Episode #15: Jeannie Hovland
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Jeannie Hovland, Vice Chairwoman of the National Indian Gaming Commission and member of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe joins the podcast to share the story of her career journey, the importance of tribal self-sufficiency and the NIGC’s efforts in addressing issues like human trafficking and missing and murdered indigenous persons. With over 20 years of experience in tribal gaming, Jeannie shares valuable insights on the role of tribal casinos in enhancing community welfare and provides crucial resources to help in combating human trafficking.
Notes
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NAtional indian gaming commission (NIGC) human trafficking resources
Human Trafficking Press Release
Human Trafficking Bulletin
Human Trafficking Questions & Answers
Human Trafficking Resource Pamphlet
Combatting Human Trafficking in the Tribal Gaming Industry: A Call to Action Combatting Human Trafficking Through Collaboration
The White House
The National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking | December 2021
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
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Dyani Marvel: Hello, welcome to another episode of Level Up with Wondr. I'm Dyani Marvel, Vice President of Marketing Strategy and Operations at Wondr Nation, and I will be today's host. This session is being recorded in November, which is Native American Heritage Month, and we are continuing to shine a light on Native leaders in the gaming community and beyond.
I'm excited to welcome Jeannie Hovland to the podcast. Jeannie Hovland is a member of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe. She's the Vice Chairwoman of the National Indian Gaming Commission, a role she has held since January 2021. She oversees the regulation of over 500 Indian gaming facilities across 29 states.
Previously, Vice Chairwoman Hovland held roles as Commissioner of the Administration for Native Americans and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Native American Affairs at the Administration for Children and Families under the Department of Health and Human Services. She has a distinguished career advocating for tribal self sufficiency, governance, and addressing key issues such as the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous people.
Welcome, welcome, welcome, Vice Chairwoman Hovland. So let's get started talking about your background. Tell our listeners about your journey. How did your career evolve?
Jeannie Hovland: Thank you for this opportunity to invite me to be here and share today, I really appreciate this time. As you stated, I am Flandreau Santee Sioux I'm also Oglala Lakota and Norwegian. I was born and raised in a small town away from my tribal community in South Dakota. I moved to Flandreau, our tribe in South Dakota, a few years after I graduated from high school.
Shortly after I got married, I moved to Sioux Falls. When I lived in Flandreau, I was taking college courses and I had the opportunity to work for a tribal casino. So that was my first involvement in the gaming industry, and that back in the 90s so it was relatively new to our tribes in our state.
But shortly after I, I got married, moved to Sioux Falls, not too far from Flandreau where our tribe is. Had two sons, Brandon and Blake, and they are my greatest accomplishments of my life, always. Once they started school, I decided to try to get back into the workforce . I created a consulting business called Wanji Native Nation Consultants and that gave me the opportunity to work with some of our tribes on a variety of issues.
In 2005, I was asked to go to work for Senator Thu, newly elected in the state of South Dakota Senator, and I started off as Native American outreach and later included tribal affairs and just two weeks shy of doing that for almost 13 years.
It was such an amazing experience and it gave me the opportunity to travel to our nine tribal nations located in South Dakota. I spent as much time over those 13 years in the communities as possible. What it allowed me was to experience for the first time in my life, and I'm now an adult and a mother, experience our traditions, our culture, our language.
After being in the corporate world and then going to our tribes on business Everything was approached in a holistic way. All meetings opened with prayer, when there is a significant milestone ,or breaking ground on a new building or what have you, there was a ceremony, there's tradition, the language was always spoken, and I just felt absolutely honored to be able to learn who I am as a Dakota Lakota woman.
I will always be learning. And it's ironic to say I got the opportunity to learn more about my culture, my peoples, my ancestors, while I was working at the federal government. So yeah, that's the irony.
Dyani Marvel: That's awesome. Now you were raised off the reservation and you came back as a young adult. What impact do you feel like this had on you and your career path?
Jeannie Hovland: Being raised off the reservation most of my life, being an urban Indian, and then going back to our tribal community for a short time, but also the time I've spent in the communities really has been helpful for me to have the perspective from both sides, whether you live in the tribal community, or whether you live away.
And as you know, in the 2020 census. bureau the majority of Native Peoples we now live away from our tribal communities I think it's helpful in my positions to be able to have that perspective from both sides, experience on both sides.
Dyani Marvel: I can see that that value having, like you said, varied perspectives. It makes you bring a lot more to the table in terms of the roles that you do serve in. So, as you think about your career path, what were some of the most pivotal moments and some of the biggest lessons that you've learned along the way?
Jeannie Hovland: One of the biggest, I would say will lead into our discussion we'll be having in a little bit about human trafficking, I was absolutely amazed that I was born and raised in South Dakota my whole life and when I started visiting our tribal communities regularly, I heard of people that were missing, homicides that had grown cold, there was no more investigations taking place.
I would leave just so upset and I would look for it on the news, on the internet, and there's nothing. I was just shocked by that.
The prevalence of it was one thing, the lack of attention and resources was another. And then realizing that like me, many in our state have no idea that this was happening and to the extent that it was. That was pivotal for me, before there was a title, Missing Murdered Indigenous Persons, that this had existed for decades.
Dyani Marvel: And I'm assuming that had, like you said, a great impact on you. So, but we'll talk about that subject a little bit more in the podcast.
But before we move on, let's talk a little bit about your career path. Did you face any challenges working your way to your current position? And if you did, how you were able to overcome them?
Jeannie Hovland: Life in general, there's always challenges along our journey. The one that I will highlight is in 2018. I did what I said I would never do. I moved to Washington DC.
I was like, now I'm never leaving our tribal communities, I love it here, I feel like this is home. I just felt like it was such a great opportunity I didn't want to pass up, but the challenge was that though my sons were grown, my youngest son has autism and my life had been him and I, trying to determine if it was realistic. So, I took a leap of faith, moved out there. My son moved out there with me. We were excited for this new adventure together, but he didn't like it and he wanted to move back to South Dakota.
I had to make a big decision right away. Like, do I want to continue on in this role or do I need to move home? Worked with the programs to get my son into adult services and he was ready to be independent and he even said it's time for me to spread my wings and fly out of the nest.
I was heartbroken and wondered if I was being selfish, wondering if this was the right decision. He moves back and it's been six years later now, so yeah, I believe it was the right decision, but I doubted myself through the first couple of years, to be honest with you.
My parents are both living, so it's just that struggle of being far away and doing what I feel so honored to do here at NIGC as well as when I was A& A Commissioner.
Dyani Marvel: Absolutely thank you for sharing that because sometimes when we, think about our challenges in our careers. We focus on work related, but quite often it's family challenges or family situations that we go through, that also has a big impact on how our career proceeds.
Jeannie Hovland: Absolutely.
Dyani Marvel: So, let's talk a little bit about your current role.
So, tell me about your current position as vice chairwoman of the NGIC, what are your areas of responsibility?
Jeannie Hovland: You talked a little bit about the agency role, which is to regulate and ensure integrity of more than 500 Indian gaming facilities. That's so awesome. But including that is 250 tribes that have Indian gaming and across 29 states. It is a big mission, a big responsibility I was recently in May reappointed to another three year term. I just love NIGC, the mission of NIGC. I love meeting with our tribes and just seeing the great work and expertise that our tribes have in the gaming industry.
But some of the responsibilities specific to the role as a commissioner first of all, the NIGC is comprised of a three person commission, a chair, who is nominated by the President of the United States, and then confirmed by the Senate and then two associate commissioners. The commission as a whole, our responsibilities are administrative appeals, tribal consultation, and any regulatory changes or updates, which is why outreach, which is part of our way to uphold these responsibilities is so vital. Hearing firsthand from the experts, those on the front line from our gaming tribes or regulators as we look at our responsibilities and any changes across the agency, it's important that we are engaging regularly with our gaming tribes.
Dyani Marvel: Absolutely. Now, when you think about when you first came into this role, what were your priorities and how has that evolved over time?
Jeannie Hovland: First, let me say I came in in 2021 when we weren't quite out of the pandemic. My priority was to do what I just talked about, outreach, gained the perspective from tribes, but it was slowed a little bit because not all of our tribal communities or gaming operations were fully open yet.
But my priority was to better familiarize myself with our agencies, with the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act ,with our agency regulations.
As I talked about my 1st experience working for the federal government, I was in the field, I was the person not in a leadership position, I was a person that met with tribes that heard of solutions that they wanted to be supported through the federal government.
So I remembered where it came from and the importance of our team who has been with the agency, many of them for, a couple decades or more, but had a lot more experience ,had that engagement had built those bridges between our agency and the tribes provided that continuity. I knew it was important that they are the experts day to day when it comes to our agency to engage with them to get their input to see what their thoughts were for priorities for regulations.
