{"id":39539,"date":"2025-12-02T09:40:37","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T14:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/searching-for-savannah-eight-months-and-no-answers-since-womans-disappearance\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T09:40:43","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T14:40:43","slug":"searching-for-savannah-eight-months-and-no-answers-since-womans-disappearance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/searching-for-savannah-eight-months-and-no-answers-since-womans-disappearance\/","title":{"rendered":"Searching for Savannah: Eight months and no answers since woman\u2019s disappearance"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/span><\/div>
\"Savannah<\/a><\/p>\n

Savannah Standing Bear, shown in an illustration based on an image from her family, went missing in March 2025 from her home on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. (South Dakota Searchlight photo illustration by Joshua Haiar and sign photo by John Hult)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

There are rumors. About what\u2019s known and who knows it. About why what\u2019s known has never moved out of the realm of rumor and into the investigatory record.<\/p>\n

Savannah Standing Bear\u2019s family and friends have plenty of rumors, but not many answers. It\u2019s been eight months since she disappeared from the Parmelee community on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, and the only thing that feels certain, they say, is the feeling that someone knows something.<\/p>\n

Telling their stories: MMIP in South Dakota<\/strong><\/p>\n

South Dakota Searchlight and ICT have partnered on a long-term project, funded in part by a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism, that aims to provide a snapshot of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People cases by combining multiple sources of data.<\/p>\n

The publications have also created a form for people to share a tip about their missing loved one, for possible inclusion in the project.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a nagging suspicion that something either won\u2019t be shared with authorities, or won\u2019t bring resolution if and when it\u2019s reported.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

A birthday cake for Savannah Standing Bear is displayed on Nov. 23, 2025, in Parmelee, South Dakota. (Photo courtesy of Standing Bear family)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThe feeling around here is you can murder a Native woman and get away with it,\u201d said Hollis Flowers, a family friend who\u2019s helped lead the push to keep Savannah\u2019s story in the public eye as temperatures drop and another season of uncertainty begins.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s still hope, though, that an answer will emerge \u2014 especially after a celebration last week in Parmelee meant to mark Savannah\u2019s 23rd birthday and keep her name on the tip of the community\u2019s tongue.<\/p>\n

About a week before the event, Savannah\u2019s mother, Gayla Smith, said the eldest of her two daughters has a heart for those who suffer. It\u2019s a personality trait that\u2019s been evident for as long as Smith can remember.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019d see people on the street, like when we would go to Rapid City,\u201d Smith said, referring to the homeless population. \u201cShe\u2019d see people like that, she would always want to go and help them.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Smith who\u2019s suffered since March 24. That was the last day she heard from Savannah, setting off a police investigation and a series of searches that\u2019s continued into the fall.<\/p>\n

60% of missing South Dakotans are Native Americans<\/strong><\/p>\n

Savannah is one of an unclear number of Native Americans who\u2019ve gone missing or been killed in the state of South Dakota. Nationally and internationally, the movement to draw attention to Indigenous people who disappear or die under violent circumstances is commonly called Missing and Murdered Indigenous People.<\/p>\n

South Dakota has taken some steps to track the cases in recent years. The South Dakota Missing Persons Clearinghouse, which launched in 2020, lists the names of those whose disappearances have been reported to law enforcement locally and passed along to the South Dakota Attorney General\u2019s Office. On any given day, the list has at least 100 missing people, though the names shift in real time as people are found or go missing.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday morning, Native Americans made up 60% of the 112 listed names. Of 59 missing females, 66% were Native American. The percentages, as compiled periodically by South Dakota Searchlight, typically fall in or near that range.<\/p>\n

Around 8.5% of South Dakotans are Native American, according to census data.<\/p>\n

Ten of the cases in the state missing persons clearinghouse as of Tuesday morning \u2014 Savannah\u2019s among them \u2014 came from the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Police Department. That\u2019s approximately 9% of current missing person\u2019s cases. Residents of the Rosebud Reservation represent less than 3% of South Dakota\u2019s total population.<\/p>\n

A mother\u2019s warning<\/strong><\/p>\n

The last time she saw her daughter, Smith remembers warning her to stay at home and stay out of trouble.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when I got up, she wasn\u2019t in her room,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

In the days following, Smith said she heard different things from different family members. Some said that Savannah had ended up in the tribal jail and would be out later, but when Smith looked into it, her daughter hadn\u2019t been in jail.<\/p>\n

So Smith went to check in with other relatives around the Rosebud Reservation. One relative in Parmelee said Savannah had \u201cwalked off\u201d with a friend, Smith said, but it wasn\u2019t a friend she recognized.<\/p>\n

\u2018Truly a homebody\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Smith and Standing Bear are close. They\u2019ve always been.<\/p>\n

One of Savannah\u2019s distinguishing features, noted on the missing persons posters hung up around the Rosebud Reservation and posted to social media, is a tattoo of her mother\u2019s first name under her right eye.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s now been eight months since Smith last heard from her daughter, since Savannah played with her nephew and since Savannah logged into the social media accounts where she loved to chat.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has a really big heart,\u201d Smith said. \u201cShe\u2019s my baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

