Sunday Focus With Christine Manika
Call to Freedom: Lynnette Grey Bull's Story
Call to Freedom is at the forefront of helping victims of sex and labor trafficking navigate a new path. It’s not an easy journey. But the hope is through education, others can help those who are being trafficked in our area and state. Previously, CEO and Founder of Call to Freedom Becky Rasmussen joined the program to tell us more about the organization. Today we'll hear from a victim advocate named Lynnette Grey Bull. She has partnered with Call to Freedom and shares her own experiences with violence. Lynnette also gives us a glimpse of violence within the indigenous community. More information can be found at calltofreedom.org or call 605-261-1881. Lynnette's story can also be found on notournativedaughters.org website
- Duration:
- 29m
- Broadcast on:
- 11 Aug 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
This is Sunday Focus, a weekly public affairs program that looks at the topics affecting our society and the people who are making a change in the community each and every day. The people who have vision for the next generation. Sunday Focus presents new challenges for us, keeping you informed with topics of local and regional interest. Now the host of Sunday Focus, Christine Manica. Hello and good morning, welcome back to another edition of Sunday Focus. We have been doing a lot of different segments with Call of Freedom, the organization here in the Sioux Empire. They are at the forefront of helping victims of sex and labor trafficking navigate a new path. It's not an easy journey and we've been emphasizing that for the past couple of segments now, but the hope is through education. Others can help those who are being trafficked in our area and state. We have been talking with the CEO and founder of Call of Freedom, Becky Rasmussen, about this amazing organization. And now we are going to be hearing from Lynette Grebel. She is going to tell her story and more of the perspective of the Native American community with other issues involving that. Good morning, ladies. Welcome. Good morning. Thanks for having us. Becky, it's been a joy getting to know you. These past couple of segments of really over the past couple of months, if I'm thinking about it. And, you know, last time we learned from Mary's story, Rita and Jordan's, now we're hearing from Lynette Grebel. So please do us the honor of introducing her to us. We have a gift this morning in our studio and her name is Lynette. And Lynette is the founder and director of Not Our Native Daughters. She focuses on raising awareness about indigenous matters, particularly addressing human trafficking and missing murdered indigenous women and girls' crisis. Our advocacy extends way beyond Wyoming and South Dakota. But she's particularly on the Wyoming Governor's Task Force for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons, as well as the Colorado Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Task Force, where she plays a pivotal role. We have a wealth of knowledge in Lynette, and we welcome you here today. Thank you for being with us. Thank you, Lynette. Hello. How? It's a Tonka Couye. Good morning. Thank you so much for having me. I'm Lynette Grebel. I'm Honk Pappalakota from the Stanny Roxy tribe, and I'm also Northern Arapo from the Wind River tribe in Wyoming. I am so honored to be here this morning. I want to learn more about your language, because just then, I'm like, "Wait a minute. Now I need to learn more about that." But I want to thank you for being a part of this important conversation. And I really want to give you this time to tell your story from the beginning. Tell us where you're from and just a little bit more about who you are. Yes. Well, to try to give a good snapshot view of my beginnings and my life, my father is from Stanny Rock, and my mother is from Wind River, both born and raised on the reservation. And because of their experience growing up, they both left the reservation at a very young age. They went to pursue college and other things to very ambitious for their time, anyways, because it's really unheard of and during those times that Native Americans left the reservation. Now, 70% of Native Americans occupy urban settings, but back in those times it was just really unheard of. So my parents were very, I would say, innovators and ambition. It was very scary during those times for Native Americans to leave the reservation. They left, and then they pursued my father pursued a bachelor's degree in technology during the time, which is known as IT, but technology. And so, of course, they got married and they moved to Los Angeles, and my father worked for Panasonic, and my mom worked for a huge engineering company. So I was actually born and raised in Los Angeles. And I think about a very unique background for me because I was in all the kids I went to school with were all the different races. I can honestly say that when I was growing up, I really didn't see color lines, because it was just so diverse, and it was so community and it wasn't white or black, and it wasn't politics. It wasn't what it was, what it is now. And so that background kind of helped me because I got to know how to integrate in so many various different communities, not just a Native American community. But I spent my summers on the res. I was on the powwow trail. My