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Solidarity Stories: Community Led Book Discussion: "Yellow Bird"

Join the Mount Rainier Branch Library and Prince George’s County Office of Human Rights for our monthly book club! This month we hope you can join us as we discuss "Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman's Search for Justice in Indian Country" by Sierra Crane Murdoch

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.

—From the catalog

Borrow the book from PGCMLS: Print | Eaudiobook |Playaway

Solidarity Stories: Community Led Book Discussion takes place on the 3rd Tuesday of each month in the upstairs lounge area of miXt Food Hall in Brentwood, MD. Limited parking is available via the garage on 39th St & Rhode Island Ave. Parking is free for program participants and no purchase is required, but participants are welcome to order snacks, drinks, or dinner from miXt’s vendors. For more information, visit their website: https://mixtfoodhall.com