Shortly after once the pandemic and things were relatively back to business. I don't know if you follow us on social media, but we have been very, very busy myself included for the last over 3 years now, traveling to our communities and with tribal gaming organizations to Continue that engagement, because we know that the gaming industry is evolving all the time, technology is evolving all the time. So it can't be just, you know, make a visit every now and then it has to be a continuous engagement with our gaming tribes and regulators.
Dyani Marvel: Absolutely. Now, what has been your proudest moment as far if you could pick 1 or maybe if it's 2, if you can't choose between the 2.
Jeannie Hovland: Well, it makes me so proud to see how successful tribal gaming has been. The level of expertise our tribes have in the gaming industry makes me so proud. And it isn't just an opinion, we a fact. We had another record gross gaining revenue for tribal gaining of 41. 9 billion, almost 42 billion dollars in the
Dyani Marvel: That's incredible.
Jeannie Hovland: Yeah, another record breaking year, despite all the challenges through the years, pandemic recovering from that and several other, you know, challenges that the tribes face. It just makes me very proud to see them continue to lead and succeed.
Dyani Marvel: Absolutely. Now, one area of your role focuses on building capacity for tribal gaming regulation. Can you briefly explain the goals of these efforts and what your role is?
Jeannie Hovland: So, absolutely. And I talked about our team and the commitment for going upstream, meaning like trying to work in advance of, of potential compliance issues by providing training and technical assistance. And we could do that like individually with our gaming tribes and tailor training specific to some concerns that they might have.
And our agency and I've, it's been almost 20 years for me that I've been with the federal government has one of the most robust training technical assistance programs that I have seen. We report our training numbers and attendance, but in fiscal year 23, we regulate 251 tribes, and in fiscal year 23, of those 251 tribes, 242 of those tribes attended some form of our training and an overall attendance rate of get this 20, 000 people. A big part of that is that our region offices are compliance officers really ask for feedback, look at like national compliance issues that they see coming up and really tailor a training to address issues that gaming regulators want training on.
So we do a monthly national training topic, and they're all very well attended and they're very regulatory specific. But in addition to that, cyber security is a hot ticket item, not just for tribes, but across the United States and globally, and our agency has really done some remarkable work on addressing cyber security.
We've hosted our first For three years in a row, an annual cybersecurity symposium, which we just did a few weeks ago. we have great partnerships with the tribes, the regulators, and our sister agencies.
We had a department of Homeland Security. FBI part of our subject matter experts, along with our agency subject matter experts to really go into a deep dive of cyber security, protecting tribal gaming and tribes cyber security, I. T. Infrastructure and and that one day symposium a few weeks ago, we had, I think right at 675 that attended.
And those numbers also, you know, reflect that this is a priority topic tribes. But there's other areas our IT audit team oversees the cybersecurity portfolio. They're very busy partially due because of it being a hot topic. But our agency offers at no cost for tribes and tribal gaming regulators, either in person or on site cyber security training.
Another tool is our, again, no cost and IT vulnerability assessment, which provides a complete vulnerability analysis. of the IT system, the tribe and the casino. And we've been doing some social engineering, which includes physical security controls of their gaming facility. So we're really going in to try to provide whatever expertise we have to help with prevention.
And we always hope that it never happens to a tribe, but if there is a cyber security Incident, they can reach out to our agency and we can provide virtual support, help them get in touch with other subject matter experts. If it's beyond our expertise, but our cyber security team, it audit has been very, very busy.
Dyani Marvel: Thank you for sharing. Sounds like some very amazing resources. And I think it's great for our listeners. Hopefully there's some tribes that are listening in that have gotten some information about some new resources they hadn't considered.
So, let's transition over to talking about a very critical topic and we talked about a little bit earlier. We hinted at it and that's human trafficking.
We know that human trafficking is a focus for the NIGC. Can you explain 1st and foremost what this is? So everybody can get a similar understanding and provide some examples for our listeners.
Jeannie Hovland: Starting off well, thank you, because that when we provide our training, we always start our trainings on human trafficking by explaining what is human trafficking.
So many people still do not understand what human trafficking is, have a perception from what we've seen in some movies of human trafficking.
So it is a crime, it involves exploiting a person for labor, services or commercial sex.
