NOTES
1: THE VANISHING
In April, millions: For more information on the Osage’s notion of the flower-killing moon,
see Mathews’s Talking to the Moon.
“gods had left”: Ibid., 61.
On May 24: My description of Anna Brown’s disappearance and the last day she visited
Mollie Burkhart’s house is drawn primarily from the testimony of witnesses who were
present. Many of them spoke several times to different detectives, including FBI agents
and private eyes. These witnesses also often testified at a number of court proceedings.
For more information, see records at NARA-CP and NARA-FW.
“peculiar wasting illness”: Quoted in Franks, Osage Oil Boom, 117.
“Lo and behold”: Sherman Rogers, “Red Men in Gas Buggies,” Outlook, Aug. 22, 1923.
“plutocratic Osage”: Estelle Aubrey Brown, “Our Plutocratic Osage Indians,” Travel, Oct.
1922.
“red millionaires”: William G. Shepherd, “Lo, the Rich Indian!,” Harper’s Monthly, Nov.
1920.
“une très jolie”: Brown, “Our Plutocratic Osage Indians.”
“circle of expensive”: Elmer T. Peterson, “Miracle of Oil,” Independent (N.Y.), April 26,
1924.
“outrivals the ability”: Quoted in Harmon, Rich Indians, 140.
“That lament”: Ibid., 179.
“even whites”: Brown, “Our Plutocratic Osage Indians.”
“He was not the kind”: Oklahoma City Times, Oct. 26, 1959.
Ernest’s brothers, Bryan: His birth name was Byron, but he went by Bryan. To avoid any
confusion, I have simply used Bryan throughout the text.
“All the forces”: Statement by H. S. Traylor, U.S. House Subcommittee on Indian Affairs,
Indians of the United States: Investigation of the Field Service, 202.
“very loose morals”: Report by Tom Weiss and John Burger, Jan. 10, 1924, FBI.
“She was drinking”: Grand jury testimony of Martha Doughty, NARA-FW.
“Do you know”: Grand jury testimony of Anna Sitterly, NARA-FW.
“I thought the rain”: Ibid.
Fueling the unease: Information concerning Whitehorn’s disappearance is drawn largely