Mollie’s mother and father both grew up on the original Osage reservation in Kansas and participated twice a year in a buffalo hunt. They packed up all their possessions and left for weeks to follow and hunt buffalo. When they killed a buffalo, every part of the animal was used for the betterment of the tribe. After white settlers began to target, attack, and kill them, the Osage tribe sold their Kansas land and bought land in Oklahoma for their new reservation. There, Mollie’s mother and father move into their new home.

The move took a great toll on the tribe, and many died from starvation or from “white diseases” such as smallpox. They still participate in the buffalo hunts, but eventually, the settlers (with government encouragement) hunt all the buffalo to extinction. They do this only to weaken tribes who rely on buffalo. The government also wants to eradicate the Osage culture, so they force the Osage people to learn white and Catholic ideas. They withhold rations from the population until they learn to farm and agree to send their children to religious, English-speaking boarding schools. Mollie attends one of these schools and spends eight months living a two-day carriage ride away from her family.