Commercial sex is when there is sex or a sex act in exchange for something of value. People Typically think , that it has to be monetary. Is that commercial? Yes. But commercial sex can be in exchange for food to eat, in exchange for a place to stay to get a ride somewhere, for people that have addiction issues in exchange for their drug or next fix.
When we do our trainings, which are at least 3 hour trainings, we go through examples. The difference between commercial sex and prostitution and commercial sex and human trafficking are the keywords force, fraud, coercion.
We also go into our conversations in our training and give examples of what does forced fraud and coercion look like, and it has many faces of what forced fraud and coercion look like.
We tried to share of course, always protecting the victims, but case studies from real life situations that help us to get a better understanding of what is force, fraud and coercion. I also want to state when there is commercial sex act, and the person is under the age of 18, it is human trafficking, even if there's no force, fraud or coercion.
Dyani Marvel: It seems like a big misconception is like, what constitutes human trafficking. Are there any other common misconceptions about human trafficking that can actually help to perpetuate the issue?
Jeannie Hovland: absolutely. People often think that the majority of traffickers are strangers which is not the case. There are strangers, stranger danger is still important to teach. But a lot of it happens from somebody they know you're acquainted with, somebody they know intimately, somebody that may be a family member or community member that you should be able to trust.
So it isn't just strangers that are the perpetrators. I also want to note that when we provide examples of force, fraud and coercion, we a lot of times hear back afterwards where they were like, I didn't think we had human trafficking here.But now I realize we do, and we've had it for a long time. I didn't realize that was human trafficking. And we've had some people approach us and say, I think I'm a victim of human trafficking after hearing what I heard today.
There's a lot of work to be done in education, and I thank you for the platform to raise the voices of Families and survivors of human trafficking and getting this dialogue out there. I understand it's a difficult topic, but it is a conversation that needs to keep happening.
Another thing that we hear, and it's so good to get this feedback, a lot of people feel that there has to be some type of transportation of the vehicle for it to be trafficking. There are situations where somebody can be catfished and taken far away by plane, driven places. That is a form of trafficking. But again, there's familial trafficking where the trafficking is happening in the home. A lot of times that's related to substance use in the home, large parties, a lot of people. Victims there that either are underage or older that are trafficked in exchange for a substance or money to buy it. The trafficking can happen right there in your home, right there in your community and at any time.
The other thing I've, I've noted, and I think a lot of this has to do with just not really thinking too much about it or seeing certain movies, but people don't always understand how violent human trafficking is. It is one of the most severe forms of violence and many of the victims endure hours and hours, day after day, of physical, sexual, and psychological violence at the hands of their trafficker and sometimes at the hands of the buyer. Included in that psychological an emotional abuse is they've been told by their trafficker and oftentimes the by the buyer if they are going to go forward, the cops are going to arrest them because they're a prostitute and they keep them convinced that they are criminals and not victims, which is why it's difficult a lot of times for the victims. People are like, well, why don't they run? Well, they have been brainwashed that they are not a victim, but they are a criminal. And if you go to the authorities, they're going to put you in jail. That's another big misconception that we hear about often.
Dyani Marvel: And that's why it's important all of the education that NIGC is doing for this topic. And why particularly is this such a critical issue for Native American communities and casinos as well? And how widespread is it?
Jeannie Hovland: Human trafficking is one of the largest global criminal organizations that we have. Depending on the year, it's the second or third largest global criminal organization.
People from all backgrounds, ethnicities, socioeconomic statuses are susceptible to human trafficking. Every industry, not just the tribal gaming and tribal hospitality, every business community program should be trained on what to watch for human trafficking indicators and what to do if you suspect human trafficking.
Our authorities are in the tribal gaming business, which is why our agency at the ask of tribes and a White House report on combating human trafficking published in 2021 is why our agency has produced some resources. So again, every business, every community, every country should be having conversations on red flag indicators of human trafficking. And they're going to look different in some communities, some businesses, than others.
I think part of why it's critical for Native Americans is as we've finally had some recognition, momentum, laws to address missing and murdered indigenous persons tribes want to make sure That human trafficking is included in those efforts to address our missing and murdered relatives. So that's part of it. But again, talking about violence in our tribal communities in the 2020 census count, we had an increase of how many people identified as American Indian and Alaska Native. That increase, and sometimes I'll ask, do you want to take a guess on what percentage American Indian and Alaska Natives now represent in the overall United States population? Less than three percent, less than three, that's an increase from 2010.
So why is it an issue for our tribes? According to United States trafficking report, American Indians and Alaska Natives are particularly vulnerable. Native American women, experience more physical and sexual violence than other racial and ethnic groups.And why is that? Well, you know, there's probably a lot of reasons, but we know the effects of historical trauma, current trauma, the complexity of our jurisdictional issues for law enforcement contribute, definitely contribute to it. There isn't a one reason why.
A study conducted by the National Institute of Justice shows that in some of our counties in the United States that are comprised primarily of tribal lands, the murder rates of Native American women are up to ten times higher than the national average. And again, we represent less than 3% of the overall populations. I think it's really important that casinos and hotels are part of the human trafficking and missing, murdered indigenous conversations.
If you don't mind, can I share my perspective since being in this job on how tribal gaming positively impacts both missing and murder and human trafficking?
Dyani Marvel: absolutely
Jeannie Hovland: We kind of knew this already, but really putting it together on how the gaming industry fits into these conversations, we have seen reports and studies that traffickers target the most vulnerable. They'll look for people who are down and out.
When we see somebody that is in a situation where they need help, we don't look at it as an opportunity to make money, traffickers do. Many in poverty have fallen victim to human trafficking or may fall victim to human trafficking because they're in a desperate, vulnerable situation.
The tribal gaming industry is typically the largest or one of the largest employers in the community, helping to bring economic prosperity and economic mobility to their tribal community members without having to leave the community, being able to stay in their community with their family and have, that opportunity for economic independence.Many of our tribes that have access revenues have chosen to reinvest their gaming revenues back into community programs that are vital to strengthening our higher risk populations for building a healthier community.
Some of tribes have reinvested in other business ventures in their community, providing for other job opportunities programs I've seen supported through gaming revenues, such as substance use programs, mental health services, access to quality health care, which is important, not just access to health care, but quality health care. Quality health care programs to strengthen families, which helps reduce the number of foster children in the system. All these populations that require everybody to be a voice for them, And vital to helping protect them. I've seen where the gaming revenues have really helped to build that capacity of protection and prosperity.
Now it is very diverse, not all communities have those revenues to be able to reinvest or to a certain extent as others, but even for those that are maybe smaller and rural and don't have a lot of excess revenues, they're still providing jobs, which are, you know, a big struggle in all rural communities, but not only jobs, but a lot -of times careers thinking the long term.
Dyani Marvel: It's encouraging to hear that the tribal gaming is having a positive impact in it’s critical areas. Can you talk to us about what the is doing to help combat these issues? Because I know you guys have a lot of great programs that you have.
Jeannie Hovland: We do. Thank you. And prior to my arrival in 2021, the NIGC back in 2017 had played an active role by providing human trafficking awareness with other federal agencies as such as the blue campaign, which is part of the education and campaign under the Department of Homeland Security. We worked with truckers against trafficking to just have the conversation on human trafficking not specific to gaming but including community approach.
But then in 2021, in December, the White House released the national action plan on combating human trafficking and in that report, it stated that the N. I. G. C. with the support of the Bureau of Indian affairs, treasury and Department of Homeland security would conduct outreach to tribal gaming hospitality to provide awareness on human trafficking in that industry.Our role again is casinos often, as we know, in our tribal communities, the hotels, the hospitality industry is connected to a casino or nearby.That's why we were glad they included other agencies. Our role again, under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act is gaming a little bit with the infrastructure and safety of a hotel that might be attached to a casino, but our regulatory role when it comes to human trafficking under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, under our regulations, tribes are required to operate their gaming enterprises in a manner that adequately protects the public health and safety.
So, that would include, of course, criminal activity. And as we know, human trafficking is a crime.With the White House report action plan, as well as with this language by law and our regulations we began monthly meetings with the agencies, reached out to tribes that we knew, and their casinos were actively already combating human trafficking, had developed resources. We developed several Tools. One of them was a multi agency training where we would go to gaming tribes, we have the Bureau of Indian Affairs Missing and Murdered Unit, which is a relatively newer unit. We have the Bureau of Indian Affairs Drug Enforcement Unit.
A lot of times, we have the Homeland Security. They're investigators sometimes. We developed training on all of those indicators to look for in all of the professions across the gaming industry. Then we go through recommendations, coming up with a, a protocol, a plan, a process internally on gaming operations.
