Cults with ties to Nevada (+ how to spot them)

One cult expert estimates there are up to 10,000 cults in the United States. Learn about several that have strong ties to Nevada.

The Nevada Supreme Court recently ordered the dismissal of charges against an alleged cult leader, Nathan Chasing Horse. An actor known for his role in the film “Dances With Wolves,” he was arrested last year at his home near North Las Vegas and accused of sexually victimizing young girls. Charges will likely be refiled.

The case is an eye-opening reminder that Nevada has cults, some of which are destructive.

According to cult expert Steve Eichel, president of the International Cultic Studies Association, up to 10,000 cults exist in the United States. While one-third of the country’s cults are located in California, Oxford Academic studies show that the Silver State exceeds the Golden State in terms of cults per million residents.

What is a cult?

A cult, also known as a new religious movement (NRM), is defined as a group with a self-appointed leader who demands unquestioning devotion to certain beliefs and practices outside societal norms. A cult becomes designated as “destructive” when it harms its members or others or is likely to harm them in the future. 

Cults are not illegal in the U.S., as freedom of religion protects different belief systems, while freedom of speech protects the expression of views—even controversial ones.

The label now has negative connotations, but it wasn’t always so. When the number of cults and members exploded in the U.S. in the 1960s, concerns about brainwashing and lack of free will for members grew. This, paired with the actions of dangerous cults like the murderous Manson Family), led to an anti-cult movement in the 1970s.

Cults and destructive cults may include religious groups, political groups, hate groups, satanic groups, doomsday groups, militias—even online conspiracy groups (remember Pizzagate?)—and more. 

Britannica points out that the differences between cults and religious groups are ambiguous since most religions—most recently Seventh-day Adventists and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—started as cults before societal acceptance. These days, groups and movements labeled as cults are typically “at tension with the rest of society,” per Britannica. 

Some infamous cults include The Church of Scientology, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), Hare Krishna, and The Unification Church. Additionally, in 2023, the Southern Poverty Law Center named 15 hate and anti-government groups in Nevada, including the Proud Boys, National Socialist Movement, and Moms for Liberty.

How to pinpoint a destructive cult

Cult expert Rick Ross is founder and Executive Director of  the Cult Education Institute, a nonprofit online library with archived information about cults, controversial groups, and movements. 

He explained via email that there are three core characteristics to a destructive cult:

1. “The group has a charismatic leader, who increasingly becomes an object of worship,” he wrote, noting that this worship continues even as the general principles that originally sustained the group lose power. “That leader is authoritarian, has no meaningful accountability and is the defining element and driving force of the group.”
2. “The leader methodically uses coercive persuasion and thought reform techniques to systematically dominate, manipulate, and control his or her followers.”
3. “The leader exploits his or her followers,” ultimately doing harm to them. This can be economical, sexual, or another type of harm. “This damage done varies from group to group, some leaders are more destructive than others.”

If you’re seeking more information on cults or need help with a situation involving a destructive cult, visit the Cult Education Institute website. 

To learn about some cults with Nevada ties, read on.

Saga of Nathan Chasing Horse and “The Circle”

Nathan Chasing Horse is the leader of an alleged cult called “The Circle.” While the Nevada Supreme Court unanimously voted to order the dismissal of his 18-count indictment, it was due to a technicality.

That same day, the Clark County District Attorney’s Office told KTNV Las Vegas that it plans to refile charges against the alleged cult leader, who also faces charges in Montana and South Dakota.

At the time of chasing Horse’s arrest, CBS News reported that police found a memory card with videos of sexual assaults and said that at least two of his five wives were underage when he married them. Just days afterward, a former member of The Circle, Kortnee Ward, told 8 News Now that she was abused verbally, mentally, and physically and told to treat Horse like a king and “more than human.” 

The 8 News Now documentary “Breaking the Circle: Nathan Chasing Horse Exposed” shares the stories of alleged survivors about the accused sexual predator.

