Brainwashing': the shocking case of a Native American healer accused of sexual abuse

"I was grabbing a hold of any and all connections that felt good or safe, she said. Leone thought she found that after a relative recommended she talk with a self-described medicine man named Nathan Chasing Horse. As a child, Chasing Horse had acted in the 1990 Oscar-winning movie Dances with Wolves. As an adult, he traveled North America performing healing ceremonies."

"Eventually, after becoming part of Chasing Horse's group, the Circle, attending healing ceremonies and surviving cancer, Leone started to see him as a messianic figure. He could say, ask or do anything, and there was no wrong, Leone said. And that was where it all went bad. The belief that Chasing Horse had healing powers made it easy for him to sexually abuse minors, including Leone's daughter, according to a criminal indictment."

"Chasing Horse now faces 21 charges, including sexual assault, sexual assault with a minor, first-degree kidnapping of a minor and the use of a minor in producing pornography. He has pleaded not guilty, and his trial started last Tuesday in Las Vegas, throwing light on a shocking case of what seems to have operated like a cult and also on the often under-reported area of sexual or violent exploitation of Native American women."

Melissa Leone, an adoptee who learned of her Lakota descent in the mid-1990s, sought connection with her Native American roots and joined a group led by Nathan Chasing Horse. Chasing Horse, a former child actor who later conducted healing ceremonies across North America, presented himself as a medicine man who connected with ancestral spirits. Leone and others described feeling belonging and viewing him as a messianic figure. Prosecutors allege that Chasing Horse used that authority to sexually abuse minors, including Leone's daughter, and manipulate adults. Chasing Horse faces 21 charges, has pleaded not guilty, and is on trial in Las Vegas, raising concerns about cult-like exploitation and under-reported violence against Native American women.

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