“Killers Of The Flower Moon” is an Oscar contender and certainly one of the most talked-about films of the year, but perhaps one of the strangest connections to the film’s true story has to do with one of the biggest TV stars and bloggers in the US.
According to a viral tweet, Ree Drummond – who is perhaps best known by her pseudonym “The Pioneer Woman” – is said to have a big attraction for the Martin Scorsese-directed film starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone.
In the wake of last month’s “Boys Think About the Roman Empire Daily” social media trend, student and author Noa Bourne went viral with a post on X (formerly Twitter) that now has nearly 5 million views.
The post said: “My mother just said her ‘Roman Empire’ is the reason the pioneer family owns all the land at stake in the Flower Moon.”
The media personality – née Anne Marie “Ree” Drummond – made a name for herself when her blog “The Pioneer Woman,” which documented her daily life as a wife and mother on a ranch, became a success and eventually became a television show on The Pioneer Woman featured the same name on The Food Network, which began in 2011.
Ree married Ladd Drummond in 1996, as her family is one of the largest landowning families in the state of Oklahoma and in the United States, as they are the largest landowning family in Osage County – where the film is set – owning a hefty approximately 9 percent of the county .
Strange connection: Ree Drummond – who is perhaps best known by her pseudonym “The Pioneer Woman” – is said to have a strong attraction to the Martin Scorsese-directed film “Killers Of The Flower Moon”; Ree and husband Ladd Drummond are seen in June 2017
According to a viral tweet, the film stars Leonardo DiCaprio (on the right), Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone (on the left).
Boom: In the wake of last month’s “boys think about the Roman Empire every day” social media trend, student and author Noa Bourne went viral with a post on X (formerly Twitter) that now has nearly 5 million views
Ladd — the direct descendant of founding family patriarch and rancher Frederick Drummond — and Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond own the land, which is valued at about $275 million.
Slate investigated the claims when it recently published an interview with Bloomberg reporter Rachel Adams-Heard, whose podcast “In Trust” gave an in-depth look at what happened to the Osage Nation’s land and mineral rights after the Reign of Terror.
When asked how much of the former Osage land is currently actually Drummond land in this area, Adams-Heard responded, “
When we shared these findings with them, the Drummonds we interviewed emphasized that they respect each other’s fence lines. So it’s not like all 9 percent are owned by an immediate family. In some cases they are second and third cousins.
“Some of the Drummond family’s largest individual farms are those run by Ree Drummond’s husband Ladd and his brother.”
Since there is only one mention of the Drummond surname in the book – which was merely a reference to the biography of AA “Jack” Drummond, who lived during the Reign of Terror – it should not be expected that anyone would The family would be portrayed in the film.
Hmm: Ree married Ladd Drummond in 1996, as her family is one of the largest landowning families in the state of Oklahoma and in the United States, being the largest landowning family in Osage County – where the film is set – a whopping 9 percent of the county
Adams-Heard noted that the Drummond family had their businesses primarily near the town of Hominy, which doesn’t actually appear in the book, but the family had a connection to William K. Hale, the major antagonist in the book, who is portrayed by De Niro in the film.
The podcaster said: “One of the more interesting and probably more relevant things to the film that we found involved William K. Hale’s land being sold.” It was a large contiguous parcel of land that was hard to come by at the time, as the land had been divided into such small parcels through allotments and there were many rules as to how and when Osage families could sell this land.
“After I found out that the Drummond family was part of this partnership that bought it, I just looked for anything that would indicate how they paid for it and what they ended up doing with the land.”
Adams-Heard did some further research when they found a collection at the University of Central Oklahoma that contained a memo between two of the original three Drummond brothers who founded the ranching company.
They stated, “It appears to indicate that they borrowed $15,000 from their Osage community to pay for the land they purchased from William K. Hale.” There is no other evidence that I have in the others Records have seen a borrowing, so we’re not sure what actually happened.
“This particular Osage man, Myron Bangs Jr., was incredibly skeptical of his guardians. He wrote several times to U.S. officials indicating that he thought his guardians – one of whom was Roy Cecil Drummond, and later it was Fred Gentner Drummond – were misusing his land and that he was guilty of the way they were using his Avoided money, didn’t trust . But since U.S. policy fundamentally held that Osage citizens were incompetent, he really had no power to escape this guardianship.
“So to see that he may not have known that his money was being used to buy this land from a man who was convicted of aiding and abetting the murder of another Osage man — I mean, that was really impressive.”
Ultimately, it was hard to figure out where wrongdoing lay because it was difficult to decipher the transactions, where the land that eventually came to the Drummonds was located, or the fraction of the title they actually owned was actually legal.
The film is based on the 2017 non-fiction book of the same name by David Grann. The film is set in the 1920s and revolves around the FBI’s investigation into a series of murders after several members of the Osage tribe were slaughtered in Oklahoma
Adams-Heard explained, “So there was an enormous amount of money just coming through the door.” Because of all these restrictions from the U.S. government on how Osages could spend their own money, many of them found themselves in debt because they were buying things in the store on credit had to buy. From congressional testimony, we see that some families owed thousands of dollars in debt to the Drummonds’ store in Hominy, which was an enormous sum at the time.
