Mean Spirit

Greed, Corruption, and Anti-Indigenous Racism remains a key focal point during the concluding pages of the novel: Stace suspects that his boss Ballard has been reading his mail, and wonders if the local conspiracy extends to the federal level. This is another moment in which the text illustrates systemic inequality and racism: At every level of government, there is oppression of Indigenous peoples, from the corrupt local officials in Watona to those whom the Osage people reach out to for help at the national level. Lettie, too, begins to suspect a wider conspiracy than she had previously thought, for she realizes that the man whom she suspects of being involved in the explosion was in jail on the night that it occurred. Both she and Stace wonder if the sheriff let Bird out of jail. That so many individuals are working together against the interests of the Osage people connects to the gravity of the historical Osage murders: The crimes that in this text take place over only the course of a few seasons unfolded over decades.

Ben’s character illuminates another aspect of corruption and anti-Indigenous racism. He has returned from boarding school deeply traumatized and self-medicates through substance abuse. Although not a large part of Mean Spirit, boarding schools and the horrors that Indigenous students endured there hover in the background, and Ben’s experiences mirror the stories of countless Indigenous children. In the years since the publication of this text, the systemic abuses perpetrated by the faculty and staff at boarding schools and the complicity of government officials in the mistreatment of so many children have emerged as major topics within public discourse in both the United States and Canada. Books like Mean Spirit illustrate that, although these schools were not widely known about or acknowledged until recently, knowledge of the violence that Indigenous children endured in them was common knowledge in Indigenous communities.

Even in the text’s final moments, the thematic focus on The Exploitation of Indigenous People, Land, and Resources remains strong. Although Hale is ultimately found guilty of killing Nola Graycloud’s father-in-law and sent to prison, it seems as though the forces of corruption, exploitation, and racism win. For the Grayclouds, life continues to be difficult. Ruth’s husband, Tate, is revealed to be one of John Hale’s men: Ruth, like so many other Osage women, has been exploited for her resources. The Graycloud home is set on fire in retaliation for Moses having killed Tate, and the family is forced to flee. The ending of the novel reflects the reality of the historical Osage murders, which did not result in many arrests or much jailtime for the perpetrators and those who helped to cover up the murders. The text ends with a nod toward the value of tradition over modernity: The Graycloud family, with Stace Red Hawk in tow, choose the traditional Osage community over the violence and oppression of a modernized Watona.

Belle’s observation about the damage that the oil industry has done to the environment in and around Watona is a moment of intertextuality with Hogan’s other works. She is an avid environmentalist, and the way that environmental destruction and the exploitation of Indigenous people often go hand in hand is a key theme that runs through much of her writing. The Osage community will not truly see justice for many of the murders, and the destruction of the land becomes yet another way in which this Indigenous group has been forever changed by the intrusion of white culture and white industry into their territory.