Cortez, Colorado – A 13-year-old girl from the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe has been missing for 16 days, and the silence is deafening. Dior Orange was last seen walking alone on February 25, sparking a desperate search across southwest Colorado that has yet to yield any solid leads.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation issued a Missing Indigenous Person Alert on March 1, highlighting the heightened concern authorities have for Native girls who vanish. As days turn into weeks, family, tribal members, and volunteers refuse to give up hope.
Dior Orange: A Bright 13-Year-Old Suddenly Gone
Dior is described as 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighing 150 pounds, with long black hair and warm brown eyes. She is Native American and an enrolled member of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe.
On the day she disappeared, she wore:
- Black sweatshirt with the number “71” on the back
- Black leggings
- Black and white Nike shoes
She was walking eastbound alone in the 400 block of West Second Street in Cortez around evening time. That was the last confirmed sighting.
No one has heard from her since.
What Happened? Investigators Still Searching for Answers
Cortez Police detectives say Dior left a residence voluntarily that afternoon. There is currently no evidence of abduction, but because she is only 13 and has never run away before, every hour without contact raises the stakes.
“She’s a good kid who loves her family,” a relative told local reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity. “This isn’t like her at all. We just want her home safe.”
Searches have covered miles of terrain around Cortez and the nearby Ute Mountain Ute Reservation. Dogs, drones, and horseback teams have swept fields, canyons, and highways. Tips have come in, but none have panned out yet.
The Larger Crisis Behind One Girl’s Disappearance
Dior’s case has struck a raw nerve because it fits a painful pattern. Native American women and girls go missing at rates far higher than any other group in the United States.
According to a 2023 report by the Urban Indian Health Institute:
- 84% of Indigenous women experience violence in their lifetime
- More than 5,700 Native women and girls were reported missing in 2016 alone – only 116 were logged in the federal database
- Murder is the third-leading cause of death for Native girls ages 10-24
In Colorado, at least 53 Native women and girls were missing or murdered between 2010 and 2021, according to the state’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous People task force.
Dior Orange is now part of that heartbreaking list.
Tribal leaders say the crisis is fueled by jurisdictional gaps on reservation land, underfunded police departments, and a lack of media attention compared to white missing children.
Community Refuses to Let Her Be Forgotten
Vigils have been held almost nightly in Cortez and Towaoc. Red dresses – the symbol of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls – hang from trees and porch rails across the Four Corners region.
Family members have set up a command center at the Ute Mountain Ute tribal complex. Volunteers distribute flyers as far away as Farmington, Durango, and the Navajo Nation.
“Every day without her feels like a lifetime,” her aunt posted on Facebook. “Please keep sharing her picture. Someone knows something.”
Social media posts using #FindDiorOrange and #MMIWG have reached tens of thousands of people in the past week alone.
If you have any information – no matter how small – authorities urge you to come forward immediately. Call 911 or the Cortez Police Department tip line at 970-565-8441. You can remain anonymous.
Sixteen days is too long for a child to be missing. Dior Orange needs to be brought home now, before her name becomes another statistic in a crisis that has gone on far too long.
Bring Dior home. Keep sharing her face. Keep saying her name.
