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Bloodland: A Family Story of Oil, Greed and Murder on the Osage Reservation
Bloodland A Family Story of Oil Greed and Murder on the Osage Reservation Author:Dennis McAuliffe Part murder mystery, part family memoir, and part spiritual journey, Bloodland reveals myriad layers of greed and deception. Skillfully written by Washington Post journalist Dennis McAuliffe, the book unearths family secrets and ultimately exposes a systematic plot by white men to marry and murder newly wealthy young Osage women. McAuliffe first... more » noticed inconsistencies in the accounts of his young Osage grandmother's cause of death -- attributed first to kidney disease, then suicide. After discovering that she died of gunshot wounds, he pieces together evidence from FBI files, Bureau of Indian Affairs documents and Osage tribal members' personal accounts to reveal what became referred to as a "Reign of Terror". In the 1920's oil was found on the Osage reservation, transforming the tribe into the wealthiest population in the world. Tribal members attended the most exclusive finishing schools and Ivy League Universities, owned expensive automobiles and dressed in the finest fashions of the era. In a frenzy that resembled the California Gold Rush, strangers descended on the region and married Osage women to gain control of this newfound wealth. Many of the new brides and their families died mysteriously shortly after their weddings. The author's young, well-educated and beautiful grandmother, Sybil Bolton, was among the last of the murdered brides. Eventually McAulife is forced to suspect that his own grandfather may have engineered her murder.« less