Happy Native American Heritage Month!

A Brief Update and Exciting News to Share

Mitakuyapi - Friends and Relatives, 

November is already upon us! This month is National Native American Heritage Month. It's a time to celebrate our Native Cultures, enjoy the bounty of our gardens, and prepare for this upcoming cold winter. Our top priority is to keep survivors (and their children) safe and warm while they are healing at Pathfinder Center, which includes winterizing our center. If you’d like to help, please contact us to find out more.

With that being said, we want to share a brief update from these past few months, share our exciting news for 2024 (which is just around the corner), and we'll talk about the Dark Side of Hunting Season and the prevention work we are doing.

First, in the third week of September, we participated in the 20th Annual International Human Trafficking & Social Justice Virtual Conference.  Two of our staff attended the three-day conference in addition to us having a “virtual booth” on their website.  Click here to find out more about the conference and review some of the past topics.

October 6-8 our staff attended the He Sapa Wacipi (Pow-Wow) and Vendor's Expo held in Rapid City, SD. This annual event brings together thousands of Native dancers, singers, and an array of visitors from all around the U.S. and Canada. We set up our awareness booth and handed out information to our many visitors. 

Heads Up - Our 2nd Annual Online Auction Coming Soon!

While we were attending the He Sapa Wacipi staff collected donations from various vendors for our 2nd Annual Online Auction, which will be held this coming January. We’re Excited!

We are very thankful for the donations received thus far, however, we have not reached our goal, just yet.  In our 2023 Auction, we had over 40 items/services and made a little over $2,000. Our goal for our upcoming auction is to feature 50 items and reach $5,000. We know that with your help again we can meet those goals.

If you would like to help with this upcoming benefit auction please donate what you can in the way of auction items.  Items might include; beadwork or quillwork, gift certificates for food, gas, or spas, ribbon skirts, ribbon shirts, native-design t-shirts, purses, books, prints, paintings, gift baskets, jewelry, or whatever you think people will bid on.

To contribute to our 2024 benefit auction mail your item(s) to Pathfinder Center, PO Box 49, Fort Thompson, SD 57339 before December 31st. 

All donations are tax-deductible and go directly to supporting victims of sex trafficking for their personal needs such as; eyeglasses, clothing, IDs, birth certificates, craft items, transportation to appointments, and gas for women to safely arrive at Pathfinder Center.

The Dark Side of Hunting Season:

Tribal Lands & Jurisdictional Challenges

Did you know that hunting season is also a time that our women are trafficked to hunters that come from all over the United States? It's true! We have had survivors of sex trafficking tell us they were trafficked to hunters on reservations.

According to the October 20th Argus Leader article: Thousands of hunters are expected to arrive in the coming weeks. Tourism is one of the leading industries in South Dakota, and in the northeast part of the state, pheasant hunting is a big draw.  Last year, the five counties with the highest reported harvests were Beadle, Brown, Brule, Lyman and Tripp. In all, resident and nonresident hunters spent an estimated $257.3 million.

In other words, Beadle, Brown, Brule, Lyman, and Tripp counties had the top harvests in 2022, which means that they had the highest concentration of hunters - the majority being men and non-residents.  It is a known fact that wherever there is a high concentration of men gathering — women or underage girls are targets for sex trafficking and this must end now.

Crow Creek Department of Natural Resources and Wildlife staff stand in solidarity with Pathfinder Center to help Stop Sex Trafficking on Tribal Lands.

The Lower Brule, Crow Creek, and Rosebud reservations are all close to these top five counties so we are basically ground zero for illegal activities, such as sex trafficking.  All nine reservations in South Dakota have their own wildlife programs and sell resident and non-resident hunters licenses for pheasant, deer, pronghorn, elk, and other wildlife to be hunted within Tribal boundaries.  Some of these hunters will stay in one of the twelve tribal casinos/resorts located in South Dakota where all serve alcohol until 2 a.m., seven days a week. Or, there are several hunting lodges scattered throughout South Dakota that cater to hunters.

While most hunters are respectful, others try to solicit Native women for sex under the veil of darkness.  I have personally witnessed this myself and have heard stories from other people witnessing it happening at our casinos.  We have heard women tell us their stories of being raped by out-of-state hunters — and they all have a common theme — they were bought alcoholic drinks in excess, then when they were highly intoxicated they were taken advantage of and raped.  However, I have never seen any of these hunters held accountable for their crimes. 

The local Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Tribal police do respond to sexual assaults and rapes when reported on the reservation, however, due to jurisdictional laws they can not arrest and/or jail a non-native offender.

To make it even more complicated for a native woman victimized in her own homeland by a non-native is the confusion of jurisdiction. The BIA/Tribal police do collaborate with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation since reservations are under federal jurisdiction for major crimes committed on tribal lands. The FBI’s victim advocate may also talk to the woman and offer support services. Sadly, the FBI is slow to respond so most of the non-resident hunters who violate federal laws on our reservations usually leave before they can be officially charged.

Then you have the U.S. Attorney General's office for the District of South Dakota and the local county sheriffs. Both these law enforcement agencies have jurisdiction to make an arrest of a non-native but rarely follow through. Also, in most rural counties, local sheriffs only have one or two police officers on staff making their response time limited. In addition, some of the smaller towns don't have jails so they must transport offenders to a jail that might be over 60 miles away. The bottom line is that hunters who commit major crimes on our reservations leave the state with absolutely no accountability. 

A 2018 paper entitled "SEXUAL ASSAULT ON NATIVE AMERICAN RESERVATIONS IN THE U.S.", co-authored by Chrystal Begay and Tinesha Zandamela, and published on the Ballard Center website sums it up: "The confusion over which department should take the case can lead to slow and poor responses and less substantial evidence. Native American women who live on reservations are the least likely demographic to see their sexual assault case investigated or taken to trial." Read more.

It's so sad that these “Johns” do not see Native women as human beings and the law enforcement agencies find it hard to hold them accountable.  It seems that some officials only see tourism dollars and will appease the thousands of non-resident hunters, regardless of whether they broke the law on tribal lands. There's no justice given to Native women who bear the trauma that will last a lifetime. This is why we continue to advocate for survivors of sex trafficking and find creative ways to do prevention work.

We Are Putting Hunters On Notice!

I am not saying all hunters are looking to purchase women for sex, but when you have a large group of men coming to our reservations, not all have good intentions or are respectful to our women.  So Pathfinder Center has decided to post notices to these hunters who may have intentions of buying Native women.  We will install four 8’ x 8’ billboards - two on the Crow Creek reservation and two on the Lower Brule reservation. We will also be posting this message in our local casinos, as well. 

Do you want to help?  If you live close to a tribal casino ask them if you can hang up one of our signs.  The signs can be posted in the restrooms — right above the urinals in the men’s so they see it, and on the stall doors of the women’s so they can call the South Dakota Helpline’s 211 number.  Contact us if you would like to help.

PS: Remember to mark your calendar for November 28th - #GivingTuesday. Please donate what you can on that day. We are also participating in South Dakota Gives with many other caring non-profit organizations for our chance to win some cash prizes. If you see our #ForSouthDakota posts on Facebook, X-Twitter, and Instagram, please like and share. Pidamayaye.

Pathfinder Center is a 501c3 non-profit and all donations are tax-deductible. Please consider donating to help a survivor in need. Donations can be made online through our website at www.pathfindercenter.org/donations or by a check mailed to Pathfinder Center, PO Box 49, Fort Thompson, SD 57339. Thank You!

We are a 501c3 non-profit organization. Donations are deductible as allowed by IRS law.