Resources and Information About Trafficking in South Dakota

Understanding Human and Sex Trafficking in South Dakota

Human trafficking and sex trafficking are serious crimes that impact individuals, families, and communities across South Dakota. While trafficking is often misunderstood or associated only with large cities or international borders, it occurs in rural, urban, and tribal communities throughout the state.

Understanding what trafficking is, and what it is not, is essential to recognizing exploitation, supporting survivors, and preventing harm across South Dakota.

What Is Human Trafficking? (Defined by South Dakota Law)

Under South Dakota Codified Law 22-49-1, human trafficking is illegal conduct involving the recruitment, enticement, harboring, transportation, provision, receipt, purchase, advertisement, maintenance, solicitation, or obtaining of a person knowing that force, fraud, or coercion will be used to cause the person to engage in a commercial sex act, forced labor, or involuntary servitude. Financing or benefiting from such activity also constitutes human trafficking.

This codified definition reflects a broad understanding of trafficking behaviors, including many methods traffickers use to exploit victims.

What Is Sex Trafficking?

Sex trafficking is a form of human trafficking in which a person is compelled to engage in a commercial sex act through force, fraud, or coercion. Under both federal and South Dakota law, any minor involved in commercial sex is legally considered a trafficking victim, regardless of whether force or coercion is proven.

Sex trafficking may include:

Commercial sex acts
Online exploitation and advertising
Survival sex linked to food or housing insecurity
Exploitation by traffickers, intimate partners, or family members

Understanding Exploitation

Exploitation occurs when someone takes advantage of another person for personal gain by abusing power, trust, or vulnerability. In sex trafficking, exploitation may involve manipulation, threats, control, or withholding basic needs such as food, shelter, or safety. Physical violence is not required. Because minors cannot legally consent, any commercial sexual activity involving a minor is considered exploitation and sex trafficking under South Dakota and federal law.

What Human and Sex Trafficking Are Not

There are many misconceptions that make trafficking harder to identify. Human and sex trafficking are not:

Always visible or physically violent
Always perpetrated by strangers
Always connected to kidnapping, cross-border movement, or international crime
Always linked to one specific location

Many trafficking situations rely on psychological manipulation, coercion, threats, debt entrapment, or abuse of authority rather than visible force.

High-Risk Events and Trafficking Patterns in South Dakota

Certain annual events draw large numbers of visitors and are linked with increased trafficking risk:

Sturgis Motorcycle Rally

The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each summer to western South Dakota. Traffickers view large gatherings like this as opportunities to exploit vulnerable individuals, including women and children.

Hunting Season

South Dakota’s fall hunting season also brings large temporary populations into the state. Local organizations report that some individuals use this time to traffic victims alongside legitimate visitors.

Interstate Transportation Routes

South Dakota is part of the so-called “Midwest Pipeline,” where I-90 and I-29 are used to transport trafficking victims across the region and country.

Traffic flow tied to these corridors and events increases the state’s vulnerability, making awareness, reporting, and prevention efforts critically important.

Sex Traffickers Target Native American Children and Communities

Native Americans are disproportionately affected by sex trafficking in South Dakota. Although Native people make up about 8 % of the state’s population, they represent a much larger percentage of sex trafficking victims. Estimates suggest that around 40 % of identified victims are Native women and girls.

These disparities are linked to systemic inequalities, intergenerational trauma, poverty, and jurisdictional barriers that can inhibit reporting and access to services. Tribal nations often work independently and collaboratively with state organizations to build culturally appropriate responses.

Grooming in Human Trafficking: How Traffickers Target and Exploit Victims

Traffickers often prey on vulnerability. Vulnerabilities can include age, gender, socioeconomic status, isolation, trauma history, race, and lack of support networks. Grooming can happen gradually and may not initially appear harmful.

Common grooming behaviors include:

Offering gifts, money, transportation, or housing
Providing affection or attention to build dependency
Isolating individuals from supportive relationships
Exploiting emotional needs or identity vulnerabilities
Introducing exploitative situations under the guise of romance or opportunity

Understanding grooming and vulnerability helps communities identify risky situations and intervene earlier.

Familial Human Trafficking: When Abuse and Exploitation Occur Within the Family

Trafficking does not always involve unknown strangers. Familial trafficking occurs when a parent, caregiver, or family member exploits a child or dependent for labor or sex. This breach of trust often remains hidden due to loyalty, fear, or dependence, making outreach and culturally sensitive services especially crucial.

Barriers to Reporting and the Importance of Survivor-Centered Response

Many survivors do not self-identify as victims during exploitation. Barriers to reporting include:

Fear of retaliation or harm
Shame or self-blame
Distrust of authorities
Lack of awareness of legal rights
Economic or emotional dependence on the trafficker

Recognizing these barriers is key to fostering compassion and effective support systems.

Survivors need responses that are trauma-informed and culturally responsive, confidential, supportive, free of victim-blaming, and focused on autonomy and choice.

In South Dakota, coordinated responses among law enforcement, health care, advocates, and tribal partners help ensure survivors are supported and not criminalized for exploitation they did not cause.

Preventing human trafficking and sex trafficking in South Dakota requires education, awareness, and collaborative action from community members, service providers, tribes, law enforcement, and health professionals.

When systems work together and center survivor safety and autonomy, communities become stronger, safer, and more resilient.

Learn the signs of trafficking and how to report it

If some of these signs are present, they may indicate something is wrong:

Bruising, scars, burns, cuts, or scratches
Numerous inconsistencies in their story – avoids eye contact
Fearful, anxious or depressed mood, hyper-vigilance, paranoia, malnourished
Cash payments, no identification or fake ID, no green card or legal documentation
Not allowed or able to speak for themselves
substance addiction or the appearance of withdrawal symptoms
Lying about age and may appear unhealthy, but may have nails and hair done
May not talk or be allowed to speak or disclose anything

QUESTIONS TO ASK:

I want to make sure you are okay. Do you feel safe?
Is anyone threatening you or hurting you?
Can you leave if you want to?
What does help look like to you?

Learn about more signs and questions to ask.

If you or someone you know is being trafficked or assaulted, CALL 911 so local law enforcement can respond ASAP.

If a person needs to reach out and talk to someone, please call the Sex Trafficking & Sexual Assault Victim Hotline at 1 (888) 352-8511 or 211.