Fundamentalist Mormons (FLDS) still going strong

A radical polygamist religious sect, FLDS splintered off from the Mormon church after it outlawed polygamy in 1890. The group flourished in a community called Short Creek along the border of Utah and Arizona in the early 1900s and has since split into several sects, including communities and large compounds in Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, and Texas.

FLDS continues to be exposed for its involvement in various illegal activities, including child marriages, human trafficking, and child sexual abuse. While the media often focuses on the way the group treats women, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, it is also white supremacist, homophobic, antigovernment and totalitarian.

The FLDS Church teaches that a man is closer to salvation the more wives he has (no matter if these wives are minors). It also teaches that God communicates through one man, a prophet and leader of the church.

In 2002, Warren Jeffs became the FLDS prophet, succeeding his father Rulon Jeffs. The Short Creek community received unwanted attention soon after in 2003 with the arrest of a member for bigamy and child abuse. 

In 2004, a former Arizona FLDS member, Flora Jessop, spoke out against child abuse in the cult on the ABC television program Primetime Live. Many lawsuits and indictments followed, and in 2006, Jeffs went into hiding when he was named to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List.

With Jeffs on the run, many of the members of the Short Creek community were relocated. That same year, it was reported that Atlanta Farms, a large hay farm near Pioche in Nevada, was being operated by followers of the fugitive leader, under his direction. Jeffs was captured just north of Las Vegas on Interstate 15 later in 2006. He is currently serving life in prison for aggravated sexual assault and sexual assault. 

Earlier this year, former FLDS members spoke in an exclusive interview with ABC News about the restrictive and alarming orders they faced under the younger Jeffs: “Jeffs banned television, movies, popular music, and fictional books. He also executed strict mandates on behavior, dress, and language. Women were told to ‘keep sweet,’ suppress emotions and feelings, obey their husbands, and above all, obey Jeffs.”

Meanwhile, in the video, “Escaping Polygamist Cult – Inside the Dangerous World of the FLDS,” YouTuber Peter Santenello interviews members of the Righteous Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, an FLDS community in Nye Couty, Nevada. In the video, the members reaffirmed that a prophet chooses who they should marry, but claimed they have the final say.

Although people continue to speak out, the SPLC points out that the FLDS remains resilient viewing its leader’s imprisonment “as a sort of martyrdom.” It is believed Jeffs still leads the group from prison.

For more information, visit the Cult Education Institute’s page on Polygamist Groups.

A Nevada tie for Brother Julius and “The Work”

A follower of a religious cult known as “The Work,” who was one of two men charged in the gruesome 2004 murder of the group’s leader, spent some time in a Nevada prison before dying in a Connecticut jail of COVID-19 while awaiting sentencing. He maintained he was innocent to death.

Fourteen years after the murder of Paul Sweetman, Rudy Hannon was extradited from Indian Springs, Nevada, to New Britain, Connecticut. Sweetman had taken control of The Work with his wife, Joanne, after its founder, Brother Julius Schacknow, died in 1996. 

According to a People article on The Work, Schacknow was a serial sexual abuser and self-professed oracle of God, sent to save mankind by eradicating evil from the Earth. The article reads, “He also told them he had the power to heal people of their addictions and illnesses, and that salvation was only attainable through sexual intercourse with him.”

Former members have substantiated these claims. In 1988, Schacknow’s stepdaughter accused him of sexual molestation from age 11 to 18.

Sweetman took over after Schacknow’s death in 1996 but plead guilty to bank fraud in 1999 and spent three years in prison. Not long after his release in 2004, Joanne reported him missing. 

Police reports showed that murder suspects Hannon and Sorek Minery believed that God wanted Sweetman dead because he was hurting his wife while other followers believe that she ordered the killing herself, according to the Discovery article, “The ‘Sinful Messiah’ & ‘The Work’ Cult.”

Joanne died in 2011. The Work is said to still exist today.

This article first appeared on Good Info News Wire and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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