Martin Scorsese, director of the movie posted this featurette on his Instagram account on Monday, October 9th. The date coincided with Osage Day and Indigenous Peoples Day.
Killers of the Flower Moon was a movie that I had to make, a story that I had to tell. The Osage Reign of Terror is a true American tragedy, and the fact that the story was not widely known before the publication of David Grann’s book only deepened the feelings of betrayal, neglect and distrust in the Osage community. I would never have even considered making this picture without the cooperation and trust of the Osage community. They welcomed us in Oklahoma, and we began a remarkable collaboration that has never ended. I wanted to make a picture that belonged to all of us, working together. I hope that I succeeded.
Link to his Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/p/CyLfERkrqui/
https://osagenews.org/scorsese-debuts-featurette-a-shared-vision-on-osage-day/
"Osage singers included Scott George, Kenneth Bighorse Jr., Vann Bighorse, Paul Bemore, Eddie Yellowfish, Kingston Pipestem, and Norris Bighorse. Lady Singers included Angela Toineeta, Alexandria Toineeta, Julia Lookout, Taveah George, Hannah Bighorse, Jennifer Moses and Jacque Jones." (Quote from video description)
In an article published by Osage News, Scott George talks about working together with Vann Bighorse (ON Secretary of Language/Culture/Education) and Osage Minerals Councilman Kenneth Bighorse Jr. in order to compose the final song for the dance scene:
All three of us worked together to come up with a song we could use, we looked at our traditional music and felt like it wasn’t appropriate to put those songs in there, so we decided to make our own. We worked on it a couple of months, over the phone riding back and forth to work, talking to each other, we came up with two songs, I composed one. Vann composed one, we sent them to (Scorsese) and let him choose which one he wanted.” Of the chosen song, George said “it’s talking about our people, asking our people to stand up. We know that God has gotten us this far and it’s acknowledging that, it’s saying Wahzhazhe Ni-ka-zhi: stand up … the meaning is we’re thankful that we’re here and we’ve gone this far.”
Link to the article: