LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The red heart hanging from the front door of Nathan Chasing Horse's home had a different meaning for many Wednesday following a police raid of the residence and Chasing Horse's arrest on several charges, including sexual abuse of a child under the age of 16.
In an arrest report, police said the Rosebud Sioux Indian Lakota Tribe member "abused his power and spiritual influence" as a "medicine man" to groom Indigenous girls and women for sex.
The actions came under what investigators described as a cult called "The Circle."
Nizhoni Widehat, community organizer with Native Voters Alliance Nevada, said women and girls are frequently targeted as victims of sexual assault, but largely from people outside of tribes.
"I can't think of anybody I know that hasn't been sexually assaulted," Widehat said.
She said the fact that Chasing Horse is accused of using a culture that's been systematically erased for centuries to exploit his own people made hearing the news worse.
"I'll never do certain dances or know how to wear these things," Widehat said. "These things that should be mine are gone, and this guy is using that as a way to keep people. To trap them. To steal them, and his own people even. It's a heinous crime."
Dr. Timothy Jeider, psychiatrist at Nevada Mental Health, said that's normally how cults work.
"They use commonly accepted practice, but then start shifting that practice towards themselves, where they become the central figure as opposed to whatever the central figure was in the original practice," Jeider said.
He said isolated individuals, like one victim cited in the arrest report, are more vulnerable.
Detectives who interviewed the woman said she was "seen as an outsider by tribal members" as a girl due to her mixed appearance in South Dakota while Chasing Horse lived in the Fort Peck Tribe.
Jeider said a cult leader will feed on the "otherness" people feel.
"Make them feel very special," he said, "and then they start exploiting their isolation. They make them more isolated, more dependent on the group."
Jeider had a message for anyone who may be concerned they're falling under, or have already fallen under, the influence of someone who has established a cult-like group.
"You're not alone. So don't forget that. Don't believe the lie. Reach out to anyone for help."
