How Settlers Get Away with Murder

“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

“In How Settlers Get Away with Murder, Liza Black offers a searing act of recovery: She exposes what the archive was built to hide. Across five carefully reconstructed cases, Black follows Indigenous women and Two-Spirit people whose lives were fragmented, buried, or rewritten by the state. Black reveals that these are not a series of tragedies but a revealing pattern—shaped by law, jurisdiction, and the power to control the story.”
—Sarah Deer, University Distinguished Professor, University of Kansas

“In How Settlers Get Away with Murder, Professor Liza Black, a Cherokee Nation citizen, highlights the historical epidemic of Murdered and Missing Indigenous People through an examination of five individual cases. She not only examines the forensics of each case but skillfully frames each case within the broader context of colonialism, tribal history, and authority. In doing so, Professor Black eloquently illustrates that these cases do not exist in a vacuum but as part of a greater, troubling story of the shortfalls of colonial justice in Indigenous communities. She has given a voice to five of the victims of this crisis, making sure their stories are not forgotten or go untold.”
—Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr.