Today's Marists 2024 Volume 8, Issue 2

Killers of the Flower Moon:
An Invitation to Solidarity?
by Nik Rodewald, Theology Teacher and Campus Minister, Marist School, Atlanta, Georgia
On January 7, 2024, Lily Gladstone became the first Native
American to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress (Drama).
On screen, Gladstone portrays Mollie Burkhart in Martin Scorsese’s
film, Killers of the Flower Moon, a drama based on the true story
of a series of murders of members of the Osage nation. The film,
boasting an all-star cast including Leonardo DiCaprio (Ernest
Burkhart) and Robert Di Niro (William King Hale), was nominated
for ten Academy Awards.
Gladstone, who is of mixed Piegan Blackfeet, Nez Perce and
European heritage, began her Golden Globe acceptance speech
with an introduction in Blackfeet language. Gladstone then
thanked her mother, saying “I’m here with my mom, who, even
though she’s not Blackfeet, worked tirelessly to get our language
into our classrooms so I had a Blackfeet language teacher growing
up.” I believe that both Gladstone’s on-screen performance and
her off-screen family story suggest a path towards solidarity with
Indigenous communities for white, American Catholics.
Killers of the Flower Moon and the Flame
of Collective Conscience
Racism, dehumanization and greed mark the plot of Killers of the
Flower Moon. After discovering oil on their Oklahoma reservation,
the Osage tribe formed the Osage Mineral Estate, which managed
the oil leases for their tribal lands. Because there were 2,229
members of Osage nation when the trust was created in 1906, 2,229
headrights were created, entitling the holder of each headright to
a quarterly share of revenues. The tribe thus became remarkably
wealthy, but with a catch. The 1906 Burke Act required white
legal guardians to manage the financial affairs of those Native
Americans determined to be “incompetent.” Because competency
was determined by blood quantum, all full and half-blood Osage
members were considered “incompetent” and were required
by law to have a white guardian. This practice allowed for the
widespread exploitation of Osage by white people.
Within this political context, the film relays a sinister story. Ernest
Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) moves to Oklahoma to work for
his uncle, William King Hale (Robert Di Niro), a cattle rancher
who has earned the trust of the Osage. After Ernest marries Mollie
(Lily Gladstone), Hale orders the killings of many Osage, including
Mollie’s family, to increase the headrights that Ernest, Mollie’s
white, competent spouse, will control. The film’s drama pits Hale’s
macabre scheme against Mollie’s persistent yet subdued efforts at
uncovering truth and demanding accountability.
While the film has received critical acclaim, some Indigenous
voices have criticized the film. Mohawk actress Devery Jacobs
emphasizes that “each of the Osage characters felt painfully
underwritten, while the white men were given way more courtesy
and depth.” Moreover, Jacobs takes issue with the portrayal of
violence in the film: “I believe that by showing more murdered
Native women on screen, it normalizes the violence committed
against us and further dehumanizes our people … our pride for
being Native, our languages, cultures, joys and love are way more
interesting and humanizing than showing the horrors white men
inflicted upon us.”
Indigenous commentator Kate Nelson agrees that the film’s
emphasis on Hale’s corruption positions “the white perpetrators
as the protagonists of the plotline while pushing the Osage people
12 Today’s Marists Magazine