Ree Drummond's Creepy Connection To Killers Of The Flower Moon

When most people think of Ree "The Pioneer Woman" Drummond, they probably think of her ice creams and cakes, her delicious mini Hawaiian chicken skewers, or her best tips and tricks for meal-panning. While fans know she's married and has four children, they don't often think about the Pioneer Woman's husband, Ladd Drummond, much less his family.  However, as the public's interest in Osage County's Reign of Terror murders grows thanks to the anticipated release of Martin Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon," that might change.

While "Killers of the Flower Moon" and its inspiration, the book by David Grann, don't mention Ladd Drummond's ancestors — and Ree's in-laws — some people have found a connection. In her quest to find out what happened to the Osage Nation's land and their mineral rights after the Reign of Terror, Bloomberg writer and "In Trust" podcaster Rachel Adams-Heard discovered that 9% of Osage County was owned by different members of the Drummond family. Not only that, but after William Hale, one of the film's main villains, was arrested, he sold his land to two ranching families — one of which was the Drummonds.

A memo from Ladd Drummond's grandfather, Fred Gentner Drummond, to his brother, Jack showed that $15,000 was borrowed from Myron Bangs Jr. to pay for William Hale's land. "He [Bangs] on several occasions wrote U.S. officials and suggested that he thought that his guardians — one was Roy Cecil Drummond, and later it was Fred Gentner Drummond — were improperly using his land, that he didn't trust the way that they were managing his money," Rachel Adams-Heard told Slate.

Adams-Heard interviewed Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who admitted that, while he never knew his ancestors were guardians, he always thought the exchange looked like a valid transaction, especially since it was paid back. As for Hale's land, Ree Drummond's father-in-law sold it, and in 2001, Chuck Drummond sold it to Ted Turner. In 2016, Turner sold it at auction, and the Osage Nation bought it back.

This was a moment in time that the Osage Nation assistant principal chief, Raymond Red Corn, will never forget. "This represented an opportunity to buy one of the biggest chunks of Osage County that would come on the market in our lifetime," he said (via Bloomberg). Ree Drummond's link to "Killers of the Flower Moon" may be small, but as more people are rooting for legislation that would send additional Osage land back to the Osage Nation, there will no doubt be people curious about what Drummond's family will do with the mineral rights they still own.