A Deadly Legacy

Copyright © 2013 by Pierce Kelley.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

iUniverse

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.iuniverse.com

1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4759-6758-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-6759-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-6760-9 (e)

iUniverse rev. date: 1/4/2013

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty One

Chapter Twenty Two

Chapter Twenty Three

Epilogue

How Can You Buy Or Sell The Earth?

About the Author

To my friend, Henry Moses Tallchief, a member of the Osage Nation and a citizen of the United States of America.

This is a fictionalized story based on his life as he told it to me.

Henry Moses Tallchief

*******

"If we accept the best land that is offered to us, the White Man

will come take it from us, again. Let us choose land that no

one else would want. Maybe then they will leave us alone."

Pawhuska (White Hair)

Chief of the Osage Nation (1870)

*******

Other works by Pierce Kelley

Roxy Blues (iUniverse, 2012);

Father, I Must Go (iUniverse, 2011);

Thousand Yard Stare (iUniverse, 2010);

Kennedy Homes: An American Tragedy (iUniverse, 2009);

A Foreseeable Risk (iUniverse, 2009);

Asleep at the Wheel (iUniverse, 2009);

A Tinker’s Damn! (iUniverse, 2008);

Bocas del Toro (iUniverse, 2007);

A Plenary Indulgence (iUniverse, 2007);

Pieces to the Puzzle (iUniverse, 2007);

Introducing Children to the Game of Tennis (iUniverse, 2007);

A Very Fine Line (iUniverse, 2006);

Fistfight at the L and M Saloon (iUniverse, 2006;

Civil Litigation: A Case Study (Pearson Publications, 2001;

The Parent’s Guide to Coaching Tennis (F &W Publications, 1995);

A Parent’s Guide to Coaching Tennis (Betterway Publications, 1991).

Acknowledgements

I thank those who have supported and encouraged me on this project. I wish to specifically thank Sue Pundt, Paul Christian Sullivan, Dennis Geagan, Doug Easton, Patrick and Marlene Doherty, Scott Harrison and Tug Miller, who have read drafts and offered their insights into this and other works.

The map on the back cover comes from the book A History of The Osage People, written by Louis F. Burns, and published by the University of Alabama Press, (2004), which graciously granted me permission to use it, and I acknowledge and thank them. I also thank Aliye Cullu, an artist in Gainesville, Florida, who colorized the map and turned it into what it is. I thank her for her editorial assistance on the book as well.

The speech attributed to Chief Seattle at the end of this book may be found in The Wisdom of the Native Americans, edited by Kent Nerburn, and published by New World Library. I acknowledge and thank them for allowing me to use that speech in this book.

Works that I read in addition to the two mentioned above in preparation for writing this book include the following: The Osage Indian Murders, Lawrence J. Hogan, Amlex, Inc., Publisher, (1998); The Osage: An Ethnohistorical Study of Hegemony on the Prairie-Plains, Willard H. Rollings, University of Missouri Press (1992); The Osages: Children of the Middle Waters, John Joseph Mathews, University of Oklahoma Press (1961); The Black Dog Trails, Tillie Karns Newman, (1957); The Osage in Missouri, Kristie C. Wolferman, University of Missouri Press (1997); The Osage,Terry P. Wilson, Chelsea House Publishers, (1988); Wah’Kon-Tah: The Osage and the White Man’s Road , John Joseph Mathews, University of Oklahoma Press (1932); Native American History, Judith Nies, Ballantine Books (1996); The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America, James Wilson, Grove Press (1991); and In the Hands of the Great Spirit: The 20,000 Year History of American Indians.

It was my good fortune to have met Mose Tallchief, an Osage Indian, in early 2001 or thereabouts. Ten years later I decided to write a book about an American Indian. Mose was the only person I knew well enough to ask if he would tell me what it is like to be a Native American Indian in the United States in the 21st century. When I asked, he readily agreed, and I am grateful to him for allowing me to do so.

This is a work of fiction, though much of what is contained within are matters of fact, especially with regard to the history of the Osage and what has taken place within the last year or so. It is from January 2012, when I began writing this book, to the present that this book departs in significant ways from reality, and enters the realm of my imagination, as you shall soon discover, and though this story is not far-fetched, it is fiction.

