LAS VEGAS (AP) — 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.
The 21-count indictment unsealed Thursday in Clark County District Court 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 Chasing Horse’s original 18-count 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.
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 traveling around North America to perform healing ceremonies.
He is accused of using that position to gain the trust of vulnerable Indigenous women and girls, lead a cult and take underage wives. Chasing Horse had pleaded not guