--- title: The Story of 'Killers of the Flower Moon' Isn't Over description: U.S. policies authorized violence against Native people, and the effects still resonate today. canonical: https://time.com/6898529/killers-of-the-flower-moon-injustice-history/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-03-08T14:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-01-19T13:25:25.000Z article:section: History og:title: The Story of 'Killers of the Flower Moon' Isn't Over og:description: U.S. policies authorized violence against Native people, and the effects still resonate today. og:url: https://time.com/6898529/killers-of-the-flower-moon-injustice-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte6848994bb0e0126/698a4933b3fce326cf0cbcbb/killers-of-the-flower-moon-history.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: killers-of-the-flower-moon-history og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Story of 'Killers of the Flower Moon' Isn't Over twitter:description: U.S. policies authorized violence against Native people, and the effects still resonate today. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte6848994bb0e0126/698a4933b3fce326cf0cbcbb/killers-of-the-flower-moon-history.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Story of _Killers of the Flower Moon_ Isn't Over by [Mary Pattillo / Made by History](https://time.com/author/made-by-history/) ## Mary Pattillo / Made by History Updated: Jan 19, 2026 1:25 PM UTCPublished: Mar 8, 2024 2:00 PM UTC  Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone in Killers of the Flower Moon. Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone in Killers of the Flower Moon.Courtesy of Apple TV+ by [Mary Pattillo / Made by History](https://time.com/author/made-by-history/) ## Mary Pattillo / Made by History Updated: Jan 19, 2026 1:25 PM UTCPublished: Mar 8, 2024 2:00 PM UTC “These things actually happened.” A simple but important reminder from actor Leonardo DiCaprio about the painful chapter of history depicted in _Killers of the Flower Moon_, the Martin Scorsese film he co-stars in alongside Lily Gladstone. The movie sheds light on the "reign of terror" that a group of white people inflicted upon the Osage Nation in Oklahoma in the 1920s in order to profit from oil on Osage tribal lands. Although it has generated a historic Golden Globe win for Gladstone, as the first Native American women to win best actress in a dramatic film, and plenty of Oscars buzz, some critics have [complained the film is too long](https://ew.com/movies/martin-scorsese-defends-killers-of-the-flower-moon-long-running-time/). Yet, its run-time of nearly 3.5 hours is not nearly long enough to convey how true stories of racism and greed have stretched well beyond the Osage people and into the present to impact the lives of Native Americans today. Many movie-goers will think the events depicted in _Killers of the Flower Moon_ were isolated incidents of theft and injustice. This perspective is wrong. The villains portrayed in the film were just individuals whose actions reflected U.S. national policy. A series of laws, from the Louisiana Purchase and the Indian Removal Act, to the Homestead and Dawes Acts, authorized the violent occupation, expropriation, and subdivision of Native territories and families. Take Illinois, for example. In the spring of 1829, while Sauk families were away from their summer villages for hunting season in the western part of the state, white settlers moved in and “[enclosed nearly all the Sac Indians \[sic\] cornfields](https://www.jstor.org/stable/4635656).” The Sauk leader Black Hawk received reports “that three families of whites had arrived at our village, and destroyed some of our lodges, and were making fences and dividing our cornfields for their own use.” Upon his return, he [wrote](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10903770123754), “I went to my lodge, and saw a family occupying it.” The military followed this first wave of white occupation. After years of war against the Sauk people, they were forcibly removed from Illinois. **_Read More:_** [_How_ Killers of the Flower Moon _Captures the True Story of the Osage Murders_](https://time.com/6325586/killers-of-the-flower-moon-true-story/) By the end of this coordinated campaign of uncompensated takings across what because the United States, Native Americans experienced a nearly[ 99% reduction](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abe4943) of the land they had called home for millennia. The areas where they now live are more susceptible to [environmental](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/000312240406900405) and climate risks and [less abundant in mineral resources](https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.abe4943) than the territory on which they historically resided. The [parceling and privatization](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304387818315402) of Native American reservations and the [mass slaughter of the bison](https://academic.oup.com/restud/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/restud/rdad060/7186113?redirectedFrom=fulltext) by U.S. forces in the 19th century are both associated with decreased per capita income among Native Americans in the 21st century. U.S. laws and campaigns enabled more than just the theft of land. The Civilization Fund Act of 1819 was aimed at destroying Native American cultures. The Act forcibly removed Native American children from their families and placed them in boarding schools across the country. By 1925, [over 80%](https://boardingschoolhealing.org/education/us-indian-boarding-school-history/) of Native school-age children were in boarding schools. In keeping with the philosophy of assimilation in service of “[extinction](https://kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700629602/),” children in these schools were forbidden to speak their native language, wear traditional clothes (which were replaced by uniforms), or perform tribal practices (replaced by Christian practices). School officials cut students’ hair, confiscated ritual items, replaced students’ given names with English-language names, and discouraged, if not forbade, contact with family and community members. The impacts of these abuses reverberate across generations. [Research shows](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/00952990.2012.701358?scroll=top&needAccess=true) that