Where is Sa'Wade Birdinground ? Missing Montana teen's last-known location revealed
A $10,000 reward is being offered for any information that helps find 13-year-old Sa'Wade Birdinground. She went missing from her grandparents' home in Montana last October.
The FBI's Salt Lake City office is offering $5,000, and the Crow Tribe, which Sa'Wade belongs to, is giving another $5,000.
After a press conference on Friday, people from the community walked together and released red balloons at Little Big Horn College. This was a way to show their hope and support to bring Sa'Wade back home, according to Yellowstone Public Radio.
Sa'Wade's case is part of a bigger problem in the U.S.—many Indigenous people, especially women and girls, go missing or are murdered. In states like Montana, where there are big Native communities, this happens more often.
The group Native Hope says Indigenous women are killed at a rate 10 times higher than other women who live on reservations. Murder is the third top cause of death for Native women.
The Department of Justice has a program called 'Operation Not Forgotten' that tries to help by giving more support to investigate these cases and fix the unfair treatment Native people often face.
Sa'Wade was last seen on the night of October 6, 2024, at her grandparents' house on the Crow Indian Reservation in Garryowen, Montana. She hasn't been seen or heard from since.
The reservation is about 65 miles southeast of Billings. It's near where Sitting Bull's camp used to be and close to the Little Bighorn River. Long ago, the area was used by Plains Indian tribes for summer hunting, and one of the biggest Native gatherings in North America happened there.
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At the time she went missing, Sa'Wade was around 5'4' to 5'5' tall, weighed between 130–140 pounds, had curly brown hair and brown eyes. She often wore an elk tooth necklace.
That night, she was wearing a black hoodie with mushrooms on it, an anime T-shirt, basketball shorts, and purple slip-on Skechers. She might also have had a black and purple Adidas backpack, according to the FBI.
So far, searches by the FBI, Bureau of Indian Affairs, local police, the Montana National Guard, and community volunteers haven't found any solid leads or sightings, local news station KTVQ reported.
Officials say this case stands out because of Sa'Wade's young age and the situation around her disappearance. They also pointed out that many Native families go through this every year, with loved ones going missing and not enough answers.
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