The MT Lowdown is a weekly digest that showcases a more personal side of Montana Free Press’ high-quality reporting while keeping you up to speed on the biggest news impacting Montanans. Want to see the MT Lowdown in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. Sign up Scan the ground for out-of-place objects, tire tracks or clothing. Look for insect activity, new plant growth and bear scat. Mounded dirt or disturbed soil could signal a burial site. Dress for long days outside. Beware of bears, rattlesnakes and mountain lions. Human bones can look like animal bones, and all bones can look like sticks. Dogs can scatter bones far from their original site. If you find a bone, do not touch it. Photograph it. Document it. Call law enforcement.  These are some of the things we learned during Haley Omeasoo’s July search-and-recovery training, where she and two University of Montana graduate students taught Blackfeet community members how to conduct searches for missing people and identify bones if a search-and-rescue effort turns into a search-and-recovery mission.  Inspired by her classmate, Ashley Loring Heavyrunner, who went missing in 2017 and has not been found, Omeasoo founded Ohkomi Forensics, a nonprofit that exclusively offers forensic services to families affected by the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People crisis.  Native Americans go missing and are killed at disproportionately high rates nationwide, including in Montana. While Native Americans account for about 7% of Montana’s population, Indigenous people comprised about 31% of the state’s missing person cases in 2025, according to a recent report from the state’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Advisory Council. Law enforcement in rural and tribal areas is often understaffed, underresourced and tangled in a complex web of legal jurisdictions. Those factors can sometimes lead to frustrations with the professionalism and pace of searches for missing persons. So when loved ones and community members go missing, Indigenous families and friends often conduct their own searches. Three-year-old Arden Pepion went missing from the Blackfeet Reservation in 2021. Her aunt and grandmother told me at Omeasoo’s class that the early days of their search were disorganized.  “We had no plan,” Asiah Pepion, Arden’s aunt, told me. “They were taking truckloads of people out to go look, but we just had no plan.” Deana LaMere said that when her husband went missing in the 1980s, she searched for days without success.  “This would have been helpful back then,” she said of Omeasoo’s training. “We didn’t line up like this. We didn’t take notes or have coordinates or maps. I wish we’d been organized. I wonder how many people we walked past.” It’s these stories of failed searches, and many others, that inspired Omeasoo to offer her training, which cost $25 per attendee and was subsidized by several Blackfeet programs.  “We shouldn’t have to start an organization for this,” she told us on the first day of class. “These cases should have been handled by law enforcement and the people that are supposed to be protecting us and serving us. But we still have to keep fighting for justice for all of them, and so we’ll all just keep fighting and keep searching.” My colleague, photojournalist Lauren Miller, and I attended and reported on the class for Montana Free Press’ How to Montana series. The series includes feature stories in which photojournalists and writers explore one event, skill or experience deeply rooted in Montana.  Read our story here for an inside look at how and why Indigenous families are learning to search for their own missing relatives. — Nora Mabie Glad You Asked 💬 Backyard gardeners around Montana might be used to this general emotional trajectory:Fretful (is anything actually growing in there?) → Thrilled (everything is sprouting!) →  Overwhelmed (whose decision was it to plant all of this zucchini and what in the world am I supposed to do with all of it?).  A mildly stressed member of our newsroom was recently faced with this exact dilemma. Seeking colleagues onto whom she could pawn off said zucchini, fellow newsroom member Ellis Juhlin shared a valuable directive: Call the local food bank.  Food banks, including those in Montana, are typically quick to welcome a wide range of donations — canned goods, dry goods, donations from grocery stores, etc. But many also have strict rules against accepting homemade food — such as items canned in a home kitchen, or meat processed outside of a USDA-certified facility. It’s difficult to guarantee food safety in those situations, said Debbie Anderson, a program manager at the Family Service food pantry in Billings.But homegrown fruits and veggies? Bring it on, Anderson said. Apples, zucchini and even garden herbs help give shoppers options they might not otherwise have access to. “We absolutely love it because it’s something fresh that we can offer our clients,” Anderson said.  Family Service and other food banks across the state have established partnerships with community gardens to achieve the same end. The Missoula Food Bank and the Helena Food Share have a “Grow a Row” program that works with home gardeners to donate part of their harvest. Patty White, the communications director at the Helena Food Share, said their produce donations from home and community gardens totaled a whopping 65,904 pounds in 2025.  Anderson said the food pantry staff in Billings has little control over what condition veggies and fruits are in when they’re donated from someone’s backyard. Pesticide-free is appreciated, she said, and — please — ”check and see if there’s any kind of insects,” she added.  — Mara Silvers By the Numbers 🔢 That’s the difference from the sunny side of the street…er, neighborhood. A new heat map of Missoula County reveals some pretty stark differences in just how hot it can get on a warm summer’s day. It’s called the “heat island effect.”  Areas with more pavement, less greenery and less shade can be much hotter than places with nice big trees, open spaces or even nearby water features. The effect’s been well studied in urban environments, like New York City. Missoula is probably not the city that comes to mind when you hear about an urban jungle, but the heat impact is on par with what large metropolitan areas are experiencing, too.  Climate Smart Missoula teamed up with the city and county to create the map, and it paints a pretty fascinating picture. Take a look here. They also found some surprising stuff, like how the dense forested areas in Seeley Lake and Evaro actually hang onto the afternoon’s heat, so they’re as warm as downtown Missoula well into the morning I’ll admit, learning that where I live is one of the hottest areas due to the amount of land cleared for industrial use was one of the less thrilling moments of my reporting journey. As Missoula warms and the number of over 90-degree days we experience each summer increases, having a resource like this map will help the county plan where to plant trees, add artificial shade structures or create cooling centers, said Alli Kane, the county’s climate action program coordinator. This is the first map of its kind for Montana, but similar mapping has been done across the country. You can read my full story here.  — Ellis Juhlin Following Up ↩️ A petition effort to subject data centers in Yellowstone County to voter approval missed the deadline for collecting signatures three weeks ago, according to the Yellowstone County Attorney’s Office. Signature gatherers had been aiming to complete their work by Aug. 12, a deadline provided to them by the Yellowstone County Election Department in June. Yellowstone County Attorney Scott Twito told Montana Free Press Tuesday that the deadline’s shift to July 13 was prompted by data center developer Quantica Infrastructure, which informed him last week of a relevant state statute that adds more time for local elections officials to process signatures. According to Twito, the county will not accept signatures “unless a court says differently.” So Brian Miller, an attorney who has been working with petition organizers on the initiative and a candidate for U.S. House in Montana’s Second Congressional District, went to court this week. He filed a request for a preliminary injunction in District Court in Yellowstone County, arguing that it would be unconstitutional for the election department not to accept the signatures.  “In order to maintain the status quo and minimize harm, this Court should require the County to continue to accept and process signatures as they have been agreeing to do,that are submitted until August 12, 2026, at 5 p.m.,” Miller wrote in his filing.  Quantica, which hopes to build a 5,000-acre data center in rural Yellowstone County, filed its own motion, asking a judge to uphold Twito’s interpretation.  “The initiative fails because the deadline for submitting signatures in support of the initiative expired on July 13, 2026,” Quantica’s lawyer, Robert Sterup, wrote in his filing.  On Friday, District Court Judge Ed Zink heard arguments from Miller and Sterup. Zink did not issue a ruling, but said he would “as quickly as practically possible.”  — Zeke Lloyd Say What?  🤔 The Patriot Games, a national competition featuring two high school athletes from each of the 50 states, begins this Sunday in Geneva, Ohio, as the latest installment of the Freedom 250 celebration.  The competition includes an array of games, such as dodgeball, kickball, basketball, an endurance course and a 100-meter race. The students are competing for  $250,000 in scholarships. The two teens competing from Montana are Meadow Mahlmeister of Billings and Grey Pommerville of Belgrade. MTFP caught up with Mahlmeister, who was traveling to Ohio, and she spoke about what it means to represent the Big Sky state.      “It’s exciting,” Mahlmeister said. “Living in Montana, I feel like we have to work twice as much as any other kid from big cities [with] bigger opportunities in the bigger cities.” Mahlmeister, soon to be a senior at Billing Senior High School, said she was encouraged to apply for the games by a soccer friend’s dad.  Winning “ would set me up for my next five years in college because I’m already committed to go to the University of Milwaukee for soccer,” Mahlmeister said. “I have my college paid for, but that would just help while I’m in college for living fees and stuff.” Pommerville, who was unavailable for an interview, will be a senior at Belgrade High School this fall and is the captain of the school’s tennis team.  The games conclude Tuesday, Aug. 11, and the competition can be streamed on the ESPN app, with an hour-long special on ABC next Thursday. — JoVonne Wagner Highlights ☀️ In other news this week — • Think your dog makes you safer in bear country? As Nick Mott explains, new analysis suggests otherwise. • A proposed pipeline through eastern Montana hit a stumbling block with state regulators. Ellis Juhlin reports what that all means for the project supporters are calling “Keystone Light” and critics are calling “Keystone XXL.” • Readers’ pick: Our most-read story on the Montana Free Press website during the last week was Tom Lutey’s coverage of the turbulent U.S. Senate race. On Our Radar Nick — Bozeman’s Sweet Pea Festival is this weekend (smoke be damned). Over the last 25 years, my family hasn’t missed many of them, so I feel confident recommending my annual highlights: the marvelously hokey Main Street parade on Saturday morning (the Crystal Bar makes a lovely to-go bloody mary), taking in bands I know absolutely nothing about (The Strumbellas on Friday night look promising), and the culinary wonder that is the tater pig (be sure to ask the a cappella group/servers for a song, and extra sour cream). Matt — I have a 2-year-old who always wants cookies. To try and meet that demand, we’ve been making these no-bake cookies: 1 cup blended oats, 1/4 cup honey, 1/2 cup peanut butter and a sprinkling of chia seeds and unblended oats. Mix it all up, form a couple of dozen small cookies and put them in the fridge to firm up. And hey, the kid loves her “peanut butter coo-coos.” Zeke — My preference for a no-bake summer treat: avocados bathed in salt, pepper and oil. But renewed tension between cartels and the Mexican military in Michoacan, one of two states that produces a vast majority of the country’s avocados, will make the fruit harder to find in American grocery stores this August.  Stephanie — It’s hot. And when it’s hot, I love to whip up one of my favorite no-bake desserts. This lemonade pie comes together with just a handful of ingredients, chills in the freezer and tastes like summer in every bite.  Mara — I had the pleasure of hanging with some other Montana journalists in Bozeman this week for a conference on mental health reporting. One of the most memorable and thought-provoking presentations came from Megan Torgerson, creator of the documentary podcast Reframing Rural. I’d highly suggest you go listen. Ellis — I have three dogs, and a husband-induced ban on visiting animal shelters. A coincidence, I’m sure. The pups like to run, some of them need to burn energy, but when it’s smoky, the last thing I want to do is have us outside breathing in the fine particulate matter. So, for some indoor-friendly dog activities, this article is my go-to. My neurotic border collie/cattle dog mix can confirm, you’ll never have so much fun with a muffin tin.  *Some stories may require a subscription. Subscribe! Lowdown is edited by Nick Ehli, with additional copy editing by Mara Silvers. The post ‘We had no plan’: Families learn to search for missing relatives appeared first on Montana Free Press. ...read more read less