22 Ghostlands

Chap­ter 22, “GHOSTLANDS,” reflects on the rem­nants of the tumul­tuous his­to­ry of the Osage Nation and the van­ish­ing ves­tiges of the era’s oil boom in Okla­homa. It opens with an account of the dras­tic changes over the decades—the dis­ap­pear­ance of the petro­le­um der­ricks, the notable “Mil­lion Dol­lar Elm,” and the decline of once-flour­ish­ing boom­towns, reduc­ing them to noth­ing more than ruins reclaimed by nature. Pawhus­ka, despite its share of aban­doned struc­tures, stands out as one of the sur­viv­ing towns, con­tin­u­ing to serve as the cap­i­tal of the Osage Nation. This com­mu­ni­ty, ris­ing from the ash­es of a painful past, retains a vibrant spir­it, evi­denced by the renew­al of its con­sti­tu­tion in 2006.

The nar­ra­tive then tran­si­tions to the author’s vis­it to Pawhus­ka in 2012, aimed at uncov­er­ing the near­ly cen­tu­ry-old Osage mur­der cas­es. At the Osage Nation Muse­um, a con­ver­sa­tion with its direc­tor, Kathryn Red Corn, intro­duces a poignant aspect—the delib­er­ate omis­sion of William K. Hale’s image from a muse­um pho­to­graph, a sym­bol­ic ges­ture under­scor­ing the deep scars left by the mur­ders. This vis­it sets the stage for fur­ther explo­ration into the per­son­al his­to­ries inter­twined with the Osage’s trag­ic past, as seen through the eyes of Mol­lie Burkhart’s grand­daugh­ter, Margie Burkhart, who nar­rates her fam­i­ly’s inti­mate ties to and the lin­ger­ing impact of these his­tor­i­cal events.

Through Margie’s reflec­tions, the chap­ter delves into the com­plex­i­ties of famil­ial bonds strained by betray­al, the cul­tur­al sig­nif­i­cance and con­ti­nu­ity of the Osage through tra­di­tion­al dances, and the per­son­al quest for under­stand­ing and heal­ing amidst the back­drop of his­tor­i­cal injus­tice and loss. The nar­ra­tive com­pelling­ly inter­twines the present-day strug­gles to hon­or and remem­ber those lost with the quest to pre­serve Osage cul­ture and iden­ti­ty, cul­mi­nat­ing in a poignant reflec­tion on the lega­cy of vio­lence and the endur­ing resilience of the Osage peo­ple.

In essence, “GHOSTLANDS” is a con­tem­pla­tive explo­ration of mem­o­ry, loss, and resilience. Through per­son­al sto­ries and his­tor­i­cal reflec­tion, it under­scores the indeli­ble impact of the past on the present and the ongo­ing jour­ney of a com­mu­ni­ty to hon­or its his­to­ry while nav­i­gat­ing the com­plex­i­ties of its present and future.