family was a big powwow goers, and my grandparents were powwow announcers and very well known. And so, unfortunately, I would say that my parents loved me. My parents raised me the best to their knowledge. My parents did a great job on providing for our small family because it was just me for like 13 years, but now that I've been trained and educated on trauma and formed care, they were trying to escape their own trauma, which related, and of course, my father was a boarding school child. He had a lot of trauma in those areas as well. So I always say this, I never went to boarding school. I didn't was raised on the reservation. I had nothing ever bad happen to me as a child. I had a great, a great childhood. But I suffered the past down trauma and the associate trauma that my parents carried and was trying to run away from. And so, unfortunately, that trauma caught up to them. So when I was about 14 years old, alcoholism took over their lives, which resulted on me being a homeless youth at 17 years old. So I'm a young girl. I'm 17 years old. I live in on the streets in Los Angeles was very wake up call. Yeah. Take your time. It's okay. It was a wake up call to reality and during those years of being a youth on the street and living on the street during those times and not really have any type of support system or safe people to go to, you know, I was, I was, I was raped. I was, I was exploited. I was all the things you can think of, of a young person being on the street. You name it, it probably occurred. And being a mother of three children, even when my kids were around the same age that I was at, when I had to be on my own, is like, is triggering because I always wanted someone to protect me and I will always protect my children. Most mothers will. And so this is what kind of stemmed why I do what I do. I can honestly say that my life journey and is so, so much more in between the stories. But definitely God has used the, the, the ashes and the pain and the trauma for beauty. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. I know it's tough. So I appreciate, we appreciate you sharing your story and opening up to us a little, but I can only imagine the emotions, thoughts that you were going through when those days were hard. How did you manage to keep your spirit up during those tough moments? I was able to get some other, gain some other girls that were like me who were on the street, who were homeless. Some of them have been homeless and on the streets since they were like really way younger than I was 12, 13 years old. And we were the same age, but they had unfortunately just, you know, sounds horrible, but they had more experience navigating the streets and survival than I did. And we used that sisterhood and that bond ship to create our own family. These other two women that I'm, I'm mentioning or I wouldn't say mentioning, but I'm talking about our referencing to, we're still good friends today. I don't even think we're friends. I think we're sisters, you know, at this point, we're a family. But that type of bond ship that I had was a sense of family. And then after we started to get a job and get a place and do all these little things young adults do, I was, we were able to kind of be, I guess, normal people, whatever normal is. But, you know, we'd be able to live a normal life in society. We all went to school, we all went to college and how we were able to go from, you know, living on the street and, you know, trying to get a hotel room or, you know, all these different things. None of us had IDs. None of us had our birth certificate. I mean, you could just imagine all the different little details that was a struggle for us. We had to find hotels or motels that would take us, you know, because we were all underage. And so all these little different things, you know, I can't believe how we managed through all of that. But we were able to manage all of that. And when we were able to come to age, we were able to actually get on our feet. And I know that I wouldn't have done that if I didn't find these two other girls who were just like me. Well, that's awesome. If you're just listening, we are being joined in the studio right now with Lynette Graybull. She also works with Call of Freedom and Becky Rasmussen, the CEO and founder of Call of Freedom is with us in the studio. Now, before we move on to the work and what you have noticed within the indigenous community, when did you realize what was happening in your family? Because you were so young when all of this was going on around you. I would say I spent a good, you know, man, I can't even count the years. I would say a good nine years of trauma-informed care for myself, and not just one form of trauma-informed care. One was through my church. Another one was through a licensed professional. These were, I was doing this therapy and trauma-informed care approaches when my kids were really young, because I also had to learn how to be a mother, you know, I had to learn how to, what is healthy discipline, what is, you know, healthy nurturing and all these different things. And I would say for my young childhood, I was loved, I was nurtured. I had everything the child needed, but I needed to learn those things. So through my therapy, through the women that I would say that, you know, I didn't have a mother as an adult, but I had, I feel like God sent me many