The history behind “Killers of the Flower Moon” began when residents of the Osage Indian Reservation discovered oil on their land in 1897 and were faced with the prospect of finally getting in on the elusive American dream. As each member of the reservation gained “headrights” to a portion of the oil produced from their land in 1907, the tribespeople began to grow wealthy from the land that had been assigned to them by the American government.
However, a cabal of businessmen undertook a plan to steal these rights away through murderous subterfuge. A huge number of wealthy Osage tribespeople were murdered as part of this plan to gain access to the oil the Osage land held. A local cattle baron named William Hale (the leader of a crime ring where he was known as “The King of Osage Hills”) was eventually found to be responsible.
This is the character played by Robert DeNiro in “Killers of the Flower Moon,” and one of his victims is Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone), the wife of his own nephew, Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio). While the trailer’s tone for the film already suggests the grim truths behind this horrific era, which spanned three decades from 1918-1931, the final shot is the most suggestive of how the film will reckon with this history.