In addition to that training we collaborated with Blue Campaign who published an online toolkit specific to red flag indicators and travel gaming and hospitality. I don't know if you've seen that online resource before.
We have tried to feature for the last three years in January in honor of, honor of human trafficking awareness month, virtual dialogues with tribes, with other federal agencies, best practices. We have all of these resources of our trainings that are done virtually recorded and online, and I'll get you a resource.
The first year we had Native American man shared about their family's experience with human trafficking, recovery and healing. Then last year, we featured tribes that have moved from education and awareness to a call to action and are just doing some great work on ensuring that their employees, the people, their patrons that visit and their communities know that that there is zero tolerance for criminal activity, including human trafficking and they are creating a atmosphere of families and individuals to know that they want them to be able to come there and enjoy their time and know that their tribe in their gaming operations are, you know, on top of this, that they were addressing it.
I do want to highlight that our agency produced a few years ago, but recently updated a living online human trafficking resources pamphlet, it's free, it's available to the public and it is multidisciplinary. It is one of the best pamphlets that I've seen out there.
In May now, we have featured the last couple of years, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Month have had 2 virtual dialogues. Last May, we featured 2 tribes, Cheyenne and Arapaho and the San Manuel tribe who are using gaming revenues to support a community driven task force, billboards throughout the city and community driven solutions.
Dyani Marvel: I feel like we could talk about this forever, but we are kind of wrapping up, but I do want to ask you about kind of looking ahead. And, like, what is the legacy you hope to leave behind? Maybe that's your current role with native American gaming in general. What would you like to leave behind?
Jeannie Hovland: I hope what people see in me is not a title.
Not personal recognition, but they see a person who cares, who strongly believes in raising the voices of our tribes, respecting the voices of our tribes by listening and carrying priorities out so it's community driven and being dedicated to serving our tribes at, at all capacities. Supporting the solutions, the ideas, the priorities of the tribes while having to fulfill our regulatory role as an agency always gaining that insight, that input by tribes, out of respect of tribal sovereignty.
We have the honor to work with the greatest leaders in our nation, to travel to the greatest nations in the world through our tribal communities. What an honor and a privilege that has been for me and continues to be.
At the end of the day, it was about being able to make a difference and knowing that's what matters the most.
Dyani Marvel: I say that you've already made that impact and so it will only get stronger as time goes on.
Jeannie Hovland: Thank you.
Dyani Marvel: What advice do you have for people who are personally looking for pathways to help combat human trafficking and address missing murdered indigenous persons?
What can they do on an individual level?
Jeannie Hovland: First, educate yourself. We learned through the pandemic, being a good relative, make sure we're safe, make sure our family's safe, make sure our community's safe. Seeing what are the programs or services in your community that you can either volunteer at, support resources whether it's through donations, donating your time. I like to say use your social media for good. Use it to get tools out, use it to encourage others to lift others up.
That's where in the tribal gaming industry I hope that those that work in tribal gaming, no matter where they're at in their profession in tribal gaming know that they are making a difference in their communities and the prosperity of the people in their communities, the protection of their peoples.
You might be the one person than an elder sees when she visits regularly, who knows her name, who says hello, who acknowledges her, who feels like she's important to someone. You might be the one person that smiles at somebody that looks fine on the outside but is feeling like they're dying on the inside and nobody sees them, they're invisible. So, we can all make a difference wherever we're at and whatever we do, but truly the tribal gaming industry really contributes to so many positive impacts as we talk about our communities, our people and these two topics of missing and murder and human trafficking.
Did that answer your question?
Dyani Marvel: Absolutely, and thank you for insight, hopefully our listeners can know how personally they can make an impact on these topics.
Jeannie Hovland: And I think that's where you're right on there. This isn't just for tribal leaders, law enforcement, federal agencies to address it's for everybody. This needs to be a united community driven approach with the support of other resources outside of the community.So, we all, I believe, have an opportunity and we all have a responsibility.
Dyani Marvel: Absolutely. And I will say too, for this podcast and our show notes in our transcripts, we will put links into all of those resources you talked to us about today. So any of our listeners can go right there and you will have direct links to be able to access all of these amazing resources.
So, Vice Chairwoman Hovland, thank you so much for your time today. This was a fantastic discussion, I really enjoyed spending the time with you learning about all the great work that you do about these critical issues of human trafficking, missing and murdered indigenous people, and what can be done and the resources available. So thank you so much.
Jeannie Hovland: Thank you its my honor.