mothers along the way. And so I had different women and different time in my life that would just come and feed into me and be my mother or even be the grandmother to my kids. And so during that, I was able to see and actually forgive my parents and understand that they had compound trauma and associate trauma through the boarding school era, through some of the violence they had to go through as children. I understood the wickedness and the motive of the violence that is done to people and how it travels from person to person and family member to family member until someone is willing to take the courage to stand up to it and say, this is no longer happening in our bloodline. And I feel like for my spiritual self during that time, that's what I was doing. That's a great transition actually, because like you said, being a victim of violence, it can really happen to anybody. What are you seeing within the indigenous communities and what do you want our listeners to know? So again, a lot of my journey where I say all of my journey has compelled me to do this work in, I was working in the finance industry, I was working in the corporate world, this is young adult Lynette, and I thought I would retire in this industry. I loved my job. I loved the company I was working for. And then I came across some statistics through the US Census Bureau. And in that report, and this was released in 2010, this is when I came to acknowledge and kind of really swallow the hard pill that the statistics for Native Americans are the worst in the country. So you know, and I always say this when I speak, but you know, I'm before you, sitting before you, a full-blooded Native American woman, but the statistics that hang over my head is that I am the most stocked, raped, murdered, sexually assaulted. And Native American women suffer domestic violence 50 times higher than a national average than any other ethnicity in this country. And I said that probably over 100 times, and it's still really hard for me to say, because I started the organization, my organization, based on these statistics, and those statistics only have gotten worse. Wow. That's unbelievable. That truly is. And you know, your work does touch a lot of people here in South Dakota and in other states. Can you tell us a little bit more about your organization and how it connects to Call of Freedom? Yeah, absolutely. So my organization is a national MMIW organization, missing murdered indigenous women, missing murdered indigenous people, you know, we do not exclude men, and of course anti-human trafficking. So the base of what I do is technical assistance training on these topics, but I also help organizations and others work with Native American community. I work as a tribal liaison to help build those bridges that are not there. Sometimes it just takes creating a meeting where we get law enforcement, the tribal community, like tribal leaders, BIA, or tribal PD, victim services, not only from the tribe, but also the border towns and counties, and bring them all under one roof and say, how do we fix this disconnect of a lack of justice, usually we'll have our present different cases in those meetings and say, this is how some of these cases went, you know, the problem with the MMIW movement is that we don't have the people who are paid to impute the justice and the justice system process. And I'm not saying in all cases, but in most cases, they're put in the back burner. It really takes organizations like Colorado Freedom and was meeting with Child Protective Services. It really takes entities who are willing to listen, who are willing to learn, who are willing to expand the need, and who is willing to say, we need to collaborate, we need to do something about this, because I always say this, you know, I've worked in so many different tribes across the nation, from East Coast to West Coast to South to North. I've met with so many tribes, so many different advocates, but I also have to talk about families who have missing loved ones or murdered loved ones. And human trafficking is the stem on why there is an MMIW movement. So if human trafficking is a key component to it, then human trafficking needs to be instilled in all of the work that we do. Because sometimes I tell law enforcement this, and they just like, oh, I never put those two to two together, you know, and sometimes it just takes a meaning or it takes a conversation to build those bridges together. So I hope in some small way I'm doing that, but it takes collaboration and in no way I can do this alone. Yeah, absolutely. When you look back at from the birth of the organization you created until now, what's the rewarding part of your job and what's challenging, whether it's from start or until right now? I would say what's rewarding is the stories I carry with me along the way. Whether they are survivors of violence like myself, whether that's stem from domestic violence, sexual assault, or trafficking, I've had the pleasure to be, to sit and amazing people who have survived things they probably shouldn't have survived, or I mourned with a lot of families. You know, when someone is missing and someone is murdered, there's not much you can really say to them, but I hope that in the areas in the journey of my life where I was able to mourn and sit with them made some kind of impact. I would say even though that seems like the grief and the sorrow, it is still rewarding because if I can't do anything, I'm going to be compassionate. I'm going to allow my presence to allow someone else to have peace. And then, you know, the hardship part of it is the ongoing theme of lack of justice for our trafficking and our missing and murdered cases. You know, I said this, you know, before, but it really just takes people who care, bottom line. It doesn't matter what level of expertise you have, it doesn't matter how many acronyms you have behind your name. If you find somebody who cares and is compassionate and is willing to come together, that's what it takes to change the world. Absolutely. If you are just listening, we are being joined in the studio right now with Lynette Grebel, she is working with Call of Freedom and Becky Rasmussen with the Call of Freedom CEO and founder, she is also with us in the studio. When you look back on your journey and when you were creating your organization, how did you or how do you use your testimony to help the indigenous community? In the beginning, which I still do, I only share, rarely share my story. And I do it with law enforcement because I think it's important as a victim advocate that they know that, you know, I've survived some of these things. So that's always been a good partnership that I've had with law enforcement for law enforcement entities that I have partnered with. And then also, I think that as a mother and as a professional, as somebody who's done a lot of trauma-informed care background, healing for myself and then education as well, I feel like, you know, I want people to see me as a professional. I want people to see me as someone who they want to partner with. Not somebody who is like, "Oh, this is the poor victim," or "I don't like to be labeled by any of that." I think it's part of my story and it's a powerful piece of my story, but that's not all who I am. I fought a lot through life to get to the part where I was healthy enough to go to school. I was healthy enough to seek out other forms of education. I was healthy enough to get to these places where I wanted to make a difference. And that had changed throughout the years. You know, one hat was I'm a trainer and a presenter and the other hat, I'm running for Congress in Wyoming, you know, and in another hat, I'm doing something, I'm lobbying in D.C., you know, and then another hat, I'm working with children. I work with Native youth now, you know, and I have been for the last two years. So the hat continues to evolve. And I think that's the beauty of healing. Like if you stay on the, and I say this too, you heal to the day you die. I will never arrive and be in healed, but I will say that God keeps continuing to create these spaces of opportunity, of sharing my story as a mechanism of healing, whether it's just attacking the trauma, whether it's just being a friend to somebody or just telling somebody, I understand. It sounds like no matter what you've been through in life, you're very ambitious. You definitely inherited that from your parents, I feel like. Absolutely. I give them all the credit for that. Absolutely. That's wonderful. And Becky, you said that you haven't known Lynette for long, but you're forming a friendship, you're forming a partnership, what's that like to work with Lynette here? You know, for us, we are here to serve people at call to freedom. And we know within South Dakota, most of the most vulnerable are the indigenous communities within our state, not the only vulnerable, but the most vulnerable. In South Dakota, we're out of the five poorest counties. We have three within our reservations. And when you have those poverty dynamics, you have this ability to integrate organized crime. And so we need to learn. We need to collaborate, just as Lynette said, and her voice is strong. Her insight is so valuable to us as an organization to be able to grow, to expand how we serve the indigenous population, but also to learn how we can reach and collaborate better. And so Lynette has been just a phenomenal voice. We look forward. This is only the beginning. I said, last night, I'm not saying goodbye, we're just saying, see you later, if you get on the plane, because we're looking forward to her being a vital role in the development of call to freedom. What's something that you learned from Lynette, because you talk about learning and education. So what is something that you've learned from just meeting her? She's resilient, as you have heard, the resiliency, not only Lynette, but also the Native American communities, and they just need somebody to come alongside them, whatever capacity it looks like. You had two individuals that you said were your friends, and that community was so important. And I think being able to learn and to build trust and learn how to collaborate well with some of the history that we have imposed on our Native communities. And there's a lot of healing that needs to happen. There's a lot of conversations. There's a lot of listening that needs to happen from both tables so that we can effectively help populations that need the help in the anti-human trafficking world. Absolutely. Lynette, what advice do you have to anyone listening right now when it comes to issues of violence and serving the indigenous communities in our area? As you know, South Dakota, and I would say just the entire Northern