Amelia Schafer
ICT + Rapid City Journal

RAPID CITY, S.D. – A Manderson man is in tribal custody on homicide and arson charges following a deadly fire on Oct. 19 in Manderson, S.D.

Reno Matthew Rondeau was arrested on tribal charges Saturday and charged with first-degree homicide, first-degree arson, criminal mischief, damaging private property and the sale and possession of an alcoholic beverage.

Credit: Reno Matthew Rondeau of Manderson, S.D. was arrested on Oct. 19 in connection with a fire that killed a former corrections officer that morning. (Oglala Sioux Tribe Department of Public Safety)

The fire killed 42-year-old Tanya White Butterfly, an aspiring criminal investigator and former corrections officer for the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

Sometime around 8 a.m. (Mountain Time) Oct. 19 the fire broke out. White Butterfly, who was at the residence visiting with friends, was trapped in the home.

Over 10 years ago, White Butterfly’s brother Ivan was killed in a house fire. This incident is what caused White Butterfly to join law enforcement, her aunt Hattie White Butterfly said in an interview with ICT and The Journal.

“She was one the backbones of the family,” Hattie White Butterfly said. “You’d call her and she’d be there.”

White Butterfly was a mother of three and a grandmother currently taking care of two nieces.

“They (the kids) were saying this morning, ‘When is mom coming back?’” Hattie White Butterfly said. “I’m gonna have to go visit with them and let them know that she’s an angel now.”

Credit: Tanya White Butterfly, 42, was an aspiring Criminal Investigator and former Corrections Officer for the Oglala Sioux Tribe. White Butterfly was set to go to the Indian Police Academy in Artesia in January. (Courtesy photo)

Tanya White Butterfly’s death has left a void in the family. Her family’s only vehicle was destroyed in the fire along with some belongings.

On Oct. 21 White Butterfly was set to start a new job with the Oglala Lakota housing authority before returning to Artesia, N.M., this January for the Indian Police Academy and continuing on her path toward becoming a criminal investigator.

“Someone knows more,” Hattie White Butterfly said. “I was really upset about the officers not getting much information. … It’s really upsetting.”

Tribal officials said the FBI now has jurisdiction over the case but has yet to indict Rondeau on federal charges. As of right now, he’s held in tribal jail.

Violent crime in Manderson is within the jurisdiction of the FBI as part of the Pine Ridge Reservation. 

This story is co-published by the Rapid City Journal and ICT, a news partnership that covers Indigenous communities in the South Dakota area.

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Amelia Schafer is a multimedia journalist for ICT based in Rapid City, South Dakota. She is of Wampanoag and Montauk-Brothertown Indian Nation descent. Follow her on Twitter @ameliaschafers or reach her...