A grand jury in Nevada has again indicted Nathan Chasing Horse on charges that he sexually abused Indigenous women and girls for decades, reviving a sweeping criminal case against the former Dances with Wolves actor, who is also facing several arrest warrants for crimes allegedly committed in Alberta.
Chasing Horse was initially arrested in January 2023 following an investigation that spanned multiple provinces and U.S. states, including Montana, Nevada, British Columbia and Alberta.
Following his arrest, the Tsuut’ina Nation Police Service said it had filed several arrest warrants and believe there are two alleged victims in Alberta.
It also made an appeal for any other victims to come forward.
Chasing Horse also faces a charge of sexual assault in British Columbia.
Best known for portraying the character Smiles A Lot in the 1990 movie “Dances with Wolves,” Chasing Horse was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, which is home to the Sicangu Sioux, one of the seven tribes of the Lakota nation.
After starring in the Oscar-winning film, authorities have said, he propped himself up as a self-proclaimed Lakota medicine man while travelling around North America to perform healing ceremonies.
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He is accused of using that position to gain the trust of vulnerable Indigenous women and girls, and take underage wives.
In 2015, the Tsuut’ina First Nation Band Council passed a resolution banning Chasing Horse from the First Nation.
The 21-count indictment unsealed on Thursday, Oct. 31, in Clark County District Court in Nevada, expands on the 48-year-old’s previous felony charges of sexual assault, lewdness and kidnapping to also include charges of producing and possessing child sexual abuse materials.
It comes after the Nevada Supreme Court in September ordered the dismissal of the indictment, while leaving open the possibility for charges to be refiled.
Proceedings in the case by then had been at a standstill for more than a year while Chasing Horse challenged it.
The court sided with Chasing Horse, saying in its scathing order that prosecutors had abused the grand jury process.
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson quickly vowed to seek another indictment.
Neither Wolfson nor Chasing Horse’s lawyer, Kristy Holston, immediately responded Thursday to phone or emailed requests for comment.
Chasing Horse had pleaded not guilty, with his lawyer arguing the charges should be dismissed because, the former actor said, the sexual encounters were consensual.
Authorities say one of his accusers was younger than 16, the age of consent in Nevada, when the abuse began.
He has remained jailed in Las Vegas since his arrest.
When the Nevada Supreme Court ordered the dismissal of Chasing Horse’s initial indictment, the judges said they were not weighing in on his guilt or innocence, calling the allegations against him serious.
But the court said that prosecutors improperly provided the grand jury with a definition of grooming without expert testimony, and faulted them for withholding from the grand jury inconsistent statements made by one of his accusers.
Chasing Horse’s legal issues have been unfolding at the same time lawmakers and prosecutors around the U.S. are funnelling more resources into cases involving Indigenous women, including human trafficking and murders.
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