“Killers of the Flower Moon”

“All history is the history of colonisation” Niall Ferguson

 “Colonus’ is the Latin word for ‘farm’ so what can be a better description of a colonist than somebody who comes into a part of the world and sets up a farm. A farm has an air of permanence does it not, Dear Reader? A farm does not produce crops immediately, it is a long term plan. Our children and I are immigrants to Canada. I am married to the grandchild of immigrants. So I wonder how close to a colonist that makes me. I have settled on land here in North Vancouver which  originally belonged to the Squamish Nation. I am, like many Canadians, from somewhere else. My wife is a farmer, well, a gardener anyway.

I suppose that this recent blog has been partly prompted by recent events in Israel and the Gaza Strip but also by the war in the Ukraine. But the real truth is that I have read the book, “Killers of the Flower Moon” by David Grann and am gearing up to see the Martin Scorsese movie of the same name. I urge all of you who are trying to understand the early colonisation of North America and, indeed, trying to teach the history of settlement from Europe, to read this book. You will get an outstanding perspective on how the Indigenous People were mistreated by the incomers. Yet again, I, who studied history at school and college, had never heard of the horrendous events that are the subject of this excellent book.

The Potato Famine in Ireland, the Highland Clearances in Scotland, the transportation of ‘criminals’ from the British Isles to Australia aboard the convict ships were not really a part of history in my early schooling. These were histories which I learned about after I left school. These were vast populations of people who were suddenly and brutally uprooted from home and hearth, starving in Ireland, replaced by the more profitable sheep in Scotland and stuck on board a ship to Australia because they stole a loaf of bread. Then came ‘Barnardo boys’, orphans from the Barnardo organisation, not to mention the children of unmarried mothers (See the movie, ‘Philomena’) and a whole slew of tired, shattered people who were destined never to see their families again. And now, Dear Reader, we have people fleeing the war torn regions of the world, countries that have corrupt leadership, regimes that thwart the progress of their populations, fundamental religions that see the education and equality of women and girls as anathema. Unlike my family, these are people who need to emigrate because their own countries offer them, at best, no hope and, at worst, death and destruction. People are on the move like they have always been, since homo sapiens found their way out of Africa and settled the rest of the world. Movement is us.

The fact that different cultures do not in general get along as much as we would like is not a part of the human condition of which we should be proud but it is ‘situation normal’ in certain parts of the world. So we are trying to mitigate this through multi-culturalism, mosaics, equality of opportunity, affirmative action, sexual freedom and all sorts of laudable, axiomatic tolerances. But, sadly, as we see every day, ‘evil lurks in the hearts of man’* and ‘we convince a man against his will he is of the same opinion still’*. Why? I guess it is because it is easier to be tolerant when one has shelter, a full stomach, access to good medical care, money in one’s pocket and leisure in which to spend it. It is not so easy when those things are not available. It becomes a dog eat dog world. And, Friends, if we ‘prick civilization it bleeds savagery’*. So I guess that I am stating the obvious. People try to get ahead of other people to the extent that they commit heinous acts in the process. People are not always good people.

“Killers of the Flower Moon” is the story of the Osage Natives in Oklahoma in the 1920s. They signed a treaty with the government and then discovered that their land was rich in oil. They had rights and they suddenly had money. They were rich. So this is a feel-good story; a tale where all is right with, at least, one Native Nation. Not so, in came the Europeans ready to exploit, ready to murder, ready to commit unthinkable atrocities. And this they did to a terrible extent because nobody cared about a dead native. But there was law and eventually, albeit too late, it worked and those that could be were brought to some sort of justice. Mostly through the determination and courage of one man, Tom White, in J.Edgar Hoover’s new investigation unit, some, at least, were forced to pay for their unspeakable crimes. Too little, too late perhaps but history tends to be like that does it not?

This is a terrible story and I do hope the film matches the book. But, Dear Reader, there is something gnawing away within me, an itchy scab that I have to scratch. I have wondered and pondered this deep seated annoyance and think that I have come to realise what it is. It is this.

I have been on the planet for 71 years. I have studied and taught history. I read history all of the time. Yet until recently I had never heard of the fate of the Osage Natives. Similarly I had never heard of Edward Colston’s part in the slave trade until his statue was torn down in Bristol (Colston’s School is a famed school in the area). I knew about Churchill’s First World War blunder in Gallipoli but not about his role in starvation in India. Dear Reader, I am not totally naïve. I do know that history is written by the victors; that Napoleon is anathema in Britain but an hero in France. I am just learning about the current slave trade in Africa (See my blog on “Cobalt Red”). What really irritates me is that I have been naïve; I have too easily had the wool pulled over my eyes; I have been subject to history as propaganda rather than as a story of balance and reason and fact. One should only form an opinion when one has a good grasp of the facts, don’t you think? And yet, and yet, Dear Reader, if the current dire situations in the world are anything to go by, we are witnessing history as emotion, we are seeing history as passion and we are viewing history with  sound-byteish, facebookian, short attention-span, biased, cyclopean irrationality.  But there is hope. To me it lies in the child who reads, the child who is curious, the child who will  question, the child who recognises nonsense, the child who will only show respect to others when it is earned. In short the child who grows in a society where he or she is free to express opinions with impunity.

So I do believe that we cannot stop people moving from one place to another. I also believe that such events are about give and take. The incomers need to respect the traditions and way of life of the people who have been there, in some cases, for thousands of years. They should not arrive believing that their way is best. The immigrants should not try to impose their belief system, religious or cultural, on a people whose system is well established. But the arrival of new blood into a community benefits us all, does it not? One only has to look at a baby learning to walk to understand that movement is joy, that movement is learning, that movement is understanding, that movement is part of the human condition, that, friends, movement is colonisation. How communities cope with the arrival of newcomers is, of course, subject to different interpretations but it should be done with a welcome acceptance, with kindness and with understanding; it should never be based on superiority and inferiority but always, always on equality. But then Davidson has the awful habit of stating the bleeding obvious, does he not?!

Thanks for reading.

I have now seen the film. “Killers of the Flower Moon”. Almost three and a half hours long. Scorsese did a marvellous job as did his three star actors. De Niro and Di Caprio we know about, but Lily Gladstone surely deserves acclaim for her role in this film. I was asked by friends whether I enjoyed it. I hesitated because enjoyment is not a word that properly fits with such a movie. Did it hit home? Yes it did. Did I feel for the victims and dislike the evil protagonist? Yes I did. So the message came across loud and clear. I guess that message is that the evil men and women do follows them and that the evil men and women do is very much alive and kicking in our present day. It is sadly not simply something from our past. I was carried along by the story and thoughts were provoked by it. It is a message which we all need to receive. But, friends, I did not enjoy it.

*”What evil lurks in the hearts of men” From the Radio Show, “The Shadow”

*”Convince a man against his will,

    He is of the same opinion still.” Samuel Butler

*”If we prick civilization it bleeds savagery”. Niall Ferguson