Thegripping truestory of a murder on an Indian reservation, and the unforgettable Arikara womanwho becomes obsessed with solving itan urgent work of literary journalism.

I dont know a more complicated, original protagonist in literature than Lissa Yellow Bird, or amore dogged reporter in American journalism than Sierra Crane Murdoch.William Finnegan,Pulitzer Prizewinning author ofBarbarian Days

NOMINATED FOR THE EDGAR AWARD NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review NPR Publishers Weekly

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 Birdtraces Lissas steps as she obsessively hunts for clues to Clarkes disappearance. She navigates two worldsthat 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 Birdis 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, andwhen it serves her causemanipulative. 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.