Dive into the emotional journey of Richard, who reconnects with his Native roots after his birth mother's passing. Discover the significance of Osage headrights, which represent a share of valuable resources from Osage land. Uncover the dark history of wealth and exploitation faced by the Osage Nation, including the tragic consequences of their oil boom. Explore the complex moral dilemmas surrounding inherited wealth and the ongoing legal battles that impact both personal and cultural identities within Indigenous communities.
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Richard's Story
Richard Lonsinger, adopted into a white family, reconnected with his birth family later in life.
After his birth mother's death, he was excluded from her estate, including an Osage headright.
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Osage Headright Value
An Osage headright is a share of profits from resources extracted from Osage Nation land.
These payments can be substantial, sometimes reaching thousands of dollars annually.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Osage Wealth
The Osage Nation bought land in Oklahoma, undesirable for farming, but rich in oil.
This led to them becoming the wealthiest people per capita in the 1920s.
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Richard J. Lonsinger is a member of the Ponca tribe of Oklahoma, who was adopted at a young age into a white family of three. He eventually reconnected with his birth family, but when his birth mother passed away in 2010, he wasn't included in the distribution of her estate. Feeling both hurt and excluded, he asked a judge to re-open her estate, to give him a part of one particular asset: an Osage headright.
An Osage headright is a share of profits from resources like oil, gas, and coal that have been extracted from the Osage Nation's land. These payments can be sizeable - thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars a year. Historically, they were even larger – in the 1920s the Osage were some of the wealthiest people in the world. But that wealth also made them a target and subject to paternalistic and predatory laws. Over the previous century, hundreds of millions of dollars in oil money have been taken from the Osage people.
On today's show: the story of how Richard Lonsinger gradually came to learn this history, and how he made his peace with his part of a complicated inheritance.
This episode was produced by Willa Rubin with help from Alyssa Jeong Perry and Emma Peaslee. It was engineered by Brian Jarboe and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. It was edited by Keith Romer, with help from Shannon Shaw Duty from Osage News.
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