A forensic history of the missing and murdered Indigenous women and Two-Spirit people crisis that unmasks the Americas’ oldest and most relentless crime: Native genocide
“A phenomenal contribution to our understanding of the ongoing violence throughout the Americas against [MMIW2S].”—Professor Randall Akee, Harvard Kennedy School
Since the arrival of Columbus, thousands of perpetrators have gotten away with murder, burying evidence of their crimes in police reports and court testimony. How Settlers Get Away with Murder unearths that hidden evidence to expose the ongoing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and Two-Spirit people (MMIW2S).
Historian and citizen of Cherokee Nation Liza Black examines 5 cases in Canada, the US, and Mexico, from 1908 to 2017. Rejecting narratives that blame victims’ poverty or trauma, Black dissects police files, coroners’ reports, and court records to uncover a harsh historical reality: The evidence of settler violence has been hiding in plain sight.
This landmark work delivers a damning verdict: The same systems of law and policing that have targeted Native people for centuries have also shielded their killers. Through meticulous archival interrogation, Black demonstrates how police, courts, and coroners have functioned not as instruments of justice but as pillars of a system designed to protect settler violence.
“Liza brings forth alarming accounts of our ancestors’ untold stories. The read created such an emotional impact in confirming our ancestors’ strength and powerful resolve.”
—Cherokee Nation relation of Lydia Kingfisher
“With remarkable depth and precision, Liza Black has conducted an extraordinary investigation into the life and tragic death of my mother, Levina Moody. Her commitment to uncovering the truth has surpassed that of any official investigative body. Combining the rigor of a seasoned researcher with the narrative skill of a gifted author, Black brings both clarity and compassion to a story long overlooked. For far too long, Indigenous women have been seen as dispensable. Her work is not only compelling—it is essential to all who have lost a loved one. I look forward to reading much more from her in the future.”
—Vanessa Hans
“Liza Black’s book could not come at a more critical time—when the abduction and murder of Indigenous girls and women, as well as Two-Spirit people, are at an all-time high, while little is being done to prevent this hideous phenomenon that is the product of ongoing white supremacy and lingering colonialism.”
—Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States
“How Settlers Get Away with Murder takes the reader through several cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people (MMIWGT) across time and space in the Americas. Dr. Black has compiled a meticulous set of facts that allows her to ‘replace silence with truth,’ as she notes. Her research does not blame the victims; instead, she indicts the systems that allow killers to evade responsibility and prosecution. The stories told here showcase the importance of voice and resistance to erasure in all forms. Dr. Black documents how human and systemic obstacles continue to obstruct reporting, investigating, or even counting the cases of MMIWGT. This is a phenomenal contribution to our understanding of the ongoing violence perpetrated throughout the Americas against MMIWGT and should be a call to action for more research, reporting, and, ultimately, accountability.”
—Randall Akee, Julie Johnson Kidd Professor of Indigenous Governance and Development, Harvard Kennedy School
“Delivered with compelling evidence and unflinching prose, Black exposes the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people as a symptom of settler colonialism’s hunger for power and control. Delivered in the style of a true-crime documentary, Black adds compassion, empathy, and outrage to a genre that ordinarily omits Indigenous stories.”
—Hi‘ilei Julia Kawehipuaakahaopulani Hobart, assistant professor of Native and Indigenous studies and director of Graduate Study, Program in Ethnicity, Race, and Migration, Yale University
“Colonial sources regularly documented that Indian killers were rarely brought to justice because no jury would convict them. Government officials then and historians since pinned the blame on Indian-hating frontier folk. Liza Black demonstrates that little has changed, but she blames institutions and mindsets that perpetuate violence against Indigenous women and Two-Spirit persons, and that protect non-Native perpetrators rather than bring them to justice. Courageous and hard-hitting, sometimes speculative, but relentless in its search to uncover the truth, How Settlers Get Away with Murder forces us to confront the systemic realities that continue to make America a dangerous place for Native Americans.”
—Colin G. Calloway, professor of history and Native American and Indigenous studies, Dartmouth College
“Through five detailed cases of missing or murdered Indigenous women, Liza Black provides a vivid and harrowing account of how violent settler colonialism actually is. This powerful and unromanticized exploration of Indigenous experience in the United States, Canada, and Mexico is a tour de force, masterfully casting vital light on, among other things, what it means to be Native in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.”
—Michael C. Lambert, author of Up from These Hills: Memories of Cherokee Boyhood
Liza Black’s How Settlers Get Away with Murder: The Killing of Indigenous Women and Two-Spirit People in the Americas
Readers’ Guide Discussion Questions
Download the discussion guide.
Overall Book Questions
- The author argues that archives are “battlegrounds where evidence can be buried alive” rather than neutral repositories. How does this book demonstrate that the absence of records can be as significant as their presence? What strategies does the author use to reconstruct histories when official documents are missing, corrupted, or deliberately misleading?
- Each of the 5 chapters centers on a specific murder investigation, yet the book argues these are not isolated tragedies but part of a “macro crime scene”—the ongoing occupation of Indigenous lands across the Americas. What patterns connect these 5 cases across different time periods, regions, and legal systems? How does the author make the case that these deaths are structural rather than incidental?
- The book coins the term “narrative arbitrage” to describe how media, courts, and state institutions manipulate stories to protect settler perpetrators while rendering Indigenous victims invisible. Where do you see this concept operating most clearly across the cases? What role do stereotypes about Indigenous women play in this process?
- The author explicitly rejects victim-blaming narratives that focus on Indigenous trauma and instead examines “the state as the key that unlocks the cases.” What does it mean to investigate the state rather than the victim’s community? How does this shift in focus change our understanding of these crimes?
- The book moves between microhistory (detailed reconstruction of individual cases) and macro analysis (broader patterns of settler colonialism). How does this approach work as a method of historical investigation? What does it reveal that a purely structural analysis or a purely narrative approach might miss?
Chapter-Specific Questions
Chapter 1: Lydia
The author ultimately concludes that Looney Rattling Gourd likely did not attack Lydia Kingfisher, despite oral history naming him as the perpetrator. How does this chapter use archival records both to preserve Cherokee oral history and to complicate it? What does the chapter suggest about how Cherokee communities may have strategically redirected blame as a form of survival?
Chapter 2: Levina
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has known the names of 3 suspects of Levina’s murder since at least 1999 but refuses to publicly identify them, citing the case as “open.” How does the chapter trace the connections between these suspects, the inquest jury, and law enforcement? What does the suspicious timing of the suspects’ deaths suggest about how this case was managed?
Chapter 3: Fred/FC/Fredrika/Beyoncé
The chapter raises questions about the 2018 parole of Shaun Murphy, who served only 16 years of a 40-year sentence. What anomalies in the parole process and in evidence handling does the chapter identify? How might the destruction of Exhibit 17 and Murphy’s transfer to minimum security against parole board recommendations be significant?
Chapter 4: Ernestina
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled in 2025 that Mexico was responsible for violations surrounding Ernestina’s death, yet no soldiers have been prosecuted. How does the chapter trace the collaboration between the military, state government, and the National Human Rights Commission to suppress evidence? What role did the exhumation and second autopsy play in this cover-up?
Chapter 5: Savanna
Fargo police visited apartment 5 three times while Savanna’s body and baby were hidden inside (and another time in the apartment parking lot with her baby hidden in a bag). How does the chapter analyze the officers’ interactions with Brooke Crews versus their treatment of the Greywind family? What does the disparity in how police treated William Hoehn (offering him a Sprite) versus Ashton Matheny (withholding water during interrogation) reveal about the investigation?