The chap­ter 26 “Blood Cries Out” delves deep­er into the har­row­ing inves­ti­ga­tion of the Osage Indi­an mur­ders dur­ing the Reign of Ter­ror, shed­ding light on a deeply entrenched con­spir­a­cy aimed at exploit­ing and exter­mi­nat­ing the Osage peo­ple for their oil wealth. As the nar­ra­tor painstak­ing­ly combs through aged archives in Fort Worth, they come across a worn, fab­ric-cov­ered log­book from the Office of Indi­an Affairs. The log­book lists the names of Osage wards under gov­ern­ment-assigned guardians, many of whom are chill­ing­ly marked as “dead.” The fre­quen­cy of these deaths under guardian­ship far exceeds what could be con­sid­ered nat­ur­al, expos­ing a wide­spread pat­tern of cor­rup­tion, greed, and out­right mur­der.

As more names are exam­ined, famil­iar fig­ures such as H.G. Burt and Scott Math­is repeat­ed­ly appear as guardians over­see­ing mul­ti­ple deceased Osage wards. This pat­tern rein­forces the dis­turb­ing real­i­ty that the guardian­ship sys­tem, intend­ed to pro­tect the finan­cial inter­ests of the Osage peo­ple, instead became a mech­a­nism for sys­tem­at­ic exploita­tion and mur­der. FBI doc­u­ments and sur­vivor tes­ti­monies fur­ther cor­rob­o­rate the sus­pi­cion that many of these deaths were not coin­ci­den­tal. Poi­son­ing, staged acci­dents, and med­ical neglect were among the lethal tac­tics used to elim­i­nate Osage indi­vid­u­als, ensur­ing that their oil headrights—valuable shares of oil profits—could be fraud­u­lent­ly trans­ferred to cor­rupt white guardians.

The chap­ter does not mere­ly focus on the sta­tis­ti­cal evi­dence of the mur­ders but also explores the deeply per­son­al sto­ries behind the vic­tims, pro­vid­ing an inti­mate look at the last­ing trau­ma inflict­ed on the Osage Nation. One par­tic­u­lar­ly har­row­ing case is that of Mar­vin Step­son, a descen­dant of mur­dered Osage indi­vid­u­als, whose life remains over­shad­owed by the injus­tices inflict­ed upon his ances­tors. His fam­i­ly’s sto­ry exem­pli­fies the gen­er­a­tional pain car­ried by the Osage, who were not only robbed of their wealth but also of their cul­tur­al secu­ri­ty, trust, and sense of safe­ty with­in their own com­mu­ni­ty. Although the FBI even­tu­al­ly secured con­vic­tions against William Hale and his accom­plices, these pros­e­cu­tions bare­ly scratched the sur­face of the crimes that had tak­en place. Many deaths remained unin­ves­ti­gat­ed, count­less per­pe­tra­tors escaped jus­tice, and the deep scars left on the Osage peo­ple endured long after the court­room tri­als con­clud­ed.

Beyond the FBI inves­ti­ga­tion, descen­dants of the vic­tims, includ­ing fig­ures such as Den­nis McAu­li­ffe Jr. and Mary Jo Webb, under­took their own relent­less quests for the truth. Their research and advo­ca­cy efforts exposed a dis­turb­ing real­i­ty: many cru­cial doc­u­ments had been destroyed or hid­den, while pow­er­ful indi­vid­u­als worked behind the scenes to shield those respon­si­ble from account­abil­i­ty. The sys­tem­at­ic efforts to erase the truth reflect not just a his­to­ry of greed and mur­der but also the larg­er Amer­i­can nar­ra­tive of sup­press­ing indige­nous strug­gles for jus­tice. These efforts to keep the past buried, how­ev­er, only fueled the deter­mi­na­tion of Osage researchers and activists to keep the mem­o­ry of their ances­tors alive and demand recog­ni­tion of these injus­tices.

As the chap­ter reach­es its con­clu­sion, it leaves the read­er with a haunt­ing realization—true jus­tice for the Osage peo­ple was nev­er ful­ly achieved. While the most infa­mous per­pe­tra­tors were pun­ished, the vast major­i­ty of those who ben­e­fit­ed from these crimes faced no con­se­quences. The nar­ra­tive empha­sizes that the lega­cy of these atroc­i­ties still lingers, not only in the Osage com­mu­ni­ty but also in the his­tor­i­cal mem­o­ry of the nation. The scars of the Reign of Ter­ror remain embed­ded in the sto­ries of descen­dants, in the lin­ger­ing trau­ma of stolen lives and stolen wealth, and in the broad­er strug­gle of Native Amer­i­can com­mu­ni­ties to reclaim their his­to­ry and demand jus­tice. This chap­ter serves as a sober­ing reminder that his­to­ry, when left unac­knowl­edged, con­tin­ues to shape the present, and that the pur­suit of truth and jus­tice is an ongo­ing bat­tle that must not be for­got­ten.