Yellow Bird

Oil, Murder, and a Woman's Search for Justice in Indian Country

By: Sierra Crane Murdoch

Narrated by: Sierra Crane Murdoch

PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • The gripping true story of a murder on an Indian reservation, and the unforgettable Arikara woman who becomes obsessed with solving it—an urgent work of literary journalism.

“I don’t know a more complicated, original protagonist in literature than Lissa Yellow Bird, or a more dogged reporter in American journalism than Sierra Crane Murdoch.”—William Finnegan, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Barbarian Days

In development as a Paramount+ original series

WINNER OF THE OREGON BOOK AWARD • NOMINATED FOR THE EDGAR® AWARD • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • NPR • Publishers Weekly

When Lissa Yellow Bird was released from prison in 2009, she found her home, the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota, transformed by the Bakken oil boom. In her absence, the landscape had been altered beyond recognition, her tribal government swayed by corporate interests, and her community burdened by a surge in violence and addiction. Three years later, when Lissa learned that a young white oil worker, Kristopher “KC” Clarke, had disappeared from his reservation worksite, she became particularly concerned. No one knew where Clarke had gone, and few people were actively looking for him.

Yellow Bird traces Lissa’s steps as she obsessively hunts for clues to Clarke’s disappearance. She navigates two worlds—that of her own tribe, changed by its newfound wealth, and that of the non-Native oilmen, down on their luck, who have come to find work on the heels of the economic recession. Her pursuit of Clarke is also a pursuit of redemption, as Lissa atones for her own crimes and reckons with generations of trauma. Yellow Bird is an exquisitely written, masterfully reported story about a search for justice and a remarkable portrait of a complex woman who is smart, funny, eloquent, compassionate, and—when it serves her cause—manipulative. Drawing on eight years of immersive investigation, Sierra Crane Murdoch has produced a profound examination of the legacy of systematic violence inflicted on a tribal nation and a tale of extraordinary healing.

Insightful, well-researched documentary

I learned a lot about how the natural resource Boom phenomenon and how it affects indigenous people. This is kind of a microcosm for America, past and present. Lissa Yellow Bird is amazing-smart, persistent, generous in sharing her story in this book.

Excellent Book

The book was absolutely fabulous- not only a good read or listen but a captivating true story. I love getting to know people on such a deep level that you understand them. This author does an amazing job!

Incredible study and storytelling

I was blown away at the careful empathetic writing that beautifully weaves together seemingly separate threads of a crime, a family, a woman and a community. Unlike many true crime books, the crime is the backdrop of a bigger, more important story of a history and people.
I’ve become so interested in learning more about Native American history and modern life after reading this book.

Superb performance by author

Excellent work by author and the history and details are amazingly accurate for such a compelling and complexed case and untouchable soul as Lissa.

riveting American story

This is a huge, engaging, compelling story. Its spine is a murder and the real mystery related, but its heart is the women at its center, Lissa Yellowbird. This could not have been a novel - fiction would have forced a tidy structure while this is a sprawling epic. Trying to describe this book would be futile. Reading it is amazing.