A pointed investigation of a controversial, unsettled matter of both law and ethnic identity.
A tangled tale of crossed bloodlines, racism, and identity.
Gayle, the child of Jamaican immigrants, was born in New York City but lived as a child in Oklahoma, where, as an outsider, he was accosted with questions of identity. Such questions, as he writes, are not new in the Sooner State. In the late 1830s, when Cherokee, Creek, and other Native peoples were displaced from their homes and made to resettle in what was then called the Indian Territories, they brought both enslaved and freed Blacks with them. “During the Revolutionary War,” writes the author, “the British would present African slaves to the Creeks as gifts when tribes within the Creek Nation cooperated with them.” The Creek Nation was made up of many peoples who had been previously displaced by White settlement and who were enfolded into Muskogee genealogies, and Black people were among them. Enter racist designations established by non-Creek peoples, by U.S. military administrators and Bureau of Indian Affairs agents, who divided the nation into groups by blood quantum, or the share of Muskogee blood that a person might have. Even today, Gayle writes, the federal government “issues an ID card called the Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood (CDIB),” the basis of tribal belonging. The result: Black Creeks who had been acculturated into Creek society and as freed people had intermarried with Native peoples were delisted, fueling a legacy of petitions and lawsuits that continue to the present, exacerbated by the fact that only enrolled members of the Creek Nation are entitled to distributions from gambling proceeds earned at tribal casinos. With a narrative framed by the story of a Black Creek leader named Cow Tom, Gayle ably (if sometimes repetitively) examines the idea that identity can be multifaceted—in this case, that the same Black person “could be simultaneously free, never enslaved, and fully Creek.”
A pointed investigation of a controversial, unsettled matter of both law and ethnic identity.Pub Date: June 7, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-32958-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A powerful reiteration of principles—and some fresh ideas—from the longest-serving independent in congressional history.
Another chapter in a long fight against inequality.
Building on his Fighting Oligarchy tour, which this year drew 280,000 people to rallies in red and blue states, Sanders amplifies his enduring campaign for economic fairness. The Vermont senator offers well-timed advice for combating corruption and issues a robust plea for national soul-searching. His argument rests on alarming data on the widening wealth gap’s impact on democracy. Bolstered by a 2010 Supreme Court decision that removed campaign finance limits, “100 billionaire families spent $2.6 billion” on 2024 elections. Sanders focuses on the Trump administration and congressional Republicans, describing their enactment of the “Big Beautiful Bill,” with its $1 trillion in tax breaks for the richest Americans and big social safety net cuts, as the “largest transfer of wealth” in living memory. But as is his custom, he spreads the blame, dinging Democrats for courting wealthy donors while ignoring the “needs and suffering” of the working class. “Trump filled the political vacuum that the Democrats created,” he writes, a resonant diagnosis. Urging readers not to surrender to despair, Sanders offers numerous legislative proposals. These would empower labor unions, cut the workweek to 32 hours, regulate campaign spending, reduce gerrymandering, and automatically register 18-year-olds to vote. Grassroots supporters can help by running for local office, volunteering with a campaign, and asking educators how to help support public schools. Meanwhile, Sanders asks us “to question the fundamental moral values that underlie” a system that enables “the top 1 percent” to “own more wealth than the bottom 93 percent.” Though his prose sometimes reads like a transcribed speech with built-in applause lines, Sanders’ ideas are specific, clear, and commonsensical. And because it echoes previous statements, his call for collective introspection lands as genuine.
A powerful reiteration of principles—and some fresh ideas—from the longest-serving independent in congressional history.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9798217089161
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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