Scorsese’s Flower Moon Killers Sheds Light on America’s Forgotten Genocide

A new film by Martin Scorsese exposes the shocking truth behind one of the most sinister crimes in American history: the systematic murder of the Osage tribe in Oklahoma in the 1,920s. The film, based on the bestselling book by David Grann, stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Ernest Burkhart, a white man who marries Mollie Burkhart (Lily Gladstone), an Osage woman who inherits a fortune from the oil-rich land that her tribe was forced to settle on. But Ernest is secretly working for his uncle, William Hale (Robert De Niro), a ruthless cattleman who orchestrates a plot to kill off the Osage and claim their wealth. The film follows the investigation of the murders by Tom White (Jesse Plemons), a former Texas Ranger who is appointed by J. Edgar Hoover (Tantoo Cardinal) to lead a team of FBI agents. White soon discovers that the killings are part of a wider conspiracy that involves local officials, businessmen, doctors and even family members of the victims. Scorsese, who co-wrote the screenplay with Eric Roth, said that