The scale of crimes inflicted upon the Osage nation is difficult to quantify. Per History, Government-imposed “guardians” facilitated swindles and inflated prices designed to bilk the Osage out of their oil money, and sometimes permitted or engaged in outright theft. Others embarked on an elaborate plan that took advantage of inheritance restrictions that only let Osage will their shares of oil profits to their kin. People married into Osage families, killed their spouses, and came into the money the oil shares represented. There were at least 24 murders in Osage county between 1921 and 1926 according to the Financial Times – murders local and state authorities turned a blind eye to.
As the Osage suffered injustice from local law enforcement, J. Edgar Hoover was trying to clean up the image of the Bureau of Investigation. It had first been formed in 1908 under Theodore Roosevelt and had quickly devolved into an underhanded department with a penchant for political surveillance (per The Atlantic). Hoover played his part in such intrigues when first appointed to the bureau, but when Attorney General Harlan Stone made Hoover acting director, it was with a clear mandate to turn the agency into a professional law enforcement group, trained in new investigative techniques.
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The Osage approached the bureau for help just as Hoover’s rehabilitation efforts (which included dressing agents in conspicuous suits) were underway. He saw his chance to demonstrate what the bureau could do and took it.
