141 Quotes by David Grann

But in 1921, just as the government had once adopted a ration system to pay the Osage for seized land – just as it always seemed to turn its gospel of enlightenment into a hammer of coercion – Congress implemented even more draconian legislation controlling how the Osage could spend their money.

For years after the American Revolution, the public opposed the creation of police departments, fearing that they would become forces of repression.

Stores gone, post office gone, train gone, school gone, oil gone, boys and girls gone – only thing not gone is graveyard and it git bigger.

In May, when coyotes howl beneath an unnervingly large moon, taller plants, such as spiderworts and black-eyed Susans, begin to creep over the tinier blooms, stealing their light and water. The necks of the smaller flowers break and their petals flutter away, and before long they are buried underground. This is why the Osage Indians refer to May as the time of the flower-killing moon.

The course of human events is not permanently altered by the great deeds of history, nor by the great men but by the small daily doings of the little men.

At forty-four, Mollie could finally spend her money as she pleased, and was recognized as a full-fledged American citizen.

Though it took enormous courage and virtue to risk your life in order to protect society, such selflessness also contained, at least from the vantage point of your loved ones, a hint of cruelty.

In the old days, an Osage clan, which included a group known as the Travelers in the Mist, would take the lead whenever the tribe was undergoing sudden changes or venturing into unfamiliar realms.

Only in the mid-nineteenth century, after the growth of industrial cities and a rash of urban riots – after dread of the so-called dangerous classes surpassed dread of the state – did police departments emerge in the United States.