Delema Lou Sits Poor, a 12-year-old Oglala/Miniconjou Lakota girl known to family as "Babe," disappeared on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota, in February 1974. Sources differ on the exact date, giving either February 4 or February 20, 1974. Sits Poor and another 12-year-old girl left school at the Seventh Day Adventist Church in the Number Four (Wakpamni) community, roughly eight miles from Pine Ridge, and set out on foot along an unpaved back road toward Manderson, South Dakota, near the Red Cloud Indian School. Temperatures were below zero, and high winds and heavy snow developed during the walk. At some point her companion began showing frostbite on her hands and feet and turned back toward the Red Cloud Indian School; Sits Poor continued on toward Manderson wearing a white down-filled jacket with two brown stripes on each sleeve, brown bell-bottom pants, and sneakers. She was not seen again. It remains unclear whether she reached her destination and disappeared afterward, or never arrived.
The following morning, once the storm cleared, Sits Poor's family traveled to Pine Ridge to report her missing; her father filed a police report and a cousin contacted the National Guard. Ground and air searches were conducted in the following days around the Calico community, a rugged, remote area of buttes and steep valleys where she may have walked; family members say the organized search ended after about a week. Sits Poor was declared legally dead after seven years. The investigation is led by the Oglala Sioux Tribe Police Department, with the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services Missing and Murdered Unit (BIA OJS MMU) also involved; BIA lists the case status as open under investigating agent Tyler Little Finger. In 2018 family members were contacted by an investigator with the Oglala Sioux Tribe's then-newly formed cold case unit but received no further follow-up. Her remains have never been located, and no arrests have been made. Identifiers: NamUs #MP42412; NCMEC case #2015999; NCIC #M147820342; Doe Network #4016DFSD. Tips may be submitted to the Oglala Sioux Tribe Police Department at (605) 867-5111 (also reported as 605-867-8127 / 605-867-5141 by other agencies), or to the BIA OJS MMU by texting "BIAMMU" and a tip to 847411, calling 1-833-560-2065, or emailing OJS_MMU@bia.gov.
