On the Trail of Missing American Indian Women

[douglas9]

Lissa Yellowbird-Chase, an amateur sleuth, believes that every human being deserves to be searched for.


On a Friday morning in May, Lissa Yellowbird-Chase woke up to more Facebook messages than she could hope to answer. Her inbox was full of friends, acquaintances, and strangers asking for her help locating loved ones, or offering their services for future searches. But that morning, Yellowbird-Chase’s focus was on finding Melissa Eagleshield.

Eagleshield, a middle-aged American Indian woman, disappeared four years ago from a secluded property in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, about 50 miles east of Yellowbird-Chase’s home in Fargo, North Dakota. No arrests have ever been made in relation to her case. Law enforcement found her coat, shoes, and purse in the house where she was last seen. According to Eagleshield’s family, the most substantial physical evidence related to her disappearance was turned up years ago, when search dogs tracked her scent to a beaver dam located a mile away from the house through swampy brush.

Yellowbird-Chase, a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, has been searching for missing American Indians as a private citizen for the past six years. At any given time, she is typically looking into four or five cases. Though she worked previously in corrections and as a tribal attorney, it wasn’t until later in life—after serving jail time and recovering from addiction—that Yellowbird-Chase devoted herself full-time to amateur sleuthing.


https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/10/trail-missing-american-indian-women/571657/

[niyad]

1. thank you so much for this excellent post. and how sad that such work needs to be done.