Blood and Oil: The Osage Reign of Terror, 1921-1931
By Daniel R. Whitlock
Length4h 4m
About this audiobook
Every Osage citizen on the tribal roll held a share of whatever lay beneath the reservation, and that share could not be sold. It could only be inherited. The Osage had insisted on it when their land was divided into allotments: the surface could be parceled out, but the rock under their hills in the Arkansas River country, dismissed by federal surveyors as broken ground unfit for farming, would stay the property of the nation. Then drillers struck the Burbank field in 1920, and the royalty shares called headrights made the Osage, per capita, among the wealthiest people in the world.
Money that could only pass by inheritance drew guardians, lawyers and husbands, and in 1921 the deaths began. Anna Brown was found shot in a ravine. Her mother, Lizzie Q, died that July. Henry Roan was found shot in his car. In Fairfax a bomb tore apart the house where Anna's sister Rita lived with her husband Bill Smith, killing both of them and the young woman who worked for them. The book follows the killings through the guardianship courts, the federal investigation and the trials at Guthrie and Pawhuska. The verdicts put men in prison. The guardianship system that had made murder profitable outlived them, and the closing chapters trace its long shadow and the Osage Nation that survived it.
Audiobook details
GenreHistory
Length4 hrs 4 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateSep 18, 2026
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Chapter 1: The Rock That Was Worthless
2Chapter 2: Black Gold at Burbank
3Chapter 3: The Guardian and the Ledger
4Chapter 4: The Death of Anna Brown
5Chapter 5: Lizzie Q and the Widening Circle
Show all chaptersShow less
6Chapter 6: The Death of Henry Roan
7Chapter 7: The Bombing on Hickory Street
8Chapter 8: The Medicine Man and the Big Man
9Chapter 9: The Trials at Guthrie and Pawhuska
10Chapter 10: The Long Shadow of Guardianship
11Chapter 11: The Nation That Survived
12Chapter 12: What the Ledger Remembers
13About the Author
More from Daniel R. Whitlock
The Tonquin's Wake: Astor's Fur Empire and the Nations of the Lower ColumbiaDaniel R. Whitlock3h 59m$6
The Dakota War of 1862Daniel R. Whitlock3h 31m$6
Mescalero Apache: Sierra Blanca and the Reservation WarsDaniel R. Whitlock4h 1m$6
Between the Mountains and the Plains: The Jicarilla Apache StoryDaniel R. Whitlock4h 13m$6
The Ghost Dance and the Road to Wounded Knee: 1876-1890Daniel R. Whitlock4h 51m$6
The Great Sioux War: Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and the Winter That Ended the PlainsDaniel R. Whitlock4h 3m$6
The Cheyenne Wars: Dog Soldiers, Roman Nose, and the Central PlainsDaniel R. Whitlock4h 52m$6
Smallpox on the Missouri: The Mandan, Hidatsa, and ArikaraDaniel R. Whitlock4h 13m$6
Comanche Rising: The Horse Lords of the Southern Plains, 1830-1875Daniel R. Whitlock5h 7m$6
A Brief History of IntelligenceMax S. Bennett12h 18m4.6 (6.6K)$29 · $0.00
Ghosts of HiroshimaCharles Pellegrino8h 59m4.5 (877)$23
Lily's PromiseLily Ebert, Dov Forman8h 54m4.6 (16.1K)$29 · $0.00
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m4.6 (6.5K)$29 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m4.6 (927)$29 · $0.00
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and BeyondJohn Lyons12h 37m4.6 (1.4K)$33 · $0.00
BeyondStephen Walker15h 39m4.6 (3.2K)$33 · $0.00
Kings and PawnsHoward Bryant10h 9m4.6 (678)$29 · $0.00
No EscapeNury Turkel9h 30m4.6 (809)$28 · $0.00
Jubal Stone: U.S. Marshal: Blood Trail To Hell: A Western Adventure NovelCasey Nash3h 42m4.6 (3.2K)$18 · $0.00
Fall and RiseMitchell Zuckoff17h 23m4.6 (9.8K)$40 · $0.00
The SurvivorJosef Lewkowicz, Michael Calvin9h 22m4.6 (2.5K)$29 · $0.00
Always FaithfulThomas Schueman, Zainullah Zaki12h 12m4.6 (977)$29 · $0.00
The State of Society in France Before the Revolution of 1789 (Annotated)Alexis de Tocqueville17h 25m4.6 (1.2K)$2 · $0.00
All the Gallant MenDonald Stratton, Ken Gire5h 55m4.6 (11.8K)$24 · $0.00
Medgar and MyrlieJoy-Ann Reid10h 52m4.5 (27.8K)$29 · $0.00
The History of the Peloponnesian War (Annotated)Thucydides24h 3m4.6 (1.1K)$2 · $0.00
Where the Birds Never SingJack Sacco10h 31m4.6 (3.8K)$29 · $0.00
Serviceman J: The Untold Story of an NZSAS SoldierJamie Pennell5h 51m4.6 (452)$24 · $0.00
Valley of the BirdtailAndrew Stobo Sniderman, Douglas Sanderson10h 1m4.6 (2.4K)$29 · $0.00
You may also like
CaptureRobert K. Tanenbaum16h 23m4.1 (840)$30
Devil's ClawJ. A. Jance13h 46m4.1 (10.6K)$33 · $0.00
Impostor's LureCarla Neggers10h 46m4.1 (2.3K)$29 · $0.00
3:10 a.m.Nick Pirog2h 40m4.3 (4.2K)$15
The DisappearedM. R. Hall12h 14m3.8 (2.4K)$30
Falsely AccusedRobert K. Tanenbaum10h 24m4.1 (1.5K)$26
SanctuaryFaye Kellerman13h 1m4.1 (9.8K)$33 · $0.00
EscapeRobert K. Tanenbaum22h 36m3.9 (1.2K)$30
The Breaking PointJefferson Bass11h 10m4.2 (2.9K)$29 · $0.00
A Death in Live OakJames Grippando12h 7m4.1 (4.9K)$29 · $0.00
Prelude to TerrorHelen MacInnes13h 19m4.0 (1.4K)$23
The Benevent TreasureDora Amy Elles9h 15m4.1 (2.4K)$2 · $0.00
Death of a NightingaleLene Kaaberbøl, Agnete Friis10h 57m3.7 (4K)$23
The Football MurderRoy Lewis6h 29m4.4 (590)$17
Code Name Blue WrenJim Popkin10h 25m3.9 (6.2K)$29 · $0.00
Orchid BeachStuart Woods10h 46m4.1 (17.9K)$29 · $0.00
White HeatM. J. McGrath13h 12m3.6 (3.6K)$23 · $0.00
The Bone YardJefferson Bass9h 37m4.1 (5.8K)$29 · $0.00
The Phantom MurderRoy Lewis5h 58m4.3 (545)$17
The Lost AmericansChristopher Bollen10h 23m3.8 (1.5K)$29 · $0.00