Background 

Before the Osage tribe was moved to their current reservation in 1872, they roamed the midwest. Despite their attempts to keep their sacred land, they were driven out. It was primarily due to white settlers who wanted the land and the government's dislike towards their race. After all, was said and done, the Osage found a vast deposit of oil directly underneath their reservation in 1897, which made the government, like them, enough to pay them for the oil.

So in return for the oil, the government gave the Osage tribe headrights; these were annual payments made to the Osage, which would be just around 400 million dollars in today's money. In the 1920s, though, it was worth around 10 million dollars. They were quickly making the Osage some of the wealthiest people in America.