“In some cases we have seen a family, while in debt of $2,000 to $3,000, transfer their land to a member of the Drummond family at what we know is a very low price. But again, it is impossible to say with certainty whether this land was used to pay off these debts.”
They noted that it is easy to look at the annual guardianship fees charged and not think that they are not enough to actually make a difference, but rather that they add up over time.
The podcaster added, “The other element of all of this is access to funds through Osage accounts that the guardians had because they were in charge and those Osage bank accounts were overseen by them and their friends and business associates.”
“And so we also became aware that Osage funds were being used to finance land purchases and land improvements by the Drummonds and their business partners.”
“Killers of the Flower Moon” focuses on an under-recognized chapter of American history involving the Osage Nation.
In the 1920s, the Osage tribe became rich almost overnight after oil was discovered beneath their land, giving them annual revenue of more than $30 million at the height of the boom, according to the Oklahoma Historical Society.
The subterranean minerals on the Osage Nation Reservation were tribally owned and held in trust by the government.
William K. Hale, a native of Greenville, Texas, encouraged his submissive nephew Ernest Burkhart (right) to marry Osage member Mollie Kyle (left).
Mineral leasing created royalties that were paid to the entire tribe – with each grantee receiving an equal share, also known as a headright.
But outsiders could only legally acquire these rights if they married into the tribe.
During this time, the aforementioned rancher William K. Hale, a native of Greenville, Texas, encouraged his submissive nephew Ernest Burkhart to marry Osage member Mollie Kyle (later Mollie Burkhart).
Burkhart, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, and his wife Mollie, played by Lily Gladstone, lived in Fairfax with Mollie’s mother Lizzie Q.
Lizzie was a mother of four children, and in May 1921 the decomposed body of one of her other daughters, Anna Brown, was discovered in a remote canyon in northern Oklahoma.
She was found with a bullet hole in the back of her head, but since Brown had no known enemies, the case remained unsolved.
Just two months later, Lizzie herself died under suspicious circumstances from suspected poisoning, although evidence of this was never found.
In May 1921, Osage native Anna Brown was found with a bullet hole in the back of her head – but her case remained unsolved
Her decomposed body was found in a remote canyon (pictured) in the Osage Hills of northern Oklahoma
Then another family member, Lizzie’s nephew Henry Roan, suffered a similar fate in January 1923 when Hale, played by Robert De Niro, fraudulently named himself as the beneficiary of his $25,000 life insurance policy.
But the death within the family did not end there.
In March 1923, another of Lizzie’s daughters, Rita Smith, as well as Rita’s husband William Smith and their housekeeper Nettie Brookshire were killed when their home was destroyed by an explosion.
And after her death, Burkhart and Mollie inherited a fortune from the estates of their mother and sisters.
But the killings extended beyond a single family. An estimated 24 Osage Indians died in violent or suspicious deaths in the early 1920s, with newspapers of the time branding it a “reign of terror.”
At this point, authorities began to grow suspicious and an alarmed Osage tribal council sought the U.S. government’s help.
Hale’s name emerged early in the investigation as the mastermind of the murders.
William Hale, played by Robert De Niro, was accused of bribing and intimidating others to do much of his dirty work on his way to money and power
Members of Lizzie Q’s family (left) were called out in quick succession, including her nephew Henry Roan (right).
The so-called “King of the Osage Hills” was accused of bribing and intimidating others to do much of his dirty work while seeking money and power.
The killings subsided after Hale was arrested along with accomplices, including his nephew, in 1926.
Three years later, Hale was formally convicted for his involvement. After serving two decades of his sentence, he was released on parole in 1947.
At that time, investigators also discovered that the killers had already begun poisoning Mollie, which would have been the final part of the crook’s master plan.
Fortunately, she recovered and divorced her murderous husband after the trial.
The actors involved in the production recognized the significance of the film’s true story.
In the 1920s, the Osage tribe (pictured with President Coolidge) became rich almost overnight after oil was discovered beneath their land
The subterranean minerals on the Osage Nation Reservation were tribally owned and held in trust by the government
Lily Gladstone previously shared a picture of Mollie Burkhart on Instagram along with the caption: “I consider it a true gift and a great responsibility to have entrusted Mollie Burkhart and I will hold her in my arms with both arms.”
“My deepest thanks go to Osage Nation. It is a remarkable gift to be welcomed by you and to be able to tell this story.”
Janae Collins, who plays Rita Smith, also wrote: “I am so grateful to the Osage Nation for allowing us to tell their story.” This is one of the most painful and heartbreaking time periods in the history of the Wazhazhe people as well as history of the US Native Americans
“I take this very, very seriously as an actress and as a Lakota/Dakota and Apsáalooke woman.” I am very grateful to Marty Scorsese for the truth, diligence and care he brought to this project. He and Leonardo really advocated for us (as locals) over the years and got us to the point where we were ready to film.
“I am so grateful for the love and support we have received.”