I, like most readers, I expect, had preconceived notions of what Mose, or any American Indian, might think, and how he might feel, given all that has been done to Native American Indians in the name of Manifest Destiny over the last four centuries. However, the dozens of books I read about the Osage and others of the 450 or so tribes that inhabited North America prior to the arrival of Europeans did not provide me with the insight and knowledge I needed to write this book. I am not an historian, and I wasn’t interested in writing a text book. I needed to talk to a true Native American Indian who could put flesh on the bones of a story that was percolating in my mind.

In late 2011, I traveled to Fairfax, Oklahoma, and stayed in a tent on the land allotted to Mose’s forefathers some 100 years earlier. Prior to my arrival, I truly did not know what story I would write. I thought it might well be a work of nonfiction based on Mose’s life. I had to sit down with Mose and figure out what would be the best story to tell. It has been my experience that nonfiction simply doesn’t captivate a reader as a novel does, though there are many who read only works of nonfiction, and I didn’t really want to write a nonfictional book. I like the editorial freedom which fiction allows.

Over the course of several days, we drove over, around, and through Osage County, the largest county in the state of Oklahoma, which is the entirety of the lands purchased by the Osage in 1872 from the Cherokee. We ate breakfasts in Ralston, dinners in Pawnee, and lunches in Ponca City, Oklahoma and in Wichita, Kansas, too. We visited Pawhuska, capital of the Osage Nation, where I watched the Osage Congress in session.

While at the museum, located next to the Osage Headquarters, we found a picture of Mose’s father on the wall, and that is the picture on the cover of this book. As a result of that visit, Mose learned the name of his grandfather. He had never known the English translation before. The people at the museum were most helpful in that regard and were delighted to provide him with what biographical information they had been able to gather about Mose’s family.

I thank Kathryn Red Corn, the director of the Osage Museum; Louis Brock, a Senior Researcher; Pauline Allred, a researcher; and Joe Don Brave, an artist who works at the museum, who were all extremely helpful to me, and answered all questions I had of them while there, as well as in phone calls to them after I returned to Florida.

I thank William S. Fletcher, who is, as best he knows, one of the last half dozen or so Osage who are truly pure-bloods, going back even before French men began to mingle with Osage women. I thank him for providing me with the translation of Mose’s grandfather’s name. The reason Mose didn’t know his grandfather’s name was because there are few members of Osage Nation still alive who know how to speak the language in the tongue of the ancient ones. Mr. Fletcher is one of them.

Mr. Fletcher is also to be recognized, commended, and thanked for filing a lawsuit to gain the return of headrights to Osage tribal members, and not allow headrights of the Osage to ever pass into the hands of non-Osage people again. He told me that approximately 19% of the 2,229 headrights are owned by non-Osage people. As he said, It’s like someone stole your car, got caught, got punished, but was allowed to keep the car. The suit is nearing completion, and I wish him well in achieving his goal.

Mose’s grandfather’s Osage name is Tseh Eensa Skah. It translates into English as White Buffalo Face. Since a white buffalo was such a rarity, it is a name of high honor. The Osage, and all native American Indians, thought a white buffalo was a special creature sent by the Great Spirit. Mose is proud of the name, and I am pleased that I was able to help him learn of it.

As a result of my time in Oklahoma, coupled with all that I have read about the Osage people, I came up with a story that Mose approves of, though it is not entirely flattering. I certainly intend no disrespect to him or to any of his Osage brethren or kin. I offer my apologies if I have offended him or anyone else.

I have, however, endeavored to tell a story that I hope readers will find entertaining and informative, unfettered by any restrictions placed upon me by Mose or anyone else. I gratefully thank him for providing me with the insight needed to write this book. I sincerely hope you will enjoy it.

Pierce Kelley

Introduction

In 1872, the Osage tribe officially took possession of what is now the Osage nation. As reflected on the back cover of this book, through a series of treaties entered into by the Osage with the United States Government, the Osage tribal lands dwindled from an enormous amount of territory to a small parcel of ground in the northeast corner of Oklahoma.

