MMIR: Native community unites in water and ground search for Standing Rock man, last seen on train bridge

Everyone repeated the 20-year-old’s name: RENZO. RENZO. RENZO. RENZO.

So marked day 10 of search and worry among friends, family, campus leaders, college students, Native leaders, law enforcement and command center volunteers who have been left to grapple with the mysterious disappearance of Renzo Bullhead, a welding student at UTTC in Bismarck. He’s 5 feet 11 inches and 180 pounds and was last seen walking on the Burlington Northern train bridge wearing a black puffer jacket and pants.

His grandfather, mother, father, fiance and grandmother sat in the UTTC command center on Tuesday with other Native community members who gather daily to lead a local search aside from local law enforcement efforts. His mother, Diedra Leaf, imagines her son alive. “We got to make sure he’s not going to walk out of somewhere, you know?” she told Buffalo’s Fire. “And that even now, I feel ashamed about even looking at the water, you know, looking for him like this. I feel like he’s gonna, he’s going to come out and be like, ‘Mom. What are you doing?’ But it’s been so long now. And I’m just, I’m trying to still keep it together because I have four other boys. I can’t be doing that, lose it, I can’t lose it because I have other kids.”

The family, from the Bear Soldier South community on the Standing Rock Reservation, spoke of a young athletic man with strong leadership skills who consistently shares compassion for others. The family also has a strong military and law enforcement background, including Russell Leaf, Renzo’s grandfather, a retired criminal investigator with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

At the UTTC command center, he and Vicki Alberts, the public affairs contact for the search, spoke on the phone with Robert Schoeberl, Missing and Murdered Unit Regional Agent for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Even though Bullhead’s disappearance is outside the bureau’s jurisdiction, Schoeberl said the bureau offered their services to the local police department.

At first, “they didn’t want anything to do with us. But as of today, they had made contact with the investigator up there, which is Dustin Dobbs, and had reached out and asked if we could provide a boat,” said Schoeberl, “but we’re not set up with those resources.”

Savanna, Isaac, Gemini, Sahela, Renzo

Russell Leaf told Schoeberl the ultimate goal was to find his grandson. “It brings to light a lot of other Indigenous people that went missing,” he said. “And as such, we should keep those and all those people in our prayers also, you know? There’s like one individual that went missing in the Cheyenne River [Reservation] just last week, and they found her remains in Hill City.” In that case, an active-duty member stationed at the Ellsworth Air Force Base near Box Elder, South Dakota has been arrested for the murder of Sahela Sangrait, 21, who was missing since last August after leaving the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota. Her body was found in March. It was determined she was killed at the air base.

Mike Faith, a political leader on the Standing Rock Reservation where Bullhead is an enrolled citizen, said Native nation leaders should address the ongoing Missing and Murdered Indigenous People’s crisis. Native people are targeted at high rates of murder and sexual and violent assaults on and off reservations. Faith has been in the command center this week offering support during the community-led search for Bullhead. “We need to work together and help find our relatives in a good way, comfort the ones of the families, relatives and utilize resources that we have available as tribes,” he said.

Faith said more work needs to be done to uphold provisions in Savanna’s Act, a federal law passed in 2020 after the murder of Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, a young woman from the Spirit Lake Nation in North Dakota. She was eight months pregnant when she was killed by neighbors.

The law, passed in 2020, aims to improve data collection of Missing or Murdered Indigenous Relatives while also clarifying the responsibilities of Tribal, federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The act also seeks to empower Tribal governments with resources to respond to the missing and murdered.

The Not One More 2023 report states that multijurisdictions lack sufficient coordination and collaboration: “In many cases and in many jurisdictions, the mandates and requirements of Savanna’s Act are not being implemented.”

While Bullhead disappeared off federal lands and outside of tribal jurisdiction, Native nation leaders acknowledge the need for broad collaboration. “In times of uncertainty, deploying our resources to assist in the search for Renzo Bullhead is not just a decision—it’s a commitment to clarity in chaos,” said Spirit Lake Nation Woodlake District Council Rep., Kooper Longie, in a statement. “We recognize the impact that not knowing can have on families, and we believe it is our responsibility to provide support,” he said. “Our Wildland Fire Department coordinated the incident command center along with the overall search, while our EPA team facilitated water searches, and our public relations specialist worked to amplify the family’s efforts.

“We stand in solidarity not only with Renzo’s family but also in remembrance of our own missing tribal members, Isaac Hunt and Gemini Posey, who have been absent for over a year. Together as tribal nations, we will navigate this difficult journey with purpose and resolve,” said Longie.

Last Seen

On Sunday, March 16, a surveillance camera shows Bullhead walking across the Burlington Northern train bridge that spans the rapid spring flow of the Missouri River. It was around 8 p.m. The sky was still light after a setting sun. The last signal from his phone showed him on the bridge, walking toward Bismarck from the Mandan side of the river.

When Bullhead never returned calls to his fiance after Sunday night, she notified his parents, Deidra Leaf and Delaine Blue Thunder, who live in McLaughlin, S.D. They immediately drove to Bismarck to look for him.

Meanwhile, the Mandan Police Department has addressed community concerns about searching a construction site near the bridge. In several statements this week, the MPD posted: “From the beginning, the property owners, including Burlington Northern, have given officers full access to conduct searches and that included searches via drones and on foot. Through assistance of other agencies, additional drone searches have been conducted on both sides of the Missouri River, as well as searches of the water around the bridge and downstream. Officers from the North Dakota Highway Patrol are assisting in an area search by air as well.”

“We just want the public to know that resources are being focused on locating Renzo Bullhead and that we are not attempting to discourage any searches by family, friends, or the public.” Construction on the Mandan side of the train bridge is of concern to the department. “We want to keep all of our citizens safe while doing so and keep all lines of communications with them open.”

The Renzo Bullhead case remains open. Anyone with information should contact the Mandan Police Department at (701)667-3250.