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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