[Despite its flaws, advocates hope the film will promote awareness
and understanding of the complex MMIW issue]
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‘KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON’ SIDESTEPS THE ISSUE OF MISSING AND
MURDERED INDIGENOUS WOMEN  
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Frank Hopper
November 6, 2023
Yes!
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_ Despite its flaws, advocates hope the film will promote awareness
and understanding of the complex MMIW issue _

A movie still from 'Killers of the Flower Moon', Apple TV+

 

_Note to readers who have not yet seen the film or read the book: This
story includes spoilers._

The $200 million epic film _Killers of the Flower Moon,_ directed by
master filmmaker Martin Scorsese begins, after a brief but beautiful
prologue, with Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Ernest Burkhart
arriving by train in the Oklahoma town of Grey Horse.

The book that inspired the film, however, written by David Grann,
begins on the Osage reservation with a young Osage woman named Mollie
Burkhart worrying about the disappearance of her sister Anna, whose
body is later discovered beside a creek, shot in the head.

The film version puts DiCaprio’s character firmly in the lead,
whereas the book was written with Mollie in that role. This shift in
perspective has not gone unnoticed, and has reignited
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controversy
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over the control of Native narratives.

“As an Osage, I really wanted this to be from the perspective of
Mollie and what her family experienced,” Christopher Cote, Osage
language consultant for the production, told _The Hollywood Reporter_
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at the film’s premiere on Oct. 20.

Anyone familiar with Native issues will immediately recognize the
disappearance and murder of Mollie’s sister as a missing and
murdered Indigenous woman
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story. The MMIW movement has grown prominent in recent years. It
addresses the ongoing epidemic of Native people—mostly women and
girls—who are killed every year by human predators.

One major cause is the split in jurisdiction between federal and
tribal court systems. Tribal courts cannot prosecute crimes
perpetrated by non-Natives
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even if the victims are Native. The federal court system has
jurisdiction, but according to some, it gives little priority to
crimes against Indigenous women. In a 2020 article
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for _Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law Online_, attorney Rhea
Shinde notes the general lack of concern by federal prosecutors to
find justice for Indigenous female victims: “Unfortunately but
perhaps unsurprisingly, the federal government has proven itself
incapable of fulfilling its duty to Indigenous women. Federal
prosecutors often decline to prosecute the Indigenous women’s cases
of intimate partner violence unless the perpetrator inflicted serious
injury.”

Predators benefit from this apparent lack of concern, making Native
women prime targets for violence. The Bureau of Indian Affairs
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estimates 4,200 unsolved cases of missing or murdered Native Americans
exist in federal databases. The actual number is thought to be much
higher, as many crimes go unreported or are misclassified as suicides,
overdoses, or accidents.

Hollywood films often guide public perception of important issues, and
while a massive cinematic juggernaut like _Killers of the Flower Moon_
can bring needed attention to issues of ongoing injustice on tribal
lands, the film deserves scrutiny for how irresponsibly it treats the
Native side of the narrative.

WHOSE STORY IS IT?

The story relates an episode in Osage history called the Reign of
Terror
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in which dozens of Osage people were murdered for their shares in the
tribe’s oil trust, which was formed after a sea of oil was
discovered under their reservation.

In just two years, beginning in 1921, more than two dozen Osage people
were either murdered outright or died under suspicious circumstances.
This continued into the 1930s, with an estimated total of 60 suspected
murders. All the deaths were linked to gaining ownership of shares in
the oil trust.

The book tells the story of Mollie Burkhart, an Osage woman played in
the film by Piegan Blackfeet actress Lily Gladstone. The shares Mollie
and her family own cannot be sold or traded; they can only be
transferred by inheritance. Originally intended to protect the Osage,
this legislative mandate wound up having the opposite effect,
resulting in scores of murders.

As members of her family die mysteriously around her, Mollie slowly
realizes she is next to go, after which point all her family’s
wealth will be transferred to her white husband and his family.

Unlike the book, however, the film is told from a white, patriarchal
perspective. DiCaprio plays Ernest Burkhart, Mollie’s white husband,
an ex-army cook, who slowly gets drawn into a scheme to defraud and
murder members of Mollie’s family by his powerful uncle William
Hale, played by Robert De Niro.

DiCaprio’s character slowly descends into evil as his uncle, a
pillar of the community loved by all, secretly indoctrinates him into
the ruthless nature of the white ruling class. It’s a fascinating
dynamic, and one that must have appealed to Scorsese, many of whose
most famous films, such as _Taxi Driver_ and _Raging Bull_, depict
dark stories with flawed lead characters.

As compelling and beautiful as the film is, it tends to downplay the
experience of Mollie, the story’s original protagonist, and gives
most of its screen time to its well-paid Hollywood star, DiCaprio.
This dilutes its connection to an important current-day problem in
Native communities. The story is—and should be represented as—a
textbook example of what the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
movement is fighting against.

THE PAIN OF DISAPPEARANCE

The very first chapter of the book opens with 34-year-old Mollie
worrying about her older sister, Anna Brown, who has not been seen for
several days. Author David Grann describes Mollie’s inner feelings
about Anna’s disappearance:

“She had often gone on ‘sprees,’ as her family disparagingly
called them: dancing and drinking with friends until dawn. But this
time one night had passed, and then another and Anna had not shown up
on Mollie’s front stoop as she usually did, with her long black hair
slightly frayed and her dark eyes shining like glass. When Anna came
inside, she liked to slip off her shoes, and Mollie missed the
comforting sound of her moving, unhurried, through the house. Instead,
there was a silence as still as the plains.”

This silence of loss lingers in the families of missing and murdered
Indigenous women. It is unlike loss due to illness, old age, or
accident in which the causes are known. Instead, the constant gnawing
pain of unexplained and unresolved loss, what’s called ambiguous
loss
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blocks the process of healing.

A billboard for Carolyn DeFord’s mother, Leona Kinsey, stands in La
Grande, Oregon. It was paid for by supporters of the MMIW movement in
2022. _Photo courtesy of Carolyn DeFord_

This ambiguous loss is all too common today within Native communities
all over the country. In Tacoma, Washington, Puyallup tribal member
Carolyn DeFord remembers how her mother Leona Kinsey disappeared in
1999. On Oct. 26 of that year, a family friend phoned DeFord from
Oregon, extremely worried because Kinsey was not home and was not
returning calls.

DeFord knew her mother had recently had some run-ins with drug dealers
in the town of La Grande, Oregon, where she lived. Someone even wrote
the word “narc” on the front of her trailer. But DeFord refused to
think that her mother had been murdered.

“You just always think it’s a miscommunication. That can’t
really be it, right?” DeFord says. “She’ll show up. She’ll
come home. She just had a flat tire. Something…”

But another day passed, and then another, just like in the book.
DeFord admits her mother struggled with addiction, but she fought hard
for her recovery and always stayed in close touch with her daughter.

“My mom had her problems and her challenges, but she jumped at every
opportunity to be there for me, especially if my kids were sick or if
I were in danger or anything like that,” she says. “This wasn’t
like her. She would have called me if she were ok.”

The police did little but take statements and file reports. DeFord and
her mother’s best friend, Nancy, did their own investigation,
eventually even uncovering a suspect that they reported to police. But
disappearing is not a crime, and since there was no real evidence of a
murder, no further investigation was performed by law enforcement.

Carolyn DeFord, in white, stands with Roxanne White, in red,
Congresswoman and future Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and
others at the 2019 Indigenous Peoples March on Washington. _Photo by
Frank Hopper_

FINDING THE MEDICINE OF SUPPORT

The remains of DeFord’s mother have never been found, and her
alleged killer walks free. For years DeFord struggled with depression.
Then she began corresponding with people she found on Facebook and
MySpace who suffered similar losses. She shared her experience with
them and let them know they were not alone. As she did, something
special happened.

“The more I would talk to families, the more I realized it helped
me,” she recalls. “It started me processing and being able to talk
about and go through similar experiences with other people who
understood.”

In 2007, DeFord discovered the MMIW movement
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decades ago in Canada in response to Native women disappearing on
Canadian highways at the hands of serial killers.

“Our First Nations sisters really paved the way,” DeFord says.

At first made up of many different grassroots groups, the movement
soon spread to Native communities in the U.S.

In 2020, the _Not Invisible Act_
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was passed by Congress, creating a commission “focused on improving
intergovernmental coordination and establishing best practices for
state, tribal and federal law enforcement to bolster resources for
survivors and victim’s families,” according to the Department of
Justice.

The biggest challenge, however, is the continued objectification and
exploitation of Native women who are too often seen as a disposable
commodity.

THE REAL KILLER: COLONIZATION

_Killers of the Flower Moon_ depicts the Osage Reign of Terror as an
isolated episode in Native history, instead of just one example of a
systemic and ongoing issue. Additionally, it’s told from the side of
the ruling colonizers, and depicts the Osage mainly as victims who do
little to help themselves. This is all too common in stories about
Indian Country.

However, the film is still a masterpiece by a virtuoso American
filmmaker that millions will see. DeFord hopes that despite its flaws,
the film will promote awareness and understanding of the complex MMIW
issue.

“The root is historical,” DeFord notes. “It goes back to the
beginning of colonization when Native people, particularly women, were
considered property, like wildlife. To the colonizers, those Native
women had no identity beyond their value as objects. 

“It happened to the Osage, and it happens today to Native girls
being trafficked by pimps,” she says. “Although the film doesn’t
bring this out explicitly, the point still shines through. And that in
itself is healing.”

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Frank Hopper [[link removed]] ,
Tlingit, is a freelance Native journalist born in Juneau, Alaska, now
living in Tacoma, Washington. His work appears in Last Real Indians,
The Stranger, and Indian Country Today. His self-titled YouTube
channel features videos about Native issues. He can be reached
at [email protected]. His YouTube link
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* Killers of the Flower Moon
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* Review; Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women; Osage History;
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