more. The reader wants to know more about the murders and more about the victims. The reader cannot help but find the reports lacking the emotion that one might expect to find in the reporting of such a tragic event. As I write this paper I received the information that the father of a girl with whom I sing passed away from a sudden heart attack. I’ve barely even talked to her, yet I am already overcome with empathy. Did the FBI agents in this case feel this way at all? If so, such feelings were not memorialized in their reports. One is left to wonder whether the lack of any such emotion in the reports was due to a lack of emotion on the part of the agents or a sense of professionalism that prevented them from expressing empathy for the victims or their families. If left solely to archive, the Osage Indians who were the victims of the Reign of Terror would not receive that.
Thankfully the story and plight of the Osage Indians was not left solely to the FBI archives. Before a recent OSU home football game, my parents and I attended a luncheon at the school’s alumni center. At the luncheon, notable OSU alumni were honored for their post-graduation accomplishments. One such honoree was Wilson Pipestem, a Native American Oklahoma lawyer who sued the United States on behalf of the Osage people, many of whom were descendants or related to the victims of the Reign of Terror. Although at first it did not seem like a fair match, a small firm taking on the federal government, Pipestem and the Osage people prevailed and were awarded over 380 million dollars. The victory paved the way for huge improvements for the local Native Americans. Seeing Mr. Pipestem receive his award and hearing of his accomplishments and how they benefited the Osage people hit home for me and helped fill the void I felt when reading the archive.
I also can’t help but wonder how much this archive would have differed if it were made today. These reports were created on manual typewriters, were details left out or left uncorrected that would have been added or corrected if the agents were using Microsoft Word for their reports? Would the advanced investigative tools of today such as DNA testing resulted in the inclusion of more scientific data in the reports? Would the mindset of the investigators been different if they had easy access to this information? Would the public be more knowledgeable about the event and would the pressure of public opinion have forced the FBI to take a more aggressive approach and perhaps pursue convictions beyond those obtained? It is difficult to be sure of the answer to any of these questions but one would hope that under similar circumstances today, the FBI would act with greater force and sense of urgency, that the nature and abundance of killings would have been less severe and the archive would have been more comprehensive.
As I fast forward to today, in many respects, Native Americans continue to suffer from poor treatment by the agencies of the United States government, including the FBI. One need only to look the recent allegations of the FBI spying on opponents of the Keystone pipeline for evidence of that. (Lewis, “Revealed: FBI violated its own rules while spying on Keystone XL opponents.”) Despite the FBI’s history of questionable surveillance of Native Americans, however, the FBI now appears to be working more collaboratively with the National Native Americans Law Enforcement Association with respect to the FBI’s law enforcement activities on more than 200 Indian reservations. The Safe Trails Task Force brings together the FBI and state, local and tribal resources to fight criminal activity. The FBI Laboratory’s Indian Country Task Force is devoted solely to processing evidence from Indian Country cases.
“Such increased collaboration between the FBI and tribal law enforcement resources cannot right the many wrongs of the past, but one hopes can lead to a better future” (Ashley, Grant D., “The FBI’s Role in Indian Country”).
The story of the Osage Indian murders is truly a black mark on American history. The FBI’s Osage Indian Murders archive provides a factual, however limited account of this American tragedy. FBI investigative reports were narrowly drafted and perhaps limited by the technology available, at the time and the documents in the archive were lacking with respect to both content and quality. The authenticity of the archive is appealing and the reader is transported back to the time of the murder through the language in and appearance of the documents in the archive. The reader is emotionally engaged but left hanging as the archived FBI reports are completely devoid of any emotion and fail to connect the reader with the emotions of the relatives and acquaintances of the victims. Perhaps if the FBI agents were writing reports today, with increased collaboration with tribal enforcement resources and the tools and information that are available today, the reports would include more information and close the gap for the reader. I certainly hope that would.
Works Cited
Ashley, Grant D. “The FBI’s Role in Indian Country.” FBI, FBI, 28 Oct. 2004. archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/speeches/the-fbis-role-in-indian-country
“FBI Vault.” FBI, U.S. government, U.S. Department of Justice, 3 May 2016. www.fbi.gov/services/records-management/vault.
Jefferson, Margo. “Digging Up a Tale of Terror Among the Osages.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 30 Aug. 1994. www.nytimes.com/1994/08/31/books/books-of-the-times-digging-up-a-tale-of-terror-among-the-osages.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm.
Lewis, Paul. “Revealed: FBI violated its own rules while spying on Keystone XL opponents.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 12 May 2015, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/12/revealed-fbi-spied-keystone-xl-opponents.
May, Jon D. “OSAGE MURDERS.” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, The Oklahoma Historical Society, 2009, www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=OS005
Stephey, Molly. “The Osage Murders: Oil Wealth, Betrayal and the FBI’s First Big Case.” The National Museum of the American Indian, 1 Mar. 2011, blog.nmai.si.edu/main/2011/03/the-osage-murders-oil-wealth-betrayal-and-the-fbis-first-big-case.html
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