Yellow Bird

I first heard about this book on a podcast about Lissa and a murder she helped solve. When I downloaded it as a Kindle edition, I was surprised to discover the length of this book…long. Besides being filled with tedious details, the story jumps around so much that it becomes hard to follow. The author certainly put a lot of work into investigating not only the extraordinary life of Lissa Yellowbird, but also many of the characters on and off the reservation, as well as the history and soul of the reservation itself. For the latter, it is well worth reading. However, it should have been more tightly edited. It was a trudge to finish.

This story of addiction and redemption is a story worth telling, but the story didnt need to be as detailed and circuitous as it is. Sierra Crane Murdoch spent years of her life delving into the facts of a murder connected to the oil boom on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota because she didnt think the story of the murder could be told, as it was in the press, without the story of the reservation and in particular of one woman, Lissa Yellow Bird, who made the case a personal crusade. What the book makes clear is that the national addiction to oil that spurred the boomthe Bakken contains about a six months supply of oil for our countryalso created a toxic local economy that brought out the worst in some humans, leading to corruption, vice, and violence. Native peoples on this reservation had already been betrayed and mistreated by the US government, and the oil boom and the wealth it generated for a few only made things worse. Crane gets a lot of credit for digging in and exposing all of this. I found the most engaging parts of the book to be the chapters narrated in first person, and indeed, I think Crane could have used the Authors Note at the end as a preface instead, setting the book up as a story told from her point of view and grounded in her experience. Too many of the chapters jump back and forth in time and bring in too many characters and too many details. About halfway through the book, I became overwhelmed and bored, and wanted to bail out. I Googled James Henrikson and Sarah Creveling to find out what happened, then skimmed the rest of the book. Though I applaud the authors intention and evident hard work, I wish she had involved an editor who could have helped her find a better way to tell the story.

If Sierra Crane Murdoch had merely written an account of the disappearance of one oil worker, that would have been a good story. If she had written a biography of Lissa Yellow Bird, seeker of the lost, that would have been an extraordinary character profile. Or she could have written about the tribal politics and resulting corruption surrounding the oil and gas boom in the Bakken, which would have been a riveting piece of investigative journalism. Somehow she wove all three narratives together, in a portrait of damaged lives set against a culture literally drowned by a reservoir. Traditional Jewish culture embraces the concept of tikkun olum, the repair of the world. It strikes me that this is the work that Lissa Yellow Bird has taken on. Every lost soul she accounts for redeems a piece of herself and her family, and upholds the tradition of her Tribe.

Murdoch writes an amazing story of what certain aspects of the oil boom were like on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota during a truly extraordinary time. I disagree with the reader who felt that the book was a \”slog\” to get through. I couldn\’t put it down. I will be re-reading this book to look at how Murdoch frames this story as there is an extraordinary amount covered: from problems in social services, the terrible history of how the three affiliated tribes on the reservation were treated by the government and the legacy of poverty and how hard it is to break. She does all this by profiling and telling the story of Lissa Yellow Bird. I purchased this book because I lived in North Dakota from 2012 through 2014 and worked for in oil and gas company there. It was truly unbelievable at times to be living in the boom that existed there and this book helped me relive and process some of that. I was aware of the murders described in this book and the affiliation to Tex Hall, then the chairman. Doing business on the reservation was a unique experience and I understand now reading this why some of the challenges existed. It\’s incredibly devastating to know how much money the oil industry brought onto the reservation, with much of it going directly to the tribes, for so little benefit of the majority of the MHA members. Yet if feels like it was inevitable, since there is so little trust between the parties involved. Sierra, thank you for dedicating so much time to the research and writing of this book. I am so grateful that it exists.

Sierra Crane Murdochs style Is methodical, logical, informative and interesting. Impressive how she braided the complex facts, Native American history, personalities and drama. I loved reading it, felt some of the emotions manifest in the people, recognized the contours of tribal relationships. Yes, its a microcosm of America.

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