Human trafficking is evil, it happens in South Dakota and even in our community. This is why the South Central Human Trafficking Coalition was formed and has erected this sign. The most dangerous times for children and teens in South Dakota to be trafficked are the Sturgis Bike Rally, which is starting this week, and during the hunting season. Victims are brought in by vans for out-of-state hunters in certain lodges, especially West River. I-29 and I-90 are two major routes for drug and human trafficking.

Our Coalition has been meeting since May of 2018. A Catholic sister from the Omaha Coalition Against Human Trafficking encouraged us to get involved in prevention and education. Charon Asetoyer, director of the Native American Women's Health Resource Center, and her amazing staff at the Women’s Lodge, a domestic violence shelter, have been doing a lot of the work.

The purposes of our Coalition are to educate and to prevent human trafficking.” We work with other organizations and coalitions working against human trafficking in order to bring increased awareness of the impact human trafficking is having in our communities.” (SCHTC Mission statement) Our Coalition has spoken to many groups in the area: area schools, Boys and Girls Clubs, church groups like, the Catholic Daughters and the Knights of Columbus, and other groups about the prevalence of human trafficking in our area. We discuss what it looks like, how teens are recruited, groomed, then sold, sometimes forced to do drugs and sell them. The victims feel trapped, and their families are threatened.

The Coalition consists of people from various agencies and ways of life: Indian Health Service, The Women's Health Resource Center, Women’s Lodge DV Shelter, Tribal & State Social Services, the Yankton Sioux Tribe, Avera Wagner Community Hospital, local Police and the Sheriff's Office. Others come to the meeting because they care about our children and teens, and what this social problem has cost our communities. Since the Pandemic, we have been meeting by Zoom in order to practice our social distancing. Call the Women’s Lodge Shelter at 487-7130, the Resource Center at 487-7072, or Sr. Pat Mylott at 384-3305, if you are interested in helping with this important and urgent work.

The Coalition has put up an anti-human trafficking sign by the Yankton Sioux Travel Plaza for those traveling eastbound and this new anti-human trafficking sign for those traveling westbound. We have placed posters around the various gas stations and restaurants. There has been pull tab posters placed in many public restrooms with the hopes, the woman or man in trouble would pull off a tab with the Coalition phone number and use at a later convenient time. These have been placed as far West as Bonesteel SD.

The South Central Human Trafficking Coalition appreciates theWagner’s Knights of Columbus for volunteering and purchasing the materials to erect our Anti-Human Trafficking sign and also to, Laken Nedved, with Laken Design, for designing and ordering this wonderful sign for us.