Stand­ing in Two Worlds immers­es read­ers in the endur­ing sto­ry of the Osage Nation, con­nect­ing past atroc­i­ties with the ongo­ing efforts to hon­or and address the reper­cus­sions of those dark times. Open­ing in May 2013, the author recounts attend­ing the per­for­mance of Wahz­hazhe, a bal­let that vivid­ly illus­trates the Osage people’s jour­ney from their vibrant her­itage on the plains to the har­row­ing peri­od known as the Reign of Ter­ror. This haunt­ing chap­ter of Osage his­to­ry saw the wealth derived from oil—a bless­ing turned curse—lure greed and cor­rup­tion, cul­mi­nat­ing in the sys­tem­at­ic mur­ders of trib­al mem­bers for their valu­able head­rights. The ballet’s pow­er­ful scenes, blend­ing tra­di­tion­al Osage cul­ture with mod­ern sto­ry­telling, offer a poignant reminder of the tribe’s resilience in the face of over­whelm­ing adver­si­ty.

The set­ting for this per­for­mance, the Con­stan­tine The­ater in Pawhus­ka, adds a lay­er of his­tor­i­cal res­o­nance to the nar­ra­tive. Once a cul­tur­al hub dur­ing the tur­bu­lent years of the Reign of Ter­ror, the the­ater nar­row­ly avoid­ed demo­li­tion in the 1980s. Its restora­tion, dri­ven by com­mu­ni­ty efforts, stands as a metaphor for the Osage Nation’s deter­mi­na­tion to pre­serve its her­itage against the forces that have sought to erase it. Near­by, the cour­t­house looms as anoth­er sym­bol of this his­to­ry, hav­ing wit­nessed tri­als that sought jus­tice for the Osage mur­ders. Yet, even these pro­ceed­ings often fell short, leav­ing many crimes unre­solved and the full scope of the injus­tices unad­dressed.

The bal­let itself serves as a mas­ter­ful rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the Osage’s mul­ti­fac­eted his­to­ry. Through its nar­ra­tive, audi­ences wit­ness the tribe’s ear­ly har­mo­ny on the plains, their first encoun­ters with Euro­pean set­tlers, and the dev­as­tat­ing betray­al brought about by oil wealth. Par­tic­u­lar­ly strik­ing is the homage paid to the Osage’s con­tri­bu­tions to the broad­er Amer­i­can sto­ry, as exem­pli­fied by Major Gen­er­al Clarence Leonard Tin­ker, a trail­blaz­er and the first Native Amer­i­can gen­er­al to die in World War II. The per­for­mance also fea­tures a mov­ing appear­ance by Margie Burkhart, link­ing the art­ful por­tray­al of his­to­ry to the lived expe­ri­ences of Osage descen­dants, ensur­ing the nar­ra­tive remains ground­ed in real­i­ty.

After the per­for­mance, the author engages with Kathryn Red Corn, the direc­tor of the Osage Nation Muse­um, who shares a deeply per­son­al con­nec­tion to the events of the Reign of Ter­ror. Her revelation—that her grandfather’s death may have been part of the larg­er pat­tern of killings tar­get­ing the Osage—adds anoth­er dimen­sion to the community’s col­lec­tive grief and strug­gle for jus­tice. This dis­cov­ery pro­pels the author into a deep­er inves­ti­ga­tion of one of the era’s chill­ing mur­ders: the case of Charles White­horn. Through dili­gent research and a metic­u­lous exam­i­na­tion of archival records, the author recon­structs the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing Whitehorn’s death, uncov­er­ing a net­work of indi­vid­u­als impli­cat­ed in the crime.

Despite a wealth of evi­dence, includ­ing infor­mant tes­ti­monies and cor­rob­o­rat­ing details, Whitehorn’s mur­der, like many oth­ers, remains offi­cial­ly unsolved. This fail­ure of jus­tice under­scores the sys­temic nature of the exploita­tion faced by the Osage, reveal­ing a broad­er con­spir­a­cy fueled by greed and enabled by soci­etal com­plic­i­ty. The inabil­i­ty to bring all per­pe­tra­tors to account high­lights not only the lim­i­ta­tions of law enforce­ment at the time but also the per­va­sive indif­fer­ence to the suf­fer­ing of Native com­mu­ni­ties.

The chap­ter con­cludes with the author’s renewed com­mit­ment to bring­ing these for­got­ten sto­ries to light. Sift­ing through archival mate­ri­als and per­son­al tes­ti­monies, they aim to uncov­er the truths that have long been buried, seek­ing to hon­or the mem­o­ries of those who fell vic­tim to greed and hatred. The Osage Nation’s resilience, reflect­ed in their cul­tur­al preser­va­tion and ongo­ing pur­suit of jus­tice, stands as a pow­er­ful tes­ta­ment to their strength and deter­mi­na­tion.

This chap­ter mas­ter­ful­ly inter­twines his­tor­i­cal nar­ra­tive with inves­tiga­tive jour­nal­ism, paint­ing a vivid pic­ture of the Osage’s tri­als and tri­umphs. It high­lights the ongo­ing strug­gle to rec­on­cile a his­to­ry marred by exploita­tion and vio­lence with the present-day efforts to hon­or and remem­ber those who suf­fered. Through its blend of poignant sto­ry­telling and relent­less inquiry, the chap­ter offers a sober­ing yet inspir­ing glimpse into a community’s endur­ing fight for recog­ni­tion, jus­tice, and heal­ing.