In Liza Black's talk, she will address six cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and non-binary people, taking a broad geographical sweep. Black frames their stories within their tribal histories and around the key cause of their murder. Black will argue that ideas rooted in colonial culture, laws protecting assailants, and the stripping of tribal authority over their citizens have created the MMIWG2S crisis. The book gives the reader a historical understanding of Indigenous femicide in the Americas, suggesting that the current crisis is rooted in the ongoing colonial crisis of the Americas and the foreign occupation of Indigenous communities and lands. Johns Hopkins University Press will publish her book, How to Get Away with Murder, in 2025.
Liza Black is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, an Associate Professor at Indiana University, and the author of Picturing Indians, published in 2020.