Yellow Bird (Murdoch)

The Yellow Bird:  Oil, Murder, and a Woman's Search for Justice in Indian Country
Sierra Crane Murdoch, 2020
Random House
400 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780399589157


Summary
The gripping true story of a murder on an Indian reservation, and the unforgettable Arikara woman who becomes obsessed with solving it—an urgent work of literary journalism.

When Lissa Yellow Bird was released from prison in 2009, she found her home, the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota, transformed by the Bakken oil boom.

In her absence, the landscape had been altered beyond recognition, her tribal government swayed by corporate interests, and her community burdened by a surge in violence and addiction.

Three years later, when Lissa learned that a young white oil worker, Kristopher “KC” Clarke, had disappeared from his reservation worksite, she became particularly concerned. No one knew where Clarke had gone, and few people were actively looking for him.
 
Yellow Bird traces Lissa’s steps as she obsessively hunts for clues to Clarke’s disappearance. She navigates two worlds—that of her own tribe, changed by its newfound wealth, and that of the non-Native oilmen, down on their luck, who have come to find work on the heels of the economic recession.

Her pursuit of Clarke is also a pursuit of redemption, as Lissa atones for her own crimes and reckons with generations of trauma.

Yellow Bird is an exquisitely written, masterfully reported story about a search for justice and a remarkable portrait of a complex woman who is smart, funny, eloquent, compassionate, and—when it serves her cause—manipulative.

Drawing on eight years of immersive investigation, Sierra Crane Murdoch has produced a profound examination of the legacy of systematic violence inflicted on a tribal nation and a tale of extraordinary healing. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
Sierra Crane Murdoch, a journalist based in the American West, has written for The Atlantic, The New Yorker online, Virginia Quarterly Review, Orion, and High Country News.

She has held fellowships from Middlebury College and from the Investigative Reporting Program at the University of California, Berkeley. She is a MacDowell Fellow. (From the publisher.)

Book Reviews
Remarkable…. [The book’s] strength derives not from vast panoramas but from an intimate gaze…. I’ve long felt that Native communities are perceived… as places in America but not of America.… Yellow Bird’s fanatical but dignified search brought closure to Clarke’s family and change to Fort Berthold. In her telling of the story, Murdoch brings the same fanaticism and dignity to the search for and meaning of modern Native America.
David Treuer - New York Times


A great true-crime story…. Lissa Yellow Bird is one of the most fascinating characters I’ve ever read about—and she’s a real person…. It’s Yellow Bird’s incremental fight that makes the book addictive, full of twists and turns and surprising choices…. Murdoch reports the hell out of it, digging up text messages and conversations and business dealings and shifts in tribal power. She also gets deep into personal relationships and reveals their richness from all sides. It’s a remarkable accomplishment.
Los Angeles Times


Murdoch follows an Arikara woman named Lissa Yellow Bird who is determined to solve the mystery of a missing white oil worker on the North Dakota reservation where her family lives. The book offers a gripping narrative of Yellow Bird’s obsession with the case, but it’s also about the harsh history of the land where the man vanished, how it was flooded and remade, first by an uncaring federal government and then again by industry. Yellow Bird teaches us that some things aren’t random at all—that a crime, and its resolution, can be a product of a time and a place, and a history bringing together the people involved.
Outside magazine


[A] powerful portrayal of an unusual sleuth whose dogged pursuit of a missing person inquiry led to justice.… Murdoch deepens her narrative with a searing look at the deficiencies of law and order on Native American land, corruption, and the abrogation of responsibility by the federal government.
Publishers Weekly


[E]xpertly blends true crime, environmental drama, and family saga.… Murdoch has outdone herself by telling the story in a beautifully narrative way, allowing readers to watch the scene unfold as Lissa Yellow Bird investigates the disappearance of Kristopher "KC" Clarke.  —Ahliah Bratzler, Indianapolis P.L.
Library Journal


A murder on an Indian reservation changes lives—at least one for the better but most for the worse.… Thanks to Yellow Bird's tireless search, the truth eventually emerged…. An impressive debut that serves as an eye-opening view of both the oil economy and Native American affairs.
Kirkus Reviews

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