The Osage actually purchased this land (shown in yellow on the map) from the Cherokee Nation and gave the Cherokee the land that the Osage had owned along the southern border of Kansas, as reflected on the map in orange, in exchange. In 1838, when the United States Government forced the Cherokee to move from their tribal lands into what is now Missouri and Arkansas, it caused a problem for the Osage, who were their neighbors to the west, and all other tribes in the region. There was much bloody conflict between the Cherokees, the Osage, and all other tribes in the area as a result.

Chief Pawhuska was instrumental in selecting the land which the Osage swapped with the Cherokee. He convinced his fellow tribe members to go along with his plan because he thought the land was so poor that no one else would want it and, maybe, the White Man would leave them alone. The land was not good for farming or growing crops.

However, when oil and natural gas was discovered in the northeast part of Oklahoma in the late 1890s, in the very heart of the Osage Nation, the land which the Osage bought became extremely valuable. At first, the amount of oil taken from the ground was not considered to be particularly significant. It was used primarily by the United States Navy for its ships, but when, in the first decade of the twentieth century, Henry Ford developed the Model T automobile, and created them in assembly-line fashion, all that changed. The demand for oil skyrocketed, and the Osage became the wealthiest people on the face of the earth, or so they were called.

A few years prior to the boom in the demand for oil, the United States Government had decided to break up all Indian tribes, and speed the assimilation of American Indians into mainstream society. The plan was to give land to each individual member of all of the various tribes, and thereby eliminate ownership of large tracts of land by the tribes. Each Indian would then own land as any other citizen of the United States owned land, which was by deed, with a written legal description showing exactly what land was owned by that particular individual.

In order to do that, the government needed to know who the members of the tribes were. 2,229 people were identified as being members of the Osage Nation, not all of whom were full-blooded Osage. Some had married other Indians. Some had married whites, beginning with Frenchmen in the late 1600s. But as long as there was identifiable Osage blood in an individual, he or she was accorded a headright, meaning that person was officially a member of the Osage Nation, and entitled to whatever rights and benefits that might involve. That process was completed in June of 1907.

The following notice is posted on a wall at the Osage Nation Museum in Pawhuska, Oklahoma:

"An Osage born after July 1, 1907 was not given a headright nor considered to be a member of the tribe until he/she inherited a headright. An Osage could own land (within the Osage reservation), trace Osage heritage back to ancient times, be known as a full-blood Osage, or possess a CDIB (author’s note: CDIB means Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood) card, but a share in the mineral estate was needed for membership.

Before the 2006 Constitution went into effect (author’s note: for the next hundred years after the 1906 program went into effect), this left nearly 16,000 of the approximately 20,000 people with Osage ancestry without voting rights and alienated them from tribal politics. (Author’s note: some headrights are split and owned by more than one person). This alienation was the principal motivation for reform attempts by many Osage people, which lead in 2004 to the United States Congress passing a law recognizing the Osage Nations’ inherent sovereign right to determine its own membership and form of government.

In February 2005 the Osage Tribal Council created a government reform commission and set them on the task of determining the will of the Osage people. In 2006 a constitution that reflects that will went into effect, providing for a three-branch government, and allowing all descendants of the 1906 Allotment Roll to become citizens. (author’s note: without the requirement that each person possess a headright in order to gain membership into the tribe).

In 1906, the United States government forced allotment, imposed a government, and gave the final word on who would be Osage citizens. The future of the Osage Nation was altered.

While these changes were not of their choosing, the original 2,229 allottees were strong, intelligent, and resilient. They made certain the entire reservation was allotted to Osages. They secured the mineral rights for future generations. They preserved and provided for the villages in the three districts (author’s note: Pawhuska, Grey Horse, and Hominy). They kept our culture alive. They did what they believed to be best for future generations."

By 1920, there was much financial reward to those 2,229 Osage who owned a headright as a member of the tribe. It was said that each Osage received what was the equivalent of a million dollars in today’s money, every year, as royalties from the oil companies who signed long-term leases to harvest the vast mineral rights under the land owned by the Osage, which is why the Osage were dubbed the wealthiest people on the face of the earth.

Though I believe it to be a gross exaggeration, I read in one of the reference books that by the mid- to late- ‘20s, at a time when one in eleven Americans owned an automobile, an Osage might own eleven automobiles.

