HOLLYWOOD — Looking to increase awareness about the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives (MMIWR) epidemic, Lorna Cuney (Oglala Lakota Sioux) began organizing the Medicine Wheel Riders in 2019.

The Medicine Wheel Riders is a group of Indigenous women who ride motorcycles across multiple states to advocate and gather resources for MMIWR. Their story is documented in a short film, “We Ride For Her”, which was screened Jan. 15 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood and included a panel discussion.

Seminole Tribe of Florida tribal member Durante Blais-Billie, host of the panel and the event organizer for Hard Rock and Seminole Gaming, said the event idea stemmed from January being Human Trafficking Prevention Month, as trafficking disproportionately impacts Native communities. More than 5,500 Indigenous women and girls are missing or murdered, and homicide is one of the leading causes of death for Native women. According to the Protect All Children from Trafficking (PACT) website, 27.6 million people are victims of trafficking worldwide.

Blais-Billie said the event and film aligned with her goals of community involvement, community healing and prevention against violence.

“We’ve been wanting to have a community event that combines the tribal community with all of our stakeholders and partners and employees at Seminole Gaming and Hard Rock for a while, but this just seemed like the perfect opportunity,” Blais-Billie said. “Red Sand Project reached out to us with this film that specifically focused on Indigenous activism in the space. So, this is perfect, this is the perfect introduction. It’s perfect to have these people open this space for us with their knowledge and their experience in it.”

The panelists were Cuney, Katrina Massey (PACT Board of Directors and Survivors Council Member), Prairie Rose Seminole (film co-director), Lori Cohen (CEO of PACT) and Molly Gochman (Film Executive Producer and Red Sand Project Founder). The panel spoke before and after the film about systemic challenges Native communities face, the high rates of human trafficking and how to work toward prevention. Some takeaways included promoting community education, raising awareness, showing kindness and asking questions.

Cuney said she does not consider herself an expert on human trafficking or MMIWR, but she is a community member – and she knew she wanted to help. Her advice is to prioritize education on the topic and take responsibility for the community.

“When I see all my sister riders, these are some of the most compassionate women that I’ve ever met in my life. I think every single one of us has been affected by this in some way or some form, and we just wanted to help our communities,” Cuney said. “Because it’s very hard for our communities to get the resources and the help that they need whenever they’re faced with this. Through doing that, it was something that I wasn’t educated about. It’s something that I really didn’t have a whole lot of knowledge about. But I just knew that I wanted to help my community. And that’s how a lot of women are, we just wanted to find ways to be active, to take action.”

While communities can be advocating for MMIWR and raising awareness about human trafficking, Prairie Rose Seminole said at the same time, there is grief happening on an individual and collective level.

“So, with this film, not only do I want you to ask questions, but I also want you to see that here’s a group of women who all have a deeply personal connection to tragedy and how they collectively move their grief into action,” Prairie Rose Seminole said. “They collectively move their grief into advocacy and knowing that it’s not just one individual going through these pieces. It’s a community that is working together at all these different levels, from the front lines to the halls of Congress, really trying to make this movement shift.”

Bringing more people into the conversation, holding each other accountable and asking questions are some takeaways she hopes people get from the film.

Ramsey Mondesir, audience member for the screening and director of security and transportation for the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, said the film and panel showed that education on trafficking is important even when the topic can be “taboo” to discuss.

“Starting a simple conversation goes a long way. Being security department, we strive to try and prevent this, and it’s all about education,” Mondesir said.

In addition, the panel discussed the preventative side of trafficking. Massey said doing preventative work on all sides of trafficking, with victims and perpetrators, is an aspect of prevention. Childhood traumas
of victims and perpetrators can be very similar, Massey said, so setting children up for success and taking care of the community as adults is important.

Cohen said something she does as a parent is educate her two sons to “never buy another human being for sex.” Though it can be a challenging conversation to have, Cohen said it is a necessary one to stop the demand and profitability of trafficking.

“We’re thinking a lot about the victims, and we have to remember them and honor them and respect and charge their memory. But what about the perpetrators, right? What is their responsibility, and what is our responsibility to stop men from buying women’s bodies for their own pleasure and control and domination, right? Because in some cases, this isn’t about pleasure, it’s really about domination,” Cohen said. “And I had worked with so many victims who had been so harmed by the commercial sex industry where they were being exploited and abused, and I really took it to heart.”

Hollywood Board Rep. Christine McCall said she wanted to attend the screening to show support and advocate for Indigenous people and the Hollywood community.

“We’re not talking enough about how to educate our young people about healthy relationships,” Rep. McCall said. “As a young woman, I’m a mother, I’m always trying to educate my daughter about – not ‘bad people’ – but people that give you those uncomfortable feelings and not pushing them down.”

Rep. McCall said she tries to raise awareness and teach her daughter about what to look for.

“It’s always been an important thing for me, as a community member of the tribe of this community that’s right in the city, to bring awareness to things,” Rep. McCall said. “And just make sure that I’m always trying to learn more, where that not only the women in our tribe, but the men in our tribe can understand that if they have young children in their families, sisters, mothers, or even our own men, get exploited at times. It’s just something that’s very important that we need to be teaching with one another, not just Seminoles, not just Natives, but everyone needs to learn about the warning signs.”

Hard Rock and PACT have an educational program, Social Identity Quest, that is aimed toward helping children navigate the internet safely to avoid online predators. To register a school or group visit
socialidentityquest.com/siq-registrationform/.

In addition, Hard Rock will donate $10,000 to Medicine Wheel Ride to benefit families impacted by MMIWR and research efforts, according to a press release. To learn more or donate visit medicinewheelride.org.

Resources:
National human trafficking hotline: 888-373-7888 (humantraffickinghotline.org)
StrongHearts Native helpline: 844-762-8483 (strongheartshelpline.org)
Tribal Victim Advocates, Center for Behavioral Health: 954-964-6338
Women in Distress of Broward County: 954-761-1133 (widbroward.org)
More resources linked here.