At the old gas station in Garryowen sits the center of the search and rescue efforts for 13-year-old Sa’wade Birdinground, as tips continue to come in daily.
Sa’wade, who lives in Garryowen, is an enrolled member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation and of Crow and Hidatsa heritage. She’s been missing since Oct. 7.
Every detail at the incident command center is meticulously outlined as crews continue to investigate.
As leads come in, this search and rescue team, composed of multiple agencies and volunteers, including the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Department, Crow Tribal security, search and rescue team members, the Montana Air National Guard and additional resources from other counties across the state, clears them and moves on. It's a process of elimination tracked via paper whiteboards, printed maps and a passionate team.
“Sa’wade, please come home, call home. Let your parents know that you are safe. We’d like to have you home. Your family loves you and they want you home,” says Jack Old Horn, the search and rescue team lead.
Old Horn leads the search and rescue team with the limited resources he’s afforded, but on this day, a Blackhawk helicopter circles the sky, combing the Crow Reservation for any sign of Sa’wade.
“We’ve had air searches, we’ve had drone searches, we’ve had horseback searches, we’ve had ground searches, we’ve had ATVs,” says Old Horn.
Even K-9 and canoe teams have led to zero indication of where Sa’wade is, but this community won’t give up on the girl with autism who disappeared from her bedroom on a fall Sunday night, leaving behind her phone, her important headphones and a family who loves her.
“My name’s Wade, I'm Sa'wade's father and we’ve been working real hard,” says Wade Birdinground as he takes a deep breath, reflecting on all that has unfolded over the past week.
Some leads, according to family, such as her phone, have been handed off to the FBI for agents to recover recently cleared text messages and phone calls. Investigators are also looking at one additional phone call that may be the last person Sa’wade spoke with before vanishing.
“We started at my mom’s house. Today, we are going to continue our search on this side of the highway,” says Wade Birdinground as he points to the map on the incident command wall.
Montana's highways are sprinkled with missing and murdered Indigenous people billboards as families face the reality that their loved one is one of 194 missing persons statewide, 55 of those being indigenous, a disproportionate percentage of the missing population, according to statistics listed on the Montana Department of Justice website.
“We’d sure like to find Sa'wade alive and bring her home,” says Old Horn as he prepares for the daily 5:30 p.m. check-in with volunteers and law enforcement agencies, making sure the search team makes it back safely with any new information to report.
This case does not meet Amber Alert criteria, which requires proof of being taken without consent, but a Missing Endangered Persons Alert has been issued. Regardless of the unknown circumstances of Sa'wade's disappearance, the community won’t stop until they find her.
“Fortunately, Montana has a Missing Endangered Persons Advisory option, which can only be activated by a law enforcement agency. Considering Big Horn County Sheriff's Office activated a MEPA for Sa'Wade's case, it raises the search urgency concern. The family is requesting continued search and rescue support in locating Sa'Wade, which is an indicator that there's a legitimate cause for concern over Sa'Wades health and safety,” says Charlene Sleeper of MMIP Billings LLC.
Anyone with information should call the incident command landline at 406-839-3817. The public is also invited to help search efforts by meeting at the incident command center in Garryowen. ATV’s, 4-wheelers and horses that can make it through rugged terrain are requested.
