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https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/11/26/killers-of-the-flower-moon-osage-nation-00128525>
"I’ve never lived in Oklahoma and most people have no idea I’m an Osage
citizen. But my Osage ancestry has always been an important part of my life.
Recently, it’s become an obsession.
Our family albums contain photos of four-year-old me wearing an Indian
headdress and moccasins. And when my parents gave me my first horse, a black
and white pinto mare, I named her Indian Princess. My Osage grandpa, William
Eugene Bennett, delighted us all with raucous renditions of ancestral songs and
dances at family gatherings. And I remember him telling me that he was one of
only 2,229 Osage Indians born on his tribe’s Oklahoma reservation before the
last day of 1906 — when the Osage Nation ratified what he said was the final
land deal with the U.S. government. Naturally, I didn’t understand the
significance of those facts, but I sensed they were important.
In quiet moments, Grandpa Bennett regaled me with tales of horses and buffalo
and the cowboys he grew up with on his family’s sprawling cattle ranch. But his
rapturous tales always trailed off to silence, and the spark in his eyes would
dull to a dead stare. He’d stop talking, clear his throat, and just end the
story, sometimes in mid-sentence.
“Grandpa, Grandpa, and then what happened?”
It was no use. He was done.
It wasn’t until I moved to Washington, D.C., and connected for the first time
with a cousin, that I found out what happened — what my grandpa didn’t have the
heart to tell me or any of us kids — a story my family kept secret for
decades."
Via Frederick Wilson II.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
