The air is crisp. The leaves are brown. The days ever shorter. Amidst it all, the paperchase rumbles on.
At this point in the semester, with the crucible of case readings, legal research, and memo writing taking its toll, I found myself delving into the core of why I chose a legal career. What about the law drives us law students to put up with such demands? I needed a reminder, and a recent screening of the “Killers of the Flower Moon,” the new movie by Martin Scorsese starring Leonardo DiCaprio, helped answer the question.
“Killers of the Flower Moon” retells the history of the ‘Reign of Terror,’ a period in the 1920s where at least 60 members of the Osage Nation were killed in Oklahoma. Within its haunting narrative, the movie is laden with profound lessons about the role of justice and the law in our society. In the early 1870s, the US government forced the Osage nation to move to northeast Oklahoma from their home in Kansas. But, unlike many other native American nations, the Osage used the proceeds from the sale of their Kansas lands to buy their own reservation. This meant that they retained sovereignty and rights to their new home in Oklahoma. When large oil deposits were discovered in land that was once considered worthless, the Osage suddenly became immensely wealthy, with the tribe able to lease the land to prospectors and earn royalties on the profits.
The law is ever present in the film. First, it bequeaths the Osage with their wealth. Known as ‘headrights,’ all members of the tribe were entitled to an equal share of the oil royalties, propelling the Osage to becoming the wealthiest nation per capita in the world at the time. The law also provides for the Osage’s tragic demise. Because the law dictated that headrights could only be inherited, and not bought or sold, the only way a non-tribe member could gain access to a slice of this fortune was through marriage. After Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) arrives to work with his uncle William Hale (Robert De Niro), a successful cattle rancher, Hale persuades Burkhart to marry an Osage woman. He notes that by marrying an Osage, he would be legally entitled to their spouses’ oil royalties through their inheritance. If that Osage spouse were to die, the law permitted the non-tribal spouses to inherit this money.
A grim narrative follows. Tribal members are slowly killed off in increasingly gruesome ways. When tribal leadership tries to stop the murders, it becomes obvious that the law is not on their side. Deemed legally incompetent to handle their own affairs, US laws dictated that the Osage could only get their money through designated local white guardians. Predictably, the lawyers that comprised these guardians often did not act in good faith. With little legal recourse, the Osage found themselves trapped in a web of deceit and violence.
‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ is a stark reminder of the immense power the law and those that practice it wield over communities. While the law provided the Osage with a means of reaping the benefits of their land, it also became a tool for their exploitation and tragedy. As future lawyers, our legal education requires us to not merely study substantive doctrines and procedural rules, but also demands us to become stewards of justice and equity in our society. Stories like these remind us of the important role and duty that our profession beholds. ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ is an important film for law students because it illustrates the impact that the law and its practices can have on communities, for better or for worse.
Christopher Tan is a first-year student at BC Law. Contact him at tanbw@bc.edu.
BC Law: Impact 