the children of boarding school attendees suffer greater mental health and substance abuse challenges compared to children whose parents were not taken from their families. Similar [negative intergenerational effects](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3457652/) resulted from The Indian Relocation Act of 1956, which moved Native families from reservations to large cities. In other words, the land, wealth, and cultural expropriation that Native Americans have experienced is more than just a story from our nation’s past—it is still harming the economic and social well-being of Native Americans today. **_Read More:_** [_The History of Native American Boarding Schools Is Even More Complicated than a New Report Reveals_](https://time.com/6177069/american-indian-boarding-schools-history/) The story of the Osage illustrates how historical events contribute to present-day inequalities. A single claim to Osage oil and mineral reserves has generated [roughly $4 million](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-06/who-gets-osage-oil-money-a-list-from-us-raises-new-questions#xj4y7vzkg) in profit over the past century. But rather than going fully to Osage citizens, a [quarter](https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/who-we-are/minerals-council/frequently-asked-questions) of the rights to oil profits today are held by non-Osage members due to the decades of violence and deceit portrayed in _Killers of the Flower Moon_. As a result, in a place that might have otherwise been a model of Native American financial wealth and well-being, [16% of Native American residents](https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT5Y2021.B17020C?q=poverty%20by%20race%20in%20Osage%20County,%20Oklahoma&t=Race%20and%20Ethnicity) of Osage County have incomes below the poverty line, compared with [12% of their white counterparts](https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT5Y2021.B17020A?q=poverty%20by%20race%20in%20Osage%20County,%20Oklahoma&t=Race%20and%20Ethnicity). Nationally, the disparity is even more stark. The Native American poverty rate is [roughly three times](https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/demo/tables/p60/280/tableA1%5Fpov%5Fcharacteristics.xlsx) the white poverty rate. Just as the Osage Nation continues to reel from the lasting effects of systematic cruelty, so too do Native American communities across our nation. A [recent National Academies report](https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/27058/reducing-intergenerational-poverty) on intergenerational poverty reveals a stark reality: 46% of Native American children who lived in low-income households grew up to live in low-income households as adults, compared to 29% of low-income white children. In addition to the historical factors, Native Americans encounter persistent barriers to accessing [quality health care](https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/review-of-federal-policies-that-contribute-to-racial-and-ethnic-health-inequities) and schools. They have greater exposure to crime, violence, and harm from the [criminal justice system](https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/26705/reducing-racial-inequality-in-crime-and-justice-science-practice-and). They experience more housing insecurity and exposure to toxins. And, as a result, they have lower family incomes from one generation to the next.  Fully addressing racial disparities in intergenerational poverty will require policies and interventions that have particularly strong benefits for Native American families and children. These [solutions](https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/27058/Highlights-ReducingIntergenerationalPoverty.pdf) include everything from broad policies like increasing K–12 school funding, reducing pollution, funding nutrition programs, and expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, to more targeted reforms such as reducing harsh school discipline, reducing juvenile incarceration, and increasing the number of Native American teachers. Any strategies and efforts to increase upward mobility across generations should prioritize Native sovereignty and control. The creators behind _Killers of the Flower Moon_ deserve credit for using their platforms and star power to tell the truth about what happened to the Osage Nation in the 1920s. But when the movie’s end credits roll and the curtain draws, remember that the story isn’t over. _Mary Pattillo is the Harold Washington Professor of Sociology and Black Studies at Northwestern University. She also serves as Chair of the Department of Black Studies._ _Made by History takes readers beyond the headlines with articles written and edited by professional historians._ [_Learn more about Made by History at TIME here_](https://time.com/6317798/introducing-made-by-history-for-time/)_._ _Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of TIME editors_. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6898529/killers-of-the-flower-moon-injustice-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6898529/killers-of-the-flower-moon-injustice-history/"},"headline":"The Story of Killers of the Flower Moon Isn't Over","datePublished":"2024-03-08T14:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-01-19T13:25:25.000Z","description":"U.S. policies authorized violence against Native people, and the effects still resonate today.","url":"https://time.com/6898529/killers-of-the-flower-moon-injustice-history/","keywords":["Made by History"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte6848994bb0e0126/698a4933b3fce326cf0cbcbb/killers-of-the-flower-moon-history.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mary Pattillo / Made by History"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte6848994bb0e0126/698a4933b3fce326cf0cbcbb/killers-of-the-flower-moon-history.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"killers-of-the-flower-moon-history","caption":"Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone in “Killers of the Flower Moon”","creditText":"Courtesy of Apple TV+","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/made-by-history/","name":"Made by History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6898529/killers-of-the-flower-moon-injustice-history/","name":"The Story of Killers of the Flower Moon Isn't Over"}}]}] ```