VERMILION RESERVATION- Sex trafficking isn’t as black and white as is often portrayed on television police dramas. That fact, along with its outsized impact on Native American communities across the country, were just some of the points made during an all-day-conference sponsored by Bois Forte Victim Services and hosted by Fortune Bay Resort Casino earlier this month. The event on Feb. 6 brought together about 150 people, ranging from law enforcement to tribal officials, nonprofits, schools, and the public, with an interest in becoming part of the solution to the longstanding problem.
Presenters included professionals working with victims of sex trafficking and law enforcement working to arrest those responsible for trafficking both juveniles and adults. The final speaker of the day was a woman who was trafficked herself as a young person.

What it is like to be trafficked
KiloMarie Granda brought many in the audience to tears as she related her own life story, which included a tough discussion of the overlap of victims and offenders, as well as her journey from a difficult childhood in a family with a long history of sexual violence, child abuse, and rape. As an adult she has earned her PhD in psychology, specializing in sex trafficking trends, as well as a master’s degree in criminal justice.
“I am a lifelong survivor of abuse,” acknowledged Granda, who said she hopes her story will help others break the cycle. “I am still ashamed. I see myself as a victim. I blame myself.”
Her mother was trafficked by her own father, and the same thing happened to Granda when she was a teen. She was also sexually abused by older children.
She was kicked out her home at 16, and she ended up finding family where she could.
“It meant opening up my legs,” she said. She became addicted to drugs and “found evil there.” She also began recruiting other women.
“I became the exploiter,” she said. “It was the only way I knew to get power back.”
Survivors of exploitation and abuse don’t know what normal is, she said. “We seek out what we know.”
Even recovering from trafficking has its own challenges, noted Granda, as survivors are often asked to talk about their experiences. She said many end up being employed by organizations fighting such abuse, but then are required to speak on their personal experience.
“We need to pay them to have time to heal,” she said. “We need to stop the same trauma the pimps were doing to us.” Many in the “safe harbor” movement who are former sex workers say they don’t have a choice and end up in some sort of survival sex relationship because they can’t support themselves just on the salary from being an advocate.
Granda said she spent time working in the state university system, and at the Minnesota Legislature, working with elected officials on crafting new legislation, but even as a professional with a PhD, she could not escape the culture of trafficking and abuse, witnessing it for both herself and others.
At this point in her life, she is taking time to heal, as she suffers from serious health issues as well as the effects of past traumas.

Trafficking
Human trafficking is a complex set of crimes that usually requires cooperation from many agencies to prosecute. Representatives from many of these agencies were at the workshop, and they spoke about state and federal laws, how these relate to tribal sovereignty, and how these agencies are working together to prosecute offenders and give assistance to victims.
When a third-party benefits in any way from a sex act, that is considered trafficking, Taylor Lambrecht told the audience. Lambrecht works with the Human Trafficking Investigators Task Force (MNHTIF) and Tribes United Against Sex Trafficking (TRUST). He spoke along with co-presenter and Fond Du Lac investigator Molly Berhow, who also works with TRUST.
The two, who work together on this issue, took turns speaking and responding to questions throughout their afternoon presentation.
To prosecute the crime they need to show actions, means, and purpose.
“Traffickers are not always men and often do not use physical abuse or force.”
They described traffickers as “master manipulators.” Often the victims are not physically restrained from leaving, and traffickers have found other ways to keep control of these girls and make them think they don’t have the option to leave.
“It can happen to anybody at any age,” Lambrecht said. “They are promised things of value like food, money, drugs, shelter, gift cards, or higher status in a gang. It is a grooming process.”
Berhow said they are finding children who’ve been contacted in chat rooms on video games like Roblox or Fortnight, where someone posing as another child will have them contact them through another, less trackable, chat site, and then try to befriend that child.
This is happening to both girls and boys, they said.
“We are seeing an increase in young male athletes being abused,” Berhow said. Perpetrators are finding enough personal information on high school athletes on social media, where they find their school names and other identifying information. A “dupe” account pretending to be a girl will ask for a photo and this can turn into what is called “sextortion,” where a teen is blackmailed to produce more sexually-revealing photos or even money.
They explained the steps involved in luring a child, or adult, into sex trafficking, which can start online or in person.
A trafficker finds out what the juvenile wants and will then isolate them from their parents and friends. When they finally meet in person, the manipulation starts, and they make them feel like their only option is to participate in commercial sex acts.
“These kids get hooked,” they both explained, “and the same process is used with adults.”
The grooming can be done by a family member, neighbor, or friend, as well as by strangers online. Young girls are often lured in with the promise of a modeling job.
Risk factors for youth include a history of child maltreatment, being homeless, a runaway, or involved in the foster care system, being gay or transexual, being a person of color, and substance abuse. The two said they have seen cases where a juvenile is introduced to drugs by the trafficker, who waits until they are addicted. Then they shut off the supply of drugs until the child agrees to comply.
Signs that a child is being groomed include gifts like cell phones and fancy clothes, sudden changes in attitudes towards sexuality, secrecy when a specific person calls, being heavily influenced by a new friend or boyfriend, and missing school or work.
“Every single case is different,” Lambrecht said. And while they noted that youth considered at-risk are most often recruited, it can happen to a straight-A student from a two-parent household.
The two also talked about survival sex, which is treated differently under the law. This is when a person performs sex acts in return for things like housing, food, and other basic needs. But survival sex often leads to sex trafficking. And this can happen in reverse, they said, when a person leaves a trafficking situation, they don’t have housing or job skills or decent clothing and will end up in a survival sex relationship.

What is being done
Anti-trafficking groups like MNHTIF and TRUST monitor online sites and also review any tips that come in about trafficking of minors. When a federal sting took down the largest online sex site, Backpage, back in 2018, it meant the online sex world splintered into many pieces. The site was a focus of law enforcement, who were able to monitor it for any signs of underage sex workers.
“Then law enforcement didn’t know where to look and had to start again,” Berhow said. Now the state task forces are monitoring multiple sites, some regional and some Minnesota specific.
Sex traffickers can be women, and recent arrests and convictions in Minnesota have included a high school cheerleader and honor roll student, a college student at a prestigious private college in St. Paul, and a mother pimping out her pre-teen daughter.
The longest sentence for sex trafficking in Minnesota was 40 years, and this went to a man who targeted children with disabilities who worked in concert with other family members, who received sentences of up to 20 years. This man once drove a non-cooperating victim up to Ely and abandoned them there.
Those involved in recruiting victims often were also once victims themselves, creating ongoing cycles of abuse.

Education
Education is seen as a key to reducing trafficking, and the recommendations for tribal nations are similar to that for the state as a whole.
“We need to teach kids to be safe on the internet,” they both said. “We need to ensure safe housing for homeless, runaway, and pregnant youth. We need to equip tribal police with what they need to investigate networks of sex buyers and gang-related operations.”
Developing networks among enforcement communities at the tribal, regional, and state level is essential, they said, as well as sharing of information and resources.
“These cases can take years to investigate,” Lambrecht said. While tips of abuse are essential, most of these never lead to an arrest. “Maybe 300 tips will lead to five cases.” These cases are complicated, they said, and they also require a victim willing to testify.

What to do, where to learn more
Your Call MN (https://yourcallmn.org) is an online resource with information for the general community, tribal communities, and businesses like hotels. This site also has links to state and nationwide resources.
To report suspected trafficking, call 877-996-6222 or text “help” to 233733, or simply call 911 to get connected to local or state resources.
The state of Minnesota defines sex trafficking as receiving, recruiting, enticing, harboring, providing, or obtaining by any means an individual to aid in the prostitution of the individual OR receiving profit or anything of value, knowing, or having reason to know it is derived from a commercial sex act. The federal definition is slightly different and includes sex acts when it is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age.