November 17, 1999
Contact: Mary Jane Dunlap, University Relations, (785) 864-8853 or mjdunlap@ukans.edu.
LAWRENCE -- In the 1920s, the northeast Oklahoma town of Pawhuska was known as the "Osage Monte Carlo." Oil tycoons such as Bill Skelly, E.W. Marland, Frank Phillips, and G.F. Getty and his son, J. Paul Getty, were common visitors to the Osage Indian Agency in Pawhuska.
They came to bid for oil and gas leases on land owned by Osages, says Donald L. Fixico, University of Kansas professor of history and director of KU's Indigenous Nations Studies program.
"Osages were known as the richest people in the world," Fixico says. Opportunities to exploit Osages attracted a steady stream of non-Indians to their communities, Fixico notes in his book "The Invasion of Indian County in the 20th Century: American Capitalism and Tribal Natural Resources."
Ten members of the extended family of Lizzie Q. Kyle were murdered between 1921 and 1923 for their headrights to oil royalties. A headright provided each Osage landowner an equal share of all mineral income. Headrights could be inherited but not sold. In all, 20 killings occurred during what came to be known as a "reign of terror" among the Osages, Fixico says.
Concerns about the Osage murders and other oil scandals, including Teapot Dome in Wyoming, forced the U.S. Secretary of Interior to order drilling on Indian lands halted as much as possible on Nov. 29, 1922. In 1929, three non-Indians were charged in some of the murders, including William K. Hale, a cattleman who had gained the trust of Osages and called himself the "King of the Osages."
The murders " ... epitomized the worst expression of American greed and Indian exploitation," Fixico says.
For Fixico the murders represent an example of attacks on values central to Indian society that result when capitalism comes into conflict with tribal holdings. Those values are person or self, family, clan or society, community, nation and spirituality. "Stripped of their traditional strength and interdependence on each other, the family members were easy prey for predators like ... Hale," Fixico writes.
His book highlights attacks on these values through stories of tribal leaders' efforts to protect Pueblo water rights in New Mexico, Klamath timberlands in Oregon, Chippewa fishing rights in Wisconsin and Lakota (Sioux) control of gold and other minerals on their lands in South Dakota.
Fixico says Native American perspectives in U.S. history are important for Indians and non-Indians alike. New energy crises in the United States as well as bureaucratic headaches are among the threats to native resources in North America as well as South America, Fixico says.
"Wanton greed continues today and Indians who lack education and sufficient business experience continue to be taken advantage of by America's capitalistic society. ... It is my hope that important lessons can be learned from the philosophy, traditions and history of the Native Americans before it is too late," Fixico writes.
His book describes how federal policies devised to protect Indian interests worked against tribes in legal battles that are continuing into the 21st century.
"Energy companies see these resources as a means of enrichment; Indian traditionalists, by contrast, view them as an integral part of the homeland to which they themselves belong. ...[M]ainstream society has found it difficult to understand this and to accept and respect the Indians' treaty rights," Fixico writes.
He has two additional manuscripts in progress, "The Five Civilized Tribes in the 20th Century" and "The Urban Indian Experience in Ameria." Fixico is one of about 25 Ph.D. historians of Native American heritage in the world. Less than five of that group are full-bloods, including Fixico, whose tribal ancestry includes Muscogee Creek, Shawnee, Seminole, and Sac and Fox.
One of Fixico's goals is to increase the numbers of Native American scholars of U.S. history. It is important that Native American scholars bring their cultural perspectives into all professional fields, history included, he says.