Yellow Bird by Sierra Crane Murdoch

Genre: True Crime

Thank you Random House and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

First off-Yellow Bird is a mix of true crime plus history of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation and how the Bakken Oil boom affected the Reservation. If you’re looking or a story that is all true crime, look elsewhere. 

Written by a white journalist, Yellow Bird is the story of Lissa Yellow Bird’s journey to find justice for a missing man who disappeared from his worksite on the reservation. Sierra Crane Murdoch wrote Yellow Bird in first person as it is coming from her perspective of hearing Lissa’s story as well as the history of the Reservation through elders. 

Yellow Bird brought light to issues that many choose to ignore during this time: limited resources on reservations, missing Indigenous men and women, how oil booms affect the reservation populations, and how outside companies can influence reservation politics. 

I thought that Yellow Bird was very well written and researched. While I thought the family drama from Lissa’s family could have been removed from the story at times, it did make sense overall to include it as Lissa’s family and their experiences played an important role in Lissa digging for justice for KC. 

I would read any other books that Sierra Murdoch would write.

Rating: 4 stars