She loves to listen to music, take photos and just hang out, Smith said. Her absence has left a void for her family.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe loved the sunset, taking pictures of it,\u201d Smith said. \u201cIt\u2019s really hard for me to see the sun go down without her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tips don\u2019t yield results<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tips have yet to aid in the search for Savannah, the family said.<\/p>\n

Early this year, reports that Savannah was sighted at a Maverik gas station on the north side of Rapid City \u2014 two and a half hours from where she was last seen \u2014 led investigators to switch gears and focus on the Black Hills city.<\/p>\n

Police spent days combing over footage from the gas station, only to find the \u201csighting\u201d was a different Native American woman, tribal officials said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no proof she ever left,\u201d Flowers, the family friend, said in May.<\/p>\n

More frightening tips have emerged, as well.<\/p>\n

Once, the family heard that a body was found on the reservation. Family members jumped in to respond alongside law enforcement, but it turned out to be animal remains that had previously been reported and documented, according to officials with Rosebud Sioux Tribe Emergency Services.<\/p>\n

Frustration grows<\/strong><\/p>\n

That all-for-naught excursion over animal bones was just one entry on a long list of disappointing searches for Savannah\u2019s father, Severt Standing Bear, who was among those to accompany police when the alleged human remains were discovered. He told South Dakota Searchlight this month that he\u2019s lost track of how many trips he\u2019s made through the areas he thinks Savannah might be. It\u2019s been that way since March.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first heard it, my thought was, \u2018Let\u2019s go. We\u2019ll go find her,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also passed along more tips than he can remember to the Rosebud Tribal Police and the detective assigned to Savannah\u2019s case.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t say that I call them every day, but I bug the s\u2014 out of them,\u201d Severt said. \u201cTo no avail.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rosebud Police Chief Waycee His Holy Horse did not reply to South Dakota Searchlight requests for an interview on Savannah\u2019s case this month.<\/p>\n

Having spent as much time searching as he has, Severt said, he\u2019s come to understand the frustration felt by other families that go months, years or longer without knowing what happened to a missing loved one.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese officials are always coming up and saying, \u2018We\u2019re doing these things,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cBut I\u2019ve learned and lived it now, and watched these other people that are missing their precious ones, too. They\u2019re having the same darn problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Communication, collaboration<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dolores \u201cTotes\u201d Waln, a Rosebud Sioux Tribal Council member, said her experience helping the family has exposed gaps in communication between emergency managers, police and the volunteers who\u2019ve pitched in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they were going to drain the dam, nobody knew about it until we heard it live on the air from the tribal president,\u201d Waln said of a summer search effort from the tribe around a stock dam about 6 miles east of Parmelee, which was discussed on the radio. \u201cAnd we\u2019re all like, \u2018What?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Shelby Lorenzo Homer, of the 4Corners K9 Search And Rescue nonprofit, said collaboration and communication has been a struggle for months. Recently, however, she worked with agents from the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs on a search in October.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when we really started seeing some communication and some collaboration,\u201d Homer said.<\/p>\n

In a statement, a BIA spokesperson said the agency is working closely with the FBI and Rosebud Sioux Department of Public Safety on Savannah\u2019s case, coordinating search operations, offering a $5,000 reward through its Missing and Murdered Unit and \u201cactively supporting Savanah\u2019s family during this difficult time.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Savannah\u2019s birthday celebration and candlelight vigil in Parmelee over the weekend, the hope is that extra attention can be combined with improved collaboration to yield results.<\/p>\n

The hope goes all the way to the top in Rosebud. Tips sometimes land in the inbox of Rosebud Sioux Tribal President Kathleen Wooden Knife. When that happens, the president said, she passes them along to police.<\/p>\n

Then, like everyone else, she waits.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd my hope is that \u2018OK, this time will be the time we\u2019re going to find her,\u2019\u201d Wooden Knife said. \u201cIt hasn\u2019t happened yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

The BIA\u2019s $5,000 reward is open to anyone with information that can lead authorities to Savannah. The BIA can be reached at (833) 560-2065, by email at OJS_MMU@bia.gov, or by texting keyword BIAMMU and a tip to 847411.<\/p>\n

The post Searching for Savannah: Eight months and no answers since woman\u2019s disappearance<\/a> first appeared on Native Sun News Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>

Visit Original Source<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/span><\/div>

Savannah Standing Bear, shown in an illustration based on an image from her family, went missing in March 2025 from her home on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. (South Dakota Searchlight photo illustration by Joshua Haiar and sign photo by John Hult) There are rumors. About what\u2019s known and <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a>
Shared by Native Sun News Today<\/a> December 2, 2025<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1541,"featured_media":39541,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5627],"tags":[6658],"class_list":["post-39539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-resource-directory-blog","tag-more-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1541"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}