Living on the 1st floor of an apartment building in Fargo, ND with her parents 22 year old Savanna LaFontaine Greywind is 8 months pregnant and looking forward to a life with Ashton Matheny her unborn baby’s father, whom she’s loved since she was 15 years old. She works hard as a nurse’s aide at a senior living community in Fargo. On August 19, 2017 she is tired from her previous day’s work when she agrees to go upstairs around 1:30PM with Brooke Cruise to help her with a sewing project. At 2:30PM Savanna’s mother, Norberta realizes that Savanna isn’t back from the neighbor’s and sends her younger brother to fetch his sister. This is just the beginning of their search that will lead to a tragic and grizzly discovery.
The chapters alternate between glimpses of Savanna’s and Ashton’s lives, the trials of her murderers, general information about the MMIW (missing and murdered indigenous women) crisis, and work being done by indigenous women and their advocates to try to get legislation passed to help indigenous people dealing with this crisis. Savanna’s case is somewhat unique in that her body was found, her murderers stood trial and went to prison, and there was media attention.
Searching for Savanna is a starting point for learning about this hidden crisis of MMIW. The National Indigenous women’s resource center www.niwrc.org contains helpful information to learn the scope of the crisis and learn what you can do to help. The US Department of Justice includes a variety of information including Savanna’s Act (2020) created to improve the federal response to missing and murdered indigenous persons. The U.S. Department of the Interior Indian Affairs website contains information about missing and murdered indigenous people.
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives office 445 Minnesota Street Suite 2300 Saint Paul, MN 55101 phone 651-201-7344.
For me Searching for Savanna was a tough though quick read and you can find a copy of it in the Indigenous Peoples part of the SMEC library. This book like most of the others in the library can check out for 4 weeks. It is also available through your public library system.
Jennifer Long
