How Settlers Get Away with Murder

A forensic history of the missing and murdered Indigenous women and Two-Spirit people crisis that unmasks the Americas’ oldest and most relentless crime: Native genocide

“A phenomenal contribution to our understanding of the ongoing violence throughout the Americas against [MMIW2S].” — Professor Randall Akee, Harvard Kennedy School

Since the arrival of Columbus, thousands of perpetrators have gotten away with murder, burying evidence of their crimes in police reports and court testimony. How Settlers Get Away with Murder unearths that hidden evidence to expose the ongoing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and Two-Spirit people (MMIW2S).

Historian and citizen of Cherokee Nation Liza Black examines 5 cases in Canada, the US, and Mexico, from 1908 to 2017. Rejecting narratives that blame victims’ poverty or trauma, Black dissects police files, coroners’ reports, and court records to uncover a harsh historical reality: The evidence of settler violence has been hiding in plain sight.

This landmark work delivers a damning verdict: The same systems of law and policing that have targeted Native people for centuries have also shielded their killers. Through meticulous archival interrogation, Black demonstrates how police, courts, and coroners have functioned not as instruments of justice but as pillars of a system designed to protect settler violence.

Liza Black is a citizen of Cherokee Nation and an associate professor of history and of Native American and Indigenous studies at Indiana University. Her first book, Picturing Indians: Native Americans in Film, 1941–1960, reveals how Native actors navigated Hollywood's racialized structures. As a 2024-25 Racial Justice Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School and a 2021-22 Visiting Scholar at the University of California Los Angeles, she completed How Settlers Get Away with Murder. Her research and public scholarship, featured on NPR, PBS, Red Nation podcast, and High Country News, examines the intersections of Indigenous history, representation, and policy.

• Publisher: Beacon Press
  
• Publish Date: September 29, 2026
  
• Pages: 264
  
• Language: English
  
• Type: Hardcover
  
• EAN/UPC: 9780807024775
  
• Dimensions: 9.0 X 6.0 X 0.0 inches | 1.3 pounds
  
• BISAC Categories: Politics, History, Mystery