Mean Spirit

This is a Pulitzer Prize nominated novel from 1991 about the killings of Osage people in Oklahoma in the 1920's to take over their land and the oil beneath it. It covers the same events that were covered by David Grann's non-fiction book Killers of the Flower Moon, but it tells the story from the perspective of the extended family of Belle and Moses Greycloud, an aging couple who own valuable land and who repeatedly lose family members in the killing. As a novel, it's a beautiful but wrenching story, with a cast of unique, likeable characters who are caught in a system that is rigged against them. As a reader, you are drawn in to feel a part of the community surrounding Greycloud family so that you can feel the weight of their grief and their helplessness to protect themselves against more loss. It's not an easy read, but the story is so well told that you will want to keep showing up to read it.