Mika Matters: Four-day journey focuses on unresolved hit-and-run deaths

“Mika Matters,” “Justice for Mena,” “Missing and Murdered Indigenous People,” and “Justice 4 Aiden” signs waved above a group walking from Polson Super 1 to the Lake County Courthouse lawn Friday afternoon – the last stop on a four-day journey that began in Arlee. Walkers wore red, and most had red handprints across their mouths to signify the silence on Mika Westwolf, Marina Two Teeth, Aiden Finley, and Sonia Spotted Blanket’s cases.

These friends, relatives and community members were marching to bring attention to Westwolf’s untimely death and lack of information or charges being filed, as well as the deaths of other reservation residents killed by hit-and-run drivers.

It’s a story to make anyone’s heart cry. On March 31, Westwolf was walking along Hwy. 93 towards traffic to her home in Arlee in the early morning hours when she was hit and killed, allegedly by a Cadillac Escalade driven by Sunny K. White, 28, of Butte. Charges have not been filed in the case even though it’s been almost three months since Westwolf’s death.

Carissa Heavy Runner and Kevin Howard, Westwolf’s mother and her partner, say they are frustrated by the lack of information available from either Lake County or the Montana Highway Patrol about the case. In response, the couple decided to organize a walk across the Flathead Reservation to attract notice to Westwolf’s case as well as the deaths of three other young people killed in hit-and-run incidents. Heavy Runner contacted the mothers of the other young adults to join forces with them.

Called Mika Matters, the walk began June 13 with about 30 people walking from Arlee to mile marker 20, where Mika was killed, and then to North Valley Creek Road. On day two, they traveled from the scenic overlook on Ravalli Hill to St. Ignatius, and then from Bev’s Bloomers to Ronan. Day three brought the group through Pablo to the scenic overlook on Polson Hill. On Friday morning, walkers congregated at the Polson Safeway before heading to the courthouse for a protest that attracted more than 200 people.

“We started with a prayer every morning. That’s what’s getting us all here,” Heavy Runner said before the prayer on Friday afternoon.

“We will no longer be silent”

The women speaking wiped the red handprints from their faces, symbolically removing the hand over their mouth silencing them.

“We’re going to wipe off these red handprints. We will no longer be silent,” said Heavy Runner. “We are going to use our voice right now.”

With shaking hands and tears in her eyes, Bonnie Ascencio spoke first. She lost her daughter, Marina Two Teeth, on Jan. 14, 2022, when she was hit by a car in St. Ignatius. A life-long resident of the Flathead Reservation and Lake County, Ascencio said law enforcement never gave her the answers she needed.

“I’d never been treated like this on my reservation,” she said, gripping the microphone tightly. ”I was treated like a child, like I didn’t know what I was talking about.”

Ascencio said she was scared to meet with the other mothers “because I’d been silent the whole time.”

“I couldn’t get any answers so I just turned off. I just laid it down,” she said. “Now two weeks after the meetings, here we are.”

Next up was Tricia Finley, Aiden Finley’s mother. Aiden was killed in a hit-and-run on Dec. 8, 2018. The Montana Highway Patrol trooper who notified the Finley family said Aiden had been hit by a motorist who didn’t stop or report the incident.

“My son Aiden was a good boy,” Tricia said, her voice faltering. “He was never involved in drugs, never in trouble with the law.”

Tribal police were first on the scene, Tricia said, but they had nothing to do with the investigation. So she went to talk to Lake County Sheriff Don Bell, who said it was a Montana Highway Patrol issue. Tricia contacted Trooper Wayne Bieber, who quit answering her calls and texts and wouldn’t return a message.

“He said he did not want to waste his time chasing down a thousand leads,” Tricia said.

Sonia Spotted Blanket’s mother said Sonia was killed on April 13, 2023, on Hwy. 10 and Roller Coaster Road in Missoula.

“We didn’t find out until Monday morning,” said Maxine Spotted Blanket-Michel. “She didn’t have her ID, her glasses, or her phone. Everything was gung-ho until they found out she was a Native American.”

“We just want answers. That’s all we want,” she said quietly.

Two Teeth’s brother-in-law, Bryan Dupuis, added that Two Teeth was hit by a young girl driving a power company truck whose blood alcohol content was two times over the legal limit. He said the MHP trooper investigating that case was also Wayne Bieber.

“It breaks my heart to hear the similarities in these cases,” Dupuis said. “The investigation of the victims hinged on three things: was the person suicidal, was the victim intoxicated, was the victim in the roadway?”

The young woman who hit Two Teeth was two times over the legal limit (for alcohol), Dupuis said, but she was not charged.

“Then I had to go home and tell Marina’s daughter that the young girl who killed her mother was not going to be charged or go to jail,” he said.

“Justice must happen”

Dupuis criticized Bieber for not thoroughly investigating the case, and Lake County Attorney James Lapotka for not filing charges, saying the men “should have stood there to see the look on her face and how hard she cried.”

“Lapotka’s discretion and decision not to bring charges in any of these cases travels far and wide,” Dupuis added. “Justice needs to happen; justice must happen.”

Lapotka said in an email that he spoke to several attendees, who “expressed frustration with specific police investigations or cases, while others had more generalized and systemic concerns about racial bias in policing on the Reservation.”

He added that the investigation into Westwolf’s death is ongoing, “more complicated than has been reported in the media,” and involves several law enforcement agencies.

“My office is waiting until all the information is available before making any charging decisions,” he wrote. “I ask the public for patience while the investigators do their work.”

As the gathering drew to a close, brothers Patrick and Everett Armstrong, both members of the Blackfeet Tribal Council, sang the Blackfeet Warrior Society’s song.

“I see a lot of strong individuals. Our voices do matter as natives,” Patrick said. “I see warriors when I look out.”

After the Warrior Society’s song, attendees held hands in a round dance.

“We made history today,” Heavy Runner said. “We had a round dance on the courthouse lawn.”

She told the crowd that the walk had been “an amazing journey since day one.”

“Each day it got better and better, more powerful – women that we invited sharing the stories of their loved ones, the media being there and talking to the women who shared their stories, talking with Bonnie, talking with Aiden’s family and Sonia’s. Also reaching out to me, saying, ‘Carissa, so thankful to have met you.’”

“That, to me, means so much,” she added, holding Mika’s photograph. “Just the support, the journey was well worth it.”