Mean Spirit

Oil is the most pervasive symbol within the text, and its many mentions mirror the proliferation of oil infrastructure on Osage land: “Across the land, oil derricks numbered as many and as far as the eye could see” (319). Oil symbolizes the double-edged sword that is progress, modernity, and wealth. It also connects the exploitation of Indigenous people and the exploitation of their land as interrelated, co-constructing forces. When oil is discovered on land previously thought to be worthless (and made available to the Osage people only because the government deemed it worthless), it seems like a boon to the Osage people. A once-struggling community finds itself in much different circumstances, and the added wealth initially seems to bolster the community.

However, the oil cannot be read as a straightforward benefit to the Osage community. Rather, it illuminates a series of tensions and power dynamics, developing the themes of Greed, Corruption, and Anti-Indigenous Racism and The Exploitation of Indigenous People, Land, and Resources. The government would never have made the land available to an Indigenous community if they had been aware of its resources. Once oil is discovered, severe limitations are placed upon the Osage people. They are in some cases outright cheated by white oil workers and companies, but even when their dealings are fair, their access to their own profits is often limited. By the end of the narrative, almost all of the Osage people are saddled with court-appointed “guardians” who decide when and how much money can be withdrawn from their accounts. The reasons behind this system of guardianship are deeply racist, born of the US government’s desire for control of and access to profits rightfully belonging to the Osage people. Guardianship also reflects the racist idea that the Osage people were not capable of managing their own money. While the Osage people were being preyed upon by white people at both the local and national level, they were also the target of a wide-scale assimilationist project meant to instill in them a reverence for white culture and an understanding of the supposed superiority of white values, beliefs, and practices. Oil, a symbol of modernity, ultimately brings more destruction than benefit to the community, which underscores the fraught nature of modernization.