23 Best Books to Read After Watching 'Killers of the Flower Moon'

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The new film, Killers of the Flower Moon, is based on the true story of the Reign of Terror in the Osage Nation in the 1920s, using David Grann's book of the same name as a source material. After watching the movie—which stars Lily Gladstone, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Robert DeNiro, among others (in extremely spot-on casting)—viewers may be curious to learn more about the Osage Nation murders, or just read more about the experiences of Native Americans. (Side note: If you're looking for more storytelling like Killers of the Flower Moon in movies or books, we recommend diving into the true crime genre.)

Below, a reading list that features both nonfiction and fiction books—ones that run the gamut from the history of Native Americans, to novels, poetry, memoirs, and short story collections that capture the modern day experience of Indigenous Americans.

A Pipe for February

If you're specifically looking to read more about the Osage Nation murders, A Pipe for February is a must read novel by an Osage author. As David Grann, author of Killers of the Flower Moon, wrote in a blurb, "Charles Red Corn illuminates what the Osage people went through during the 1920s, when oil profits had made them fabulously wealthy and when they began to die under mysterious circumstances—systematically targeted for their money. This novel, exquisitely written and filled with revelations, will hold you in its grip and never let you go."

The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History

Ned Blackhawk, a professor at Yale University and member of the Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone, set out to retell American history through a Native American lens. He opens The Rediscovery of America with a simple question: "How can a nation founded on the homelands of dispossessed Indigenous peoples be the world's most exemplary democracy?"

There There

Tommy Orange, a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, captured modern Native American experience in There There, which follows the stories of 12 interconnected characters traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow.

The Deaths of Sybil Bolton: Oil, Greed, and Murder on the Osage Reservation

Journalist Dennis McAuliffe Jr. thought his grandmother, Sybil, died of kidney disease in 1925. It turns out his grandfather may have orchestrated her death. The Deaths of Sybil Bolton is a true, family story of the Reign of Terror, featuring a foreword by David Grann.

Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir

Author Deborah A. Miranda, a member of the Ohlone-Costanoan Esselen Nation of California, writes about her own family and the experiences of Native Americans in California in her memoir, Bad Indians.

Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman's Search for Justice in Indian Country

Killers of the Flower Moon is a historical book, but it is also something of a true crime story. Yellow Bird is in the same vein, but capturing more recent history of the Bakken oil boom. The book traces a murder on Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota, and how one woman, Lissa Yellow Bird, sought justice.

Sabrina & Corina: Stories

Kali Fajardo-Anstine's debut short story collection centers Chicana and Indigenous women in the American West, predominantly in Denver. "As a woman with Indigenous ancestry in the American West, I was like, 'Why isn’t my voice considered representative of this region?" she said in an interview. "I really started leaning into that."

Love Medicine

Louise Erdrich, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, is one of the most celebrated Indigenous authors in America. If you've never read her work, start with her debut novel, Love Medicine. As Toni Morrison wrote, "The beauty of Love Medicine saves us from being completely devastated by its power."

The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present

Ojibwe author David Treuer asserts that Native American history does not end at Wounded Knee, as Dee Brown argued in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. In response, Treuer writes, "I came to conceive of a book that would dismantle the tale of our demise by way of a new story. This book would focus on the untold story of the past 128 years, making visible the broader and deeper currents of Indian life that have too long been obscured."

(He also authored Rez Life: An Indian's Journey Through Reservation Life, worth checking out.)

Highway of Tears: A True Story of Racism, Indifference, and the Pursuit of Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

Journalist Jessica McDiarmid spent years investigating the murders of Indigenous women and girls on the "Highway of Tears"in Canada. As the publisher notes, her book is a "piercing exploration of our ongoing failure to provide justice for the victims and a testament to their families’ and communities’ unwavering determination to find it."

Winter in the Blood

James Welch, another prominent Indigenous novelist (he is Blackfeet and A'aninin), is another must-read author of Native American literature. Start with his debut novel, Winter in the Blood, and go from there.

Making Indian Law: The Hualapai Land Case and the Birth of Ethnohistory

Much of Killers of the Flower Moon revolves around the American legal system as it pertains to Native Americans, and Making Indian Law, while it doesn't deal with the Osage Nation, is a crucial read in understanding Indian law in America.

Border Citizens: The Making of Indians, Mexicans, and Anglos in Arizona

Eric V. Meeks's Border Citizens dives into the identities of the diverse communities that make up Arizona’s borderlands. It was first published in 2007, but republished in 2020 to understand, and greater contextualize, the state's aggressive response to undocumented immigration.

Crazy Brave: A Memoir

Joy Harjo, a member of the the Mvskoke Nation, was the 23rd United States Poet Laureate, and the first Native American person to hold the title. As Kirkus wrote in their review, it is a "lyrical, soul-stirring memoir about how an acclaimed Native American poet and musician came to embrace 'the spirit of poetry.'"

Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology

One of the newer books on this list, Never Whistle at Night is a collection of dark short stories from an all-star list of contributors. As the publisher notes, the "stories are a celebration of Indigenous peoples’ survival and imagination, and a glorious reveling in all the things an ill-advised whistle might summon..."

New Mexico’s Stolen Lands: A History of Racism, Fraud & Deceit

A key part of Killers of the Flower Moon is the fight over land; in New Mexico's Stolen Lands, author Ray John de Aragón details the dispossession and land theft following the Mexican-American War of 1848.

Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee

Indigenous authors Paul Chaat Smith and Robert Allen Warrior turn their attention to the American Indian Movement (AIM) of the 1960s and 1970s, and how these activists shaped relations between the U.S. government and Native Americans for decades to come.

Ceremony

Ceremony, by Leslie Marmon Silko, is "one of the most profound and moving works of Native American literature, a novel that is itself a ceremony of healing," according to Penguin Classics.

The Sea Is My Country: The Maritime World of the Makahs

Indigenous history in the U.S. is not a monolith; that's why Killers of the Flower Moon offers a glimpse into one history of hundreds of tribes. In the The Sea Is My Country, Joshua L. Reid dives into the history of the Makah people of the Pacific Northwest and their fight for control over marine space.

WHEREAS: Poems

Layli Long Soldier, an Oglala Lakota poet, explores the history of the U.S. government's violence against Native American peoples and tribes over the centuries.

This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving

Every November, American schoolchildren learn about the "First Thanksgiving," celebrated by the Pilgrims and Wampanoag people in 1621. Four hundred years later, historian David J. Silverman unpacks how much of this is false—and how the U.S. needs to rethink the history of Thanksgiving.

Bad Cree: A Novel

In this horror novel, by Sucker Creek First Nation author Jessica Johns, Mackenzie, a young Cree woman, travels home to rural Alberta to understand the legacy of violence in her family and community.

The Cost of Free Land: Jews, Lakota, and an American Inheritance

Author Rebecca Clarren knew her great-great-grandparents fled antisemitism and landed in South Dakota. What her ancestors didn't know is that the land they settled on had been taken from the Lakota people by the U.S. government. Part personal history, part investigative reporting, Clarren "grapples with the personal and national consequences of this legacy of violence and dispossession. What does it mean to survive oppression only to perpetuate and benefit from the oppression of others?"

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