Chickasaw Nation honors metro Woman fighting human trafficking in indigenous communities

A metro woman was recently awarded for her work in spreading awareness of human trafficking in our state. The award from the Chickasaw Nation shines a light on the crisis in First American communities.

Whitney Anderson is an advocate for trafficking survivors and the co-founder and CEO of Dragonfly Human Trafficking Victim Services in Oklahoma City. That service to the community landed her the title of Chickasaw Nation's "Dynamic Woman of the Year."

“That my tribe recognized Dragonfly’s work was among the most meaningful things that could happen to me,” said Whitney Anderson, The Dragonfly Home.

Anderson's work has been making an impact on the metro for nearly a decade.

“We found the Dragonfly Home in 2016,” said Anderson.

A safety net for anyone caught in the crossfire of human and sex trafficking.

“Indigenous people are affected by the issue of sex trafficking at a highly disproportioned rate,” said Anderson. “Traffickers target vulnerabilities and because of what we’ve been through and what our ancestors have been through there’s a lot of trauma.”

Anderson said trafficking is tied to another crisis - Missing and Murdered Indigenous People. However, Anderson said the award from The Chickasaw Nation for raising awareness is bittersweet as Governor Stitt vetoed funding for MMIP investigations on MMIP Awareness Day.

“The bill that I vetoed was going to be asking the state to start funding that office instead of the federal government,” said Gov. Stitt.

Andreson responded to the Governor’s video posted on X.

“These are important issues and they deserve to be funded at the highest level,” said Anderson.

Anderson said her work continues regardless of the actions of state leaders.

“The people we serve at Dragonfly are incredibly brave, they’re strong, they’re resilient and they’ve been through hell,” said Anderson.

Anderson's organization works with all law enforcement, including tribal police, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics.

Helping someone in a trafficking situation is only a call away. The Dragonfly Home hotline at (405) 212-3377 is monitored 24 hours.