The Disappearance of Sa'Wade Birdinground

Sa'Wade Birdinground

Garryowen is a small, privately-owned community in Big Horn County, Montana, situated on the Garryowen bend of the Little Bighorn River within the Crow Indian Reservation, about 65 miles southeast of Billings. It is a rural area. On the night of October 6, 2024, Sa'Wade Birdinground was last seen just after 11 p.m. at her grandparents' home there. The following morning, when a family member came to wake her, she was gone. She had left her phone behind. Her black and purple Adidas backpack was also missing, as were the clothes she had been wearing. There were no known contacts with family or friends after that night.

The Crow BIA Law Enforcement and the Big Horn County Sheriff's Office responded immediately. The Montana Department of Justice issued a Missing Endangered Person Advisory due to concerns for Sa'Wade's safety. The FBI joined the search within days, and a command center was established at the Garryowen store. The family provided Sa'Wade's phone to the FBI for forensic analysis. Her father has said it did not yield more information. The FBI later told him they had ruled out that she was still in the immediate area after conducting dozens of interviews and searching hundreds of acres using every technical resource available.

Sa'Wade's father believes she was abducted and has asked the public to look for her near abandoned buildings and structures. The circumstances of her disappearance, her autism, her age, the rural isolation of Garryowen, and the absence of any contact in the months since have all led investigators and her family to treat this as a serious foul play case. As of early 2026, she has not been found.

The investigation is being conducted jointly by the FBI's Salt Lake City Field Office, which has jurisdiction over Montana, Crow BIA Law Enforcement, and the Big Horn County Sheriff's Office, with additional support from the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Missing and Murdered Unit. Sa'Wade's case is part of the FBI's Operation Not Forgotten, an initiative now in its third consecutive year that focuses resources on missing persons cases in Indian Country. As part of that operation, the FBI doubled the number of special agents working out of its Billings office, with a specific focus on cases within the Crow and Northern Cheyenne nations.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Mehtab Syed, speaking at the June 2025 press conference, acknowledged the broader context of the case plainly: "Eight months is an incomprehensible amount of time for any family to be without their child." He offered assurance that the FBI had not abandoned the investigation despite past frustrations some in Indian Country have had with federal responsiveness to MMIP cases. "Sa'Wade is not forgotten. She matters, and we are doing anything in our power to bring her home." Nicci Wagy with Warrior Women for Justice noted pointedly that resources often come too late: "It would be much easier if the urgency came when they came up missing versus when they've been gone so long."

Sa'Wade's case stands out even against the backdrop of the Crow Reservation's approximately 78 missing person calls per year, most of which are quickly resolved. Her age, her autism, the rural location, and the total absence of any contact in the months since have set her case apart. Crow Tribal Chairman Frank White Clay said her case stands out "due to her age, the length of time she's been missing, and the circumstances of her disappearance." The BIA's Missing and Murdered Unit maintains an active case file. As of early 2026, no arrests have been made and no one has been publicly identified as a person of interest.

The FBI and the Crow Tribe are jointly offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to Sa'Wade's recovery. Her father has specifically asked people to look for her near abandoned buildings and structures. No tip is too small. Anonymous tips are accepted through multiple channels.

Sa'Wade Birdinground was 13 years old. She had just turned 13 two weeks before she disappeared. She was quiet and kind and artistic and loved to laugh. She was thriving in school. She was thinking about basketball. She called her father every night she could, just to say goodnight and that she loved him, because that is the kind of person she was at 13 years old.

Her father has gone months not knowing where she is. He wakes up some mornings unable to get out of bed. He prays every day. He has not given up. Her brothers remember her, pointing at her missing posters in stores, becoming emotional at the mention of her name. Her community has walked in her honor. Red balloons have been released for her. Tribal leadership and federal agents have stood together at a podium saying her name.

Sa'Wade is part of the ongoing crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People in the United States. She is a 13-year-old girl from the Crow Reservation who has been missing for more than a year, and she deserves the same attention and the same urgency that any child deserves. Her father said it simply: "She's alive. I know you're out there. I'm not giving up."

If you know something, please say something. Sa'Wade Birdinground is not forgotten.