Plains region, there's a lot of historical racism and historical discrimination. It takes me and you to say, "We're going to undo this. I don't like to say you over there, and we'll be here." No work is done like that. My tribe is in South Dakota, and I work with the tribes here in South Dakota as well, different advocates and different movers and shakers. We have to get, and I tell my own community this, we have to get past not working outside of our race, outside of our community. We need to build community, and we need to show our children that we just don't stay in our own bubble, and we have to collaborate, and we have to come together. Otherwise, there's never going to be any unity involved, and it really doesn't matter what is happening in the political world. It doesn't matter what happens on the state level, those things. We are the people who occupy the community in the state. We definitely can still have meetings. We can come together. It's tradition for us to have a meal together, and I always say this too, for those who want to work with Native American communities and Native American professionals or whatnot. Come alongside us, don't come in front of us, don't come above us, work alongside of us, you have expertise that we need, and we have expertise that you need, and so when we have that common respect, I think so much ground can be covered in one. I could not say, you couldn't say that any better, I couldn't say that any better, that's for sure. You have a lot of goals. I can tell you, personal, professional, political, what do you mainly want to achieve? I initially ran for Congress in the state of Wyoming against Liz Cheney, who is a high rank in GOP, and I had a wonderful time with Liz Cheney. All the times I had to debate her, meet with her, she's a pleasant person. However, I ran knowing I wouldn't win, but I ran to put missing murdered indigenous persons and women and children on the forefront in the media. So I successfully done that, and then when I ran the second time, I really did want to win. Yes! That's a good idea. But I think there's a dual mission there, I'll say this, I'll say that I need the Native American community children to see that they can occupy these spaces of elected offices or if they want to be an actor, an actress, or if they want to occupy all of these other spaces that were not represented in, that they need to have a goal to go after that. And sometimes you have to be the person that tries to get in those spaces. And so, running for Congress was not only to have more Native representation on a federal level, but also to create the change that I aspire to acquire in my life. I've mentioned to you the statistics of Native American women and Native American community overall. It is my life's mission to change those statistics at the end of my life. I have a feeling you're going to do that. I got a good feeling about that. We are about to wrap up our conversation with Lynette Grebel and Becky Rasmussen, CEO and founder of Call of Freedom. Becky, before we wrap up with this conversation, anything else you would like to add? I think I'd really like to direct people to Lynette's website. Learn more. I think it's a great resource. And if you are feeling moved to learn more about our Indigenous community, she's a great resource. And so her website is just the name of her organization, not our NativeDaughters.org. And so I encourage you to research, find out information. And I just, I really feel as we navigate life together, Indigenous communities, to world communities, to just different communities. I think we need to learn to listen, to learn, and to respect one another. And so our hope and the ending is that we learn to do that as a community because when we do, we will unite and we will make change. Absolutely. Lynette, anything else that you would like to add? I just will thank you for this opportunity. I feel like any microphone that's presented to me, I'm going to take the opportunity to share my heart and my life's mission. But it also takes people who are willing to share that voice. So I honestly just sincerely thank you for this time. And I also want to speak to the listeners. Maybe you've never had a connection with Native American or a Native American community. But I encourage you to share a smile, share some kindness. This is how we start breaking down those barriers. And for us as a Native American community, understand that not all white people are racist. You know, not everybody is discriminatory based on race. I think we're a lot better than that. So I encourage others to just try to reach over those areas and build community because again, that's how we change the world. Wonderful. Becky Rasmussen and Lynette Grable, thank you so much for joining us this morning, ladies. Thanks for having us. Thank you. We're on our website for Lynette one more time, not our NativeDaughters.org. We'll be right back. Teachers are diverse, skilled leaders, innovating to prepare students for our fast-changing world. Teaching shapes lives. Are you ready? ExploreTeaching@Teach.org, supported by the U.S. Department of Education, and one million teachers of color. I'm Christine Manica, and thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of Sunday Focus. Please join us next week. Monday Focus is a public affairs program of a results radio, town square media Sioux Falls.