Meet Bernadine Beyale | Founder of 4Corners K-9 Search and Rescue

We had the good fortune of connecting with Bernadine Beyale and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Bernadine, can you talk to us a bit about the social impact of your business?
Our K-9’s and trained team members help families and Law Enforcement look for their missing and lost loved ones on native american tribal lands and communities. We help educate everyone about how Search and Rescue K-9’s work and how families and communities can run a safe search mission.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am the Founder for 4Corners K-9 Search and Rescue, a 501c3 Non-profit org. I am a member of the Navajo Tribe, and both my parents were Navajo Police Officers. I have been part of Search and Rescue for the past 6 1/2years. I started with a team called NM Badlands Search and Rescue and received all my certifications through the state of New Mexico. During this time my dog Trigger and I had been training with NM Badlands. NM Badlands serves as a resource to the state of NM and only gets deployed at the request of the State Police.

During this time with NM Badlands my friend Shelby Lorenzo and I had been discussing starting our own non-profit K9 search and rescue team that would focus on native tribal lands beginning with the Navajo Nation. Missing and murdered indigenous women has been increasing in at an alarming rate. In 2016 the National Crime Information Center had reported 5,712 cases of missing American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls. However, the US Department of Justice missing person database only report 116 cases.

While I was doing community events with NM Badlands, I started getting approached by families from the Navajo Nation requesting for help with searches or just general help in what to do next to find their loved one. With the lack of communication combined with jurisdictional issues between state, local, federal and tribal law enforcement makes it nearly impossible to begin the investigative process and as the requests grew, I decided to form my own Non-Profit Organization with my two K-9’s Trigger and Gunny to form 4Corners K-9 Search and Rescue in January of 2022. I am currently the only Native Owned K-9 Search and Rescue team in my area that covers Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico.

The Navajo Nation is 27,673 square miles which goes into New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Arizona. The Navajo Nation police cover 7 districts within the Navajo Nation, and they have about 186 officers which is less than half of what it needs to cover the 27,000 square miles reservation that’s larger than 10 U.S states. The Navajo Police get an average of 232,000 calls per year and responding to them can take hours because of the remoteness of the reservation where most roads are unpaved.

Data collection has been and remains difficult because of poor record keeping, underreporting, racial misclassification and media coverage. Therefore, the statistics are most likely an undercount for all missing and murdered indigenous women.
As of March 2022, we have 78 Missing people from the Navajo Nation, 26 Women, 52 Men and 2 out of the 78 went missing as children.

I work a full time job and most of my searches are done on weekends unless I take time off from work. My goal is to recruit as many volunteers as possible and provide them with search and rescue training. Because of the limited resources with Navajo Police and they may be 3 hours or longer away, families will take it into their own hands to do their own searches. Sometimes I’m usually there before Navajo Police are available to respond. I am working to get trained team members all over the Navajo reservation so they can help set up command centers and be a resource for Navajo Police and families. My other goal is also to educate these families about how K9’s work in SAR, preserving and not disturbing evidence, not contaminating the area and how to collect scent articles.

A lot of what we do also comes from my own pocket To make this all work I had to decide what SAR teaching, training and certifications to go with. With the Navajo Nation covering 4 states and the possibility of team members being from different states I decided NASAR would be the best option for us as it would be universal no matter which state team/members volunteers come from. What I am struggling with as I am finding and talking with volunteers is that a big portion of the Navajo nation doesn’t have internet or computer access, along with this is enough money to pay for their NASAR membership, certification testing, books and SAR field packs. As well as funding for equipment, gas, search and rescue equipment.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
In the 4Corners area there is plenty of things to do. When I am not busy with Search and Rescue I like to go out hiking. I would take my friend out to some of the local trails in Farmington, NM and Durango CO which 45 minutes from Farmington. Farmington, NM also has a lot of ATV/UTV Trails which allows you to see some trails that are difficult to experience on foot. I would also take my friend golfing, Pinon Hills golf course is one of the best courses in our area.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’d like to give a shout out to all the people I’ve met and trained with during the past 6 1/2 years in Search and Rescue. Especially my dear sis Shelby Lorenzo whom I started K-9 Search and Rescue with. Shelby’s K-9 Shunka is the sister to my K-9 Trigger who is her brother. We started training our pups together in Search and Rescue. I also want to thank all the ladies on my team right now for their support and commitment to our mission. Last but not least, thank you to my two K-9’s Trigger and Gunny for their tireless hard work.

Instagram: @4cornersk9searchandrescue

Linkedin: 4Corners K-9 Search and Rescue

Facebook: 4Corners K-9 Search and Rescue

Youtube: 4Corners K-9 Search and Rescue

Other: our email address: 4cornersk9searchandrescue@gmail.com gofundme if allowed: https://gofund.me/b6801c0e