Search called in Regina for missing woman

Diane Big Eagle has a stern warning for those responsible for the 2007 disappearance of her daughter.
“They might have got my daughter but now they have her mother to deal with,” she said.

Big Eagle raised the profile of the disappearance of Danita Big Eagle this month after she received a tip that her daughter had been murdered and her remains were left in an isolated area west of Regina. Thanks to donations from family and friends across Saskatchewan, including the Ocean Man First Nation where the Big Eagles are from, a reward of $10,000 was offered to anyone with information.

And on Sept. 3, the family organized a massive search of a 12-kilometre area west of Regina in hopes of finding evidence.

Thanks to the help of a volunteer with search dogs, a collection of women’s clothing and a single bone was found. But after police were called, investigators said the clothes were unrelated to any case of a missing person and the discovered bone belonged to an animal.

But Big Eagle said that she’s undeterred because she has faith in the recent tip.

“My source is a little frightened. And I understand that,” she said as volunteers gathered for an afternoon search in an area near Pinkie Road and Dewdney Avenue on Sept. 4.

“If it’s not my daughter, then it’s something else. I feel it. And we all feel it.”

Big Eagle was 22 when she was last seen on Feb. 11 of 2007 in downtown Regina. Reports say that she could have been on her way out of town, but her mother said this month that she believes she was at a party with seven other people the night she went missing.

“We know what house it is and we’re keeping an eye on it,” said Diane Big Eagle, adding that she hopes to one day confront those who saw her last.

“I want to see them. I want to look into their eyes and I want them to answer my questions. I will be able to tell if they’re being truthful.”

She acknowledges, too, that her faith has been shaken since 2007.

“There is no way to describe how I feel. Sometimes I fall to pieces and other times I just get so angry I want to get a shotgun and go out and try to find these people,” she said. “I have lost my faith in the justice system but I haven’t lost my faith in God, but I’m scared it might come to that. I might get struck by lightning saying that,” she added.

She also complains that the police aren’t doing enough to solve the case. She believes they would take the case more seriously if the victim wasn’t Aboriginal.

“If you’re a Native person and you have a child missing, then you’re going to go through the same thing as me. But I want to change that,” she said.

“I am disgusted with the police. Do you have to know someone to get a reaction from the police?”

Chief Gloria Shepherd, of the Ocean Man First Nation, said she and other representatives from the First Nation met with Regina Police Chief Troy Hagen and other officers in the first week of September in what she described as a productive meeting.

“They said they would review the file. And I thought it was a good meeting,” said Shepherd, who was among the volunteers to help with the weekend search. “This is a terrible story, but we are here to show support for the family and offer our help in any way we can.”

Hagen and other officers agreed to a second meeting, which was held on Sept. 8, where Big Eagle and FSIN chair Guy Lonechild asked that the case be given a higher priority.

Regina Police Service spokeswoman, Elizabeth Popowich, said allegations of racism are unfair, and the case is considered a serious matter to investigators.

“If we were racist, then we would have done nothing. However, we’ve done lots,” she said.

Robert Samy, who knows Danita Big Eagle and her family on the Ocean Man First Nation, said the story of the disappearance is still a source of speculation on the reserve. He said he couldn’t help but agree to help with the weekend search. “I hope we find her. She was a really nice person. I’m related to the family so I know lots of her family too,” said Samy, adding that he had to get permission from his parole officer to volunteer for the search.

“It makes me feel good to be out here to help and support the family ... I don’t know how I am going to react if I find something,” he said.