4 Underground Reservation

The chap­ter titled “UNDERGROUND RESERVATION” delin­eates the com­plex his­to­ry and the trans­for­ma­tive jour­ney of the Osage peo­ple, from their ances­tral domin­ion over vast tracts of the cen­tral Unit­ed States to their coerced migra­tion and the sub­se­quent dis­cov­ery of oil on their reser­va­tion land, pro­found­ly alter­ing their des­tiny.

In the 17th cen­tu­ry, the Osage claimed exten­sive ter­ri­to­ries, which were lat­er encroached upon fol­low­ing the Louisiana Pur­chase. Thomas Jef­fer­son­’s inter­ac­tions with the Osage in 1804 were ini­tial­ly diplo­mat­ic, but the tribe was soon forced to cede large por­tions of their land, lead­ing to their relo­ca­tion to a reser­va­tion in south­east­ern Kansas. The chap­ter vivid­ly recounts the Osage lifestyle, char­ac­ter­ized by buf­fa­lo hunts and the pro­found spir­i­tu­al and com­mu­nal life they led, which was lat­er dis­rupt­ed by set­tlers and the demand for their Kansas lands.

Dri­ven to find a new home­land, the Osage pur­chased land in Okla­homa, seen as unde­sir­able by whites, which serendip­i­tous­ly sat atop vast oil deposits. This new­ly acquired land, deemed worth­less by set­tlers, became the cor­ner­stone of the Osage’s future wealth due to the oil under­neath it—a twist of fate that led to the cre­ation of the first “under­ground reser­va­tion.”

Mol­lie, a cen­tral fig­ure in the nar­ra­tive, expe­ri­ences the Osage’s tran­si­tion from wealth due to oil dis­cov­ery, jux­ta­posed with the ero­sion of their tra­di­tion­al ways of life. Detailed are the cul­tur­al shifts Mol­lie’s fam­i­ly under­goes – from the proud her­itage of her father, Ne-kah-e-se‑y (lat­er known as Jim­my), and their inte­gra­tion into an increas­ing­ly encroach­ing white soci­ety. The Osage’s strug­gle to retain their iden­ti­ty while nav­i­gat­ing the new­found wealth and the pres­sures of assim­i­la­tion into Amer­i­can soci­ety is detailed through Mol­lie’s expe­ri­ences and the broad­er impacts on the Osage peo­ple.

The chap­ter out­lines his­tor­i­cal injus­tices, such as forced land ces­sions and the impo­si­tion of allot­ment poli­cies aimed at assim­i­lat­ing the Native Amer­i­cans into white cul­ture. It also high­lights strate­gic maneu­ver­ing by the Osage, such as secur­ing min­er­al rights dur­ing land allot­ments which inad­ver­tent­ly led to great pros­per­i­ty from oil, alter­ing their socio-eco­nom­ic sta­tus sig­nif­i­cant­ly.

In con­clu­sion, the chap­ter encap­su­lates a piv­otal moment in Osage his­to­ry, marked by pro­found loss, resilience, and an unex­pect­ed rise to wealth through oil. It presents a micro­cosm of larg­er themes of col­o­niza­tion, cul­tur­al assim­i­la­tion, and the trans­for­ma­tive impact of nat­ur­al resources on indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties.