The author of the book, “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI,” the director of the 2023 movie “Killers of the Flower Moon,” and one of the film’s stars were honored Monday evening by the National Archives Foundation in D.C.
Renowned director Martin Scorsese, Golden Globe-winning actress Lily Gladstone and author David Grann received the foundation’s Records of Achievement Award for helping bring the public’s attention to the story of the little-known serial murders of wealthy members of the Osage Nation in the 1920s after oil was discovered on tribal land in Oklahoma.
“The Archives were essential. History was scattered throughout all these files, it would have been impossible to tell the story without the records that were in all these archives,” said Grann.
“All the records from the Osage Nation would get stored in the branch of the Federal Archives out in Fort Worth, Texas. I spent a couple months out there, spending hours and hours just going through these boxes, finding records about the guardianship system, the corruption. And it was because of those records that they began to indicate that there was really this much deeper and darker conspiracy that the FBI had never exposed, and that really this was about a culture of killing,” he added.
The Records of Achievement Award is the National Archives Foundation’s highest award, bestowed on individuals whose work raises awareness of the history and heritage of the United States through the records of the National Archives.
Scorsese who directed the film said he searched for almost 50 years for a story based on the Native American experience when he read Grann’s book.
“As a key to me was the archival materials, because at a certain point we have, of course, the book that David did. But very often I found I was going back to the archival materials and dealing with the actual transcripts of dialogue that was recorded at the time. … And I kept playing with this throughout the shooting of the film too,” said Scorsese. “It (was) sort of like a living organism.”
Scorsese said that Academy Award-nominated actress Gladstone, who also received the Archives award, was among the most dedicated in the film company to getting the story right, spending much time learning about the Osage and their culture.
Gladstone, who has Blackfeet and Nez Perce heritage, made history last year as the first Native American to win “Best Actress” and marked the occasion by speaking the language during her acceptance speech.
WTOP’s Juan Herrera contributed to this report.
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