The history of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma, and how its members came to own such a vast oil reserve, begins with the administration of Thomas Jefferson. After the Louisiana Territory was purchased from the French, the Osage Nation, which had occupied vast areas of Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma (as well as land stretching west to the Rocky Mountains), was “forced to cede nearly a hundred million acres of their ancestral land” (38) and confine themselves to 4 million acres in Kansas. Soon, pressure from white settlers dislodged Osage residents from Kansas (the US government had pledged this land to them forever, but reneged on its promise). The tribe searched for new land and ended up purchasing 1.5 million acres in “Indian Territory” from the Cherokee Nation. The new land was rocky, hilly, and undesirable for farming, which the Osage community hoped would prevent white settlers from dislodging them once again. The tribe moved there in the early 1870s.

The largest camp established was Pawhuska; Mollie’s parents settled in Gray Horse, to the west. Changes came swiftly: The tribe had lost about two-thirds of its population due to disease and being moved, and the buffalo on which they relied were dwindling and would soon become extinct.