PHOENIX — Navajo law enforcement teams made contact with several hundred Native Americans from various tribes who are living on the streets in the metro Phoenix area, after the state cracked down on Medicaid fraud and suspended unlicensed sober living homes, Navajo Nation Attorney General Ethel Branch said Monday.
“Unfortunately, many of our relatives when they came out of these facilities didn't have cell phones,” Branch said, adding that Navajo police officers allowed the people they found to use their own cell phones to call their families. The Operation Rainbow Bridge toolbox includes a Facebook page and a TikTok account now under construction. There’s also a 211 hotline that the tribe is advertising among its members that allows those affected to find a place to stay and get the services they need.