Thousands of Native Americans Have Been Kidnapped, Abused, & Left For Dead by 'Sober Living Homes' After Being Promised Treatment

Native Americans Jul 4, 2026

Disclaimer - If you are expecting sparkles & rainbows in your news, I'm not your girl. I am here to tell the truth, no sugar coating. It may make you uncomfortable. Good. Sit with it. Learn something.

2019 to 2023 - Thousands of Kidnappings

Because murdering our ancestors, relegating us to reservations & boundaries that were never honored, and attempting to ensure we never left the confines of the reservations or its poverty wasn't enough, a large group of people targeted Native Americans to come to "sober living homes," expecting to go to a place of nurturing and healing. Instead, many of them ended up homeless for months, missing, and even possibly thousands dead.

Over eight THOUSAND people are thought to have been victimized by this scheme, and no one is talking about it. WHY is no one talking about it!? Oh, right. Because we still don't fucking matter in this social-experiment-gone-wrong of a country. We are still very very low on the totem pole around here, despite being the ones here first, caring for the land and its creatures rather than obliterating it all to make room for an infinite array of stuff. Things. Trash.

These people, human beings, were lured by 'fraudsters' into sober living homes, promising 90 days of treatment they didn't need to pay for. In 2018, a meeting at which an Arizona Congressman was in attendance, warning of fraudulent sober living homes across the nation, victimizing thousands of people looking for help navigating a new, clean, sober life. 41 people have been convicted for this scheme, to the tune of BILLIONS of dollars - no, that's not a typo. They defrauded Medicaid over 3 billion dollars! Wasn't Elon's job supposed to be 'trimming the fat' or whatever on Medicaid fraud? Is that only when the fraud isn't against people of color?

The victims were members of the American Indian Health Program through the Medicaid agency, the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS). The leaders of these 'homes' that were more like torture chambers than living spaces were billing AHCCCS over $8,000 a DAY per patient!

And get this. In 2018, a congressional hearing warned about these fraudulent sober homes, and an Arizona congressman was in attendance.

Where The Hell Was Law Enforcement?

I'm sure they're all reallll busy with their group rub and tugs at the department, but they were made aware of Natives being kidnapped from reservations as early as 2019, and did absolutely nothing. In 2024, a class action lawsuit was filed by thousands of Natives seeking restitution for the horrors they endured.

At least 180 people have been indicted, the 41 mentioned above were convicted, and 200 cases are still in the investigation stage. While these patients were living in squalor, being fed drugs and alcohol - the exact vice they were trying to escape - beaten, and raped. The lawsuit filed is alleging that 2,000 people are missing or have died as a result of the poor conditions and treatment in these homes.

Is It Still A Threat To Native Americans?'

Emphatically, yes. Officials, of course, are keeping things on the down low, but we know that where they found those, they'll find hundreds more like them across the nation, preying on vulnerable individuals in need of kindness, compassion, and care, but they got none of those. Their lives have been irrevocably changed in the process, and there will be thousands more victims if there is no one paying any attention.

This is the first I am hearing about it - and that's because I follow Native News Online and other publications to see what's really going on out there. I've never seen anything on national news, despite it being a multi-state issue, and it's still going on today, particularly in Arizona. There are always more racist opportunists willing to carry the fucked up torch.

A volunteer with Stolen People, Stolen Benefits is a grassroots group that helped a group of Montanans get home after their horrible experiences in Arizona. Instead of providing treatment, the leaders of these group homes were pocketing thousands per person in their "care." When a group home is shutting down, they will contact other homes to "sell" them their patients. They negotiate a price to take each patient, and then they are transferred, and the predatory cycle starts all over again.

It's vicious, and it's cruel, and it's targeted. This is a statement, not just people asking the vulnerable to come to group homes and stealing from them. This is a group of people who specifically set out to kidnap Native Americans and throw them in group homes for money without ever having to provide any treatment at all. They specifically called and recruited Native Americans for their so-called treatment.

The Blackfeet and Navajo tribes declared public health emergencies due to the severity of their members being defrauded and kidnapped. Then, it was Northern Cheyenne victims turning up in Billings, also initiating a declaration of emergency.

Victims were subjected to fraudulent mental health treatment, then held prisoner before being tossed in the street or dropped off in a remote area that is much harder and more dangerous to navigate home. They are leaving people for dead. Taking them somewhere remote isn't even defensible as "oh, we knew they could get back to safety" kind of thing. Taking someone to a remote area and leaving them there is intentionally leaving them there to die.