WHERE THEY LAST SAW HER

A young Native American woman confronts pervasive violence, standing up for others who might be dismissed or forgotten.

Quill is running near her home on Minnesota’s Red Pine reservation when she hears a scream—and then silence. Spooked, she brings her husband, Crow, to help examine the area the next day, finding signs of a scuffle and a single beaded earring left behind in the snow. The tribal cops search the forest to no avail. So Quill and her two best friends, Punk and Gaylyn, use their community ties to investigate because they know the truth: “There are between two thousand and five thousand missing and murdered Indian women in this country. Nobody gives a shit.” This novel is Rendon’s way of bringing attention to these often ignored stories. The ravages of racist governmental policies, poverty, and addiction, along with the lawless nature of the camps for men working on the pipelines near the reservation, create a perfect storm of violence. A woman is drugged and nearly kidnapped at a local casino; her cousin is kidnapped, then escapes. When a young girl is abducted from a Walmart bathroom then found murdered, Quill and her friends can no longer stand by in silence. Through it all, they run, finding it a way to quiet the anxiety, the frustration, the anger of being treated by the larger world like they don’t count. Quill is a charismatic character, strong and fierce in both her independence and her love for her husband, children, and community, willing to risk herself to keep others safe. This novel is written in protest of the epidemic of missing Indigenous women and centuries of painful history: “We have lived with losing loved ones for century after century.” But it also lifts up the healing power of female friendship, motherhood, and generational knowledge: “And we still have babies and keep loving.”

Rendon’s book will break your heart, but it will also inspire and inform.