Martin Scorsese’s ‘Killers of the Flower Moon:’ The Osage, oil, and the Reign of Terror
In a solemn gathering, the Osage people bury a ceremonial pipe and declare that their children will now speak the white man’s language and be raised in the white man’s culture. Shortly afterward, the Osage are seen celebrating as oil gushes from the ground. As filmmaker Martin Scorsese foreshadows, this black gold, which according to the film made the Osage the richest people per capita in the world, also brought the attention of those who sought to exploit them by whatever means possible. “Do you see the wolves in this picture?” asks Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), reading aloud from a children’s picture book on the Osage people. As the film cuts to a scene of Ernest and his brother robbing and looting the Osage people, it is clear who these wolves are.