The problem was that the Osage, much like all other Indians, had little knowledge of money or how to use it. For the most part, they had bartered with their fellow Indians, and the White Man, for their goods, giving hides and pelts in exchange for guns and tools. In 1920, an Osage might own a luxurious mansion on top of a hill, have cooks, servants, and much opulence, yet still live in a tepee in the back.

At the time, one Osage elder reportedly said,

We have been ruined by too much money. Living in houses and wearing white man’s clothes, riding in fancy cars instead of on our horses, and drinking the white man’s whiskey have sapped our strength. Once we were eagles, now we are crows.

The Osage were, together with several other tribes, what has best been described as the Plains Indians. The buffalo had been their prime source of sustenance and livelihood. As one might expect, with so much money falling into the hands of people who had little knowledge of money, there were many who sought to prey on the Osage, and they did so with much success.

Due in part to the far-too-numerous examples of waste on the part of many Osage Indians, and the far-too-many examples of Osage Indians being duped or defrauded, the United States Government decided that people, virtually all of whom were white people, should be appointed as guardians over each of the Osage Indians, so that the Osage wouldn’t waste all of the money they were receiving. In 1921, the United States Government passed a law requiring that every person with one-half Indian blood have a guardian appointed to manage the assets of that individual.

Before that requirement took effect, one man in particular, William Haley, who was later dubbed the King of the Osage Hills, arranged the deaths of several Osage, and then acquired the assets of the deceased tribal members, including the headrights, thereby essentially stealing the headrights, and all the money that went with those headrights, from the Indians. He was the ring leader of a gang of thieves.

In March of 1923, after dozens of Osage had either died from mysterious causes or been the victim of outright murder, the Tribal Council, which included Mose Tallchief’s uncle, sent an urgent plea to the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, for assistance in capturing the killers. The Bureau of Investigation, now known as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, became involved.

Up to that point in time, no suspects had been arrested by local law enforcement authorities, who were thought by the Osage to be in cahoots with the criminals. The coroner for Osage County had not considered the several deaths which resulted from poisoning to have been foul play. Even an outlandish and brazen house-burning did not result in a criminal investigation. The Osage considered themselves to be under the spell of an evil spirit, with no hope of breaking the spell.

The FBI planted four agents in the Pawhuska community. All assumed identities that allowed them to easily assimilate with the citizens, and not raise any suspicion from those who were perpetrating the crimes. One was an insurance agent; another was a cattleman; the third was an oil tycoon; and the last was a roughneck cowboy.

It took several years to gather sufficient evidence to charge Mr. Haley with a crime, though he was widely known to be the man most responsible for the deaths. He never committed any of the murders himself. He always paid others to do his dirty work, and he had little trouble finding willing co-conspirators. It wasn’t until several of the people who had actually committed the murders confessed to their roles in the crime, and implicated Mr. Haley, that any charges were brought against him. The testimony and statements adduced at trial from those who did the killings indicated that Mr. Haley’s motive was simple…get the Osage headrights.

It wasn’t until November 20, 1929, years after the charges were first lodged against Mr. Haley, that he was finally convicted, and sent to prison. Many others responsible for the killings were convicted as well, and so were many other witnesses who had offered perjured testimony, including some of the defense lawyers who arranged and paid for testimony they knew to be false. Mr. Haley was paroled in 1947, and lived until 1962.

The convictions of Haley and his gang of thieves was, at the time, the most significant accomplishment of the Bureau of Investigation. J. Edgar Hoover was the director at the time and his bouts with organized crime were to follow. It wasn’t until 1935 that the Bureau of Investigation became the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The murders aside, as could be expected, at least by those looking back in hindsight, there were thousands of reported instances of abuse by the guardians, who oftentimes received more of the money than did the Osage they were guarding. There were cases where college-educated men and women, some of whom having advanced degrees, had guardians over them, telling them how or if they should spend any money. Although there were understandable explanations why Indians with no idea of how to use money had a problem in dealing with money, especially in the amounts the Osage were receiving, the cure fashioned by the government may have been worse than the illness.

For well over a hundred and fifty years, the United States Government continued its policy of protectionism towards the Indians, treating them as children, if you will, in need of guidance and supervision. Legal decisions prior to that time were much more punitive. Indians were seen as the enemy, with few rights and virtually no one to speak on their behalf. Once the policy of paternalism began, after the Indians were basically beaten into submission, the government held much money in trust for Indians, including the Osage, justifying the policy as being in the best interests of the Indians that it did so.

A lawsuit was filed by the Osage Nation in the late 1990s in which it was claimed that there had been some errors in the accounting, some wrongdoing in the bookkeeping, and the moneys held in trust had been misused and improperly accounted for.

The following is a press release from October 21, 2011:

U.S. GOVERNMENT PAYS $380 MILLION TO END OSAGE NATION’S LAWSUIT

Washington, D.C.—The Obama administration is paying $380 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the Osage Nation over mismanagement of its trust assets.

The settlement ends a 12 year dispute over the Interior Department’s accounting and management of the Osage Tribe’s trust assets, including valuable oil and gas property. The settlement compensates the tribe for historical losses to its trust funds, plus interest.

The Justice Department says Osage Tribe Principal Chief John Red Eagle and other tribal officials commemorated the settlement during a ceremony Friday at the Interior Department’s Washington headquarters. The agreement was executed on October 14, 2011.

The Osage Tribe brought its trust accounting and trust management lawsuits in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (CFC) in 1999 and 2000.

Also, the tribe brought a trust accounting case in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2004 and dismissed that case in 2010.

The Court of Federal Claims (CFC) litigation included numerous motions, extensive discovery, many rulings, and two trials over 12 years. Between 2006 and 2010, the tribe obtained two judgments from the CFC against the United States for about $331 million on various claims spanning the 1972-2000 period.

A trial on significant claims remaining in this case was scheduled to begin in February 2012.

As a result of that settlement, (author’s note: payments were to be made in December of 2011) each member of the Osage Nation holding a headright was to receive over $150,000 per headright. Many Osage Indians held several headrights.

This story begins in a courtroom in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, in November of 1929….

Chapter One

Do you have a verdict, gentlemen?

We do, your Honor.

Please give your verdict form to the Bailiff, Mr. Foreman.

The bailiff walked over to the jury box, where twelve men sat, all with solemn looks on their faces, and took the piece of paper from the foreman. He then walked to the bench, and handed it to Judge Pollock, who looked over the verdict form for several seconds. The Judge then handed the form back to the bailiff, who handed it to the clerk seated below and to the left of the Judge. Once the verdict was in the clerk’s hands, the Judge then said,

Madame Clerk, if you would, please publish the verdict.

On the charge that William Haley did kill, without justification or excuse, Henry Roan, we find the defendant Haley guilty of murder in the first degree, as charged.

Most, if not all, of the hundred or more spectators who filled the courtroom rose as one and let out a collective gasp. A murmur began and rose to fever pitch as people reacted to the verdict. Some were relieved that justice had finally been done. Others were shocked that the jury had found Haley guilty.

Judge Pollock slammed his gavel on the bench, raised his voice so that he could be heard above the clamor, and said,

Order in the courtroom! Unless you take your seat and remain quiet throughout this proceeding, you will be removed from the courtroom!

People sat back down, and the noise began to subside. After several more seconds, when the courtroom was silent, the Judge turned to the clerk and said,

You may continue, Madame Clerk.

As to the charge that John Ramsey did kill, without justification or excuse, Henry Roan, we find the defendant Ramsey guilty of murder in the first degree, as charged.

One of the lawyers defending Mr. Haley stood and said, in a loud voice,

We would like to have the jury polled, your Honor!

The Judge turned to the jury and began,

Mr. Corcoran, is this your verdict?

A small, thin man, with a thin mustache, stood and responded,

It is, your Honor.

And Mr. Smythe, is this your verdict?

A heavy-set man with a full beard of gray hair, stood and said,

It is, your Honor.

And Mr. Browne, is this your verdict?

A bald-headed man with large sideburns which extended down to his jaw, but no facial hair, rose and said,

It is, your Honor.

As the Judge questioned each of the jurors, the team of defense lawyers sitting with the two defendants, stared intently at each juror, hoping to attract