Week # 3: Character(s) and Setting

I am currently reading Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI  by David Grann.  Fun fact about this non-fiction novel is that it is currently the number one seller on Amazon in books on Native American History.  Normally I am not a huge fan of non-fiction, but sometimes a true story reads like fiction.

I found the setting of this novel, both the time (1920's) and the place (Osage Indian Reservation in Oklahoma) compelling mostly because they both are beyond my current reality.  In the 1870's the Osage tribe made a smart move when forced to buy land from the US government to form their reservation; they kept all the rights to mineral and oil deposits.  This later made the Osage Indians very rich despite their lower social status.  The contrast of the restriction of reservation life and the forced assimilation of the Osage people with their abundant wealth makes for a story that is a vignette about a unique time, place, and people.  Despite their wealth the novel depicts the Osage reservation as mostly empty space with few stores or towns for that matter.  The one brick building was the School in the capital of the Osage nation that was used by the U.S. government to force assimilate the Osage children.  This cold, stark, imposing, brick building standing out in the middle of the main town is a apt metaphor of the relationship between U.S. government and the Native Americans.  Both the this building and the U.S. government obviously do not fit in with the surrounding environment and culture but are there as an act of defiance.   

Word Count: 278