Chap­ter 22, “GHOSTLANDS,” reflects on the lin­ger­ing traces of the Osage Nation’s past, focus­ing on the trans­for­ma­tion of the once-thriv­ing oil boom land­scape in Okla­homa. The nar­ra­tive high­lights how the pas­sage of time has erod­ed many of the phys­i­cal reminders of this era, such as the tow­er­ing petro­le­um der­ricks that once sym­bol­ized rapid wealth and indus­try. One of the most poignant loss­es is the dis­ap­pear­ance of the “Mil­lion Dol­lar Elm,” where Osage landown­ers signed lucra­tive oil leas­es that tem­porar­i­ly made them among the wealth­i­est peo­ple per capi­ta in the world.

How­ev­er, that pros­per­i­ty came at a dev­as­tat­ing cost, as greed and cor­rup­tion led to a series of cal­cu­lat­ed mur­ders tar­get­ing Osage indi­vid­u­als for their wealth. Over the decades, many of the boom­towns that emerged dur­ing this fren­zied peri­od have fad­ed into obscu­ri­ty, their once-bustling streets now over­tak­en by nature. These desert­ed towns, once filled with ambi­tion and wealth, now serve as ghost­ly echoes of a time when oil barons and crim­i­nals alike sought to exploit the Osage peo­ple for finan­cial gain.

Despite this decline, Pawhus­ka remains a town that con­tin­ues to hold its place in his­to­ry, stand­ing as the cap­i­tal of the Osage Nation. Though some of its build­ings have fall­en into dis­re­pair, the town remains a vital cul­tur­al and admin­is­tra­tive hub for the Osage peo­ple. In 2006, the Osage Nation reaf­firmed its sov­er­eign­ty by adopt­ing a new con­sti­tu­tion, demon­strat­ing their resilience and ongo­ing com­mit­ment to self-deter­mi­na­tion, even after endur­ing decades of exploita­tion and hard­ship.

The chap­ter then shifts focus to the author’s vis­it to Pawhus­ka in 2012, a jour­ney fueled by a desire to uncov­er the unre­solved mys­ter­ies of the Osage mur­ders. At the Osage Nation Muse­um, the author meets Kathryn Red Corn, the muse­um’s direc­tor, who shares a small but mean­ing­ful act of defiance—deliberately remov­ing William K. Hale’s image from a his­tor­i­cal pho­to­graph. This absence speaks vol­umes, serv­ing as a sym­bol­ic rejec­tion of the man who orches­trat­ed so much pain, ensur­ing that his pres­ence does not receive a place of hon­or in the his­tor­i­cal nar­ra­tive curat­ed by the Osage peo­ple.

As the inves­ti­ga­tion deep­ens, the author meets Margie Burkhart, the grand­daugh­ter of Mol­lie Burkhart, a cen­tral fig­ure in the Osage mur­ders who endured pro­found per­son­al tragedy. Through Margie’s per­spec­tive, the read­er gains insight into the lin­ger­ing emo­tion­al and psy­cho­log­i­cal wounds passed down through gen­er­a­tions. The impact of betray­al and loss still lingers with­in Osage fam­i­lies, as they con­tin­ue to grap­ple with the knowl­edge that their ances­tors were sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly tar­get­ed by those they once trust­ed.

Beyond the his­tor­i­cal injus­tices, the nar­ra­tive high­lights the sig­nif­i­cance of cul­tur­al preser­va­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the form of Osage tra­di­tions that have per­sist­ed despite efforts to erase them. One of the most endur­ing aspects of Osage her­itage is the con­tin­u­a­tion of sacred dances, which serve as both a trib­ute to ances­tors and a tes­ta­ment to the strength of the com­mu­ni­ty. These tra­di­tions not only keep the cul­ture alive but also act as a form of heal­ing, allow­ing the Osage peo­ple to reclaim their iden­ti­ty and resist the forces that sought to dis­man­tle their way of life.

The sto­ry also under­scores the impor­tance of his­tor­i­cal remem­brance and the chal­lenges asso­ci­at­ed with uncov­er­ing the full truth of past atroc­i­ties. While his­to­ri­ans and researchers have made sig­nif­i­cant strides in piec­ing togeth­er the events of the Osage mur­ders, many aspects remain unre­solved due to lost or delib­er­ate­ly con­cealed evi­dence. The Osage peo­ple, how­ev­er, refuse to allow their his­to­ry to be for­got­ten, active­ly work­ing to edu­cate future gen­er­a­tions about the injus­tices their ances­tors faced and the strength it took to sur­vive them.

Ulti­mate­ly, “GHOSTLANDS” is a med­i­ta­tion on loss, mem­o­ry, and resilience, weav­ing togeth­er per­son­al sto­ries with broad­er his­tor­i­cal reflec­tions. The chap­ter high­lights the pro­found ways in which the past con­tin­ues to shape the present, as the Osage peo­ple nav­i­gate the com­plex­i­ties of pre­serv­ing their her­itage while seek­ing jus­tice for those who were wronged. Their abil­i­ty to hon­or the mem­o­ries of their ances­tors while forg­ing a future built on cul­tur­al strength and self-gov­er­nance speaks to their endur­ing lega­cy of resis­tance and sur­vival.