IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 09-20-06 CONTACT: PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
SILVER CITY – Western New Mexico University Professor Andrew Warren is scheduled for publication in the “Chronicles of Oklahoma” next month. An article he wrote three years ago about the Osage Indian murders of the early-1920s will appear in the publication belonging to the Historical Society of Oklahoma.
The article was originally intended as a graduate paper for a class at Fort Hays State University in 2003. Warren says his piece was immediately accepted by the publication’s editor upon submission three years ago but because of a three year backlog will not be published until October.
The story sets itself against the backdrop of the Osage Indians in Oklahoma. A series of murders between 1921-1923 was investigated by the Bureau of Investigation, the predecessor to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Despite the community’s widespread knowledge of the incidents, “local law enforcement had been half-hearted and completely ineffective in solving the case,” said Warren.
Warren adds that the bureau fumbled the case and agents pressured to have it closed before an outside agent, appointed by the Oklahoma attorney general, gathered enough evidence to force confessions from conspirators.
The Osage murders were even dramatized in the movie “The F.B.I. Story” starring Jimmy Stewart. Warren says however that the film was approved by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover before its release, “Throughout the movie the FBI intentionally suggests that the FBI alone solved the case; that clear and deliberate suggestion is not correct.” There are many other myths that have been passed on through history which Warren provides correction for in his research.
The article is out to set the record straight and tells a historical story that is little-known to those outside Oklahoma. “I think it is useful – as is most history – for the larger questions it raises and the larger view it gives us for our past and, therefore ourselves, our potential, and our problems,” explained Warren.
Born and raised in Kansas, Warren has always been interested in Native American history. As a young man he worked on his uncle’s ranch located adjacent to the Santa Ana Pueblo and later practiced law in both Kansas and the Tohono O’Odham Reservation in Arizona.
Warren is new to WNMU, coming in January to set up the new online Bachelor of Applied Science Criminal Justice program. Previously an adjunct instructor of philosophy for Fort Hays State University, Warren has taught history online for Pima Community College and now teaches criminal justice classes at WNMU. He earned his Juris Doctorate from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas and a Master’s in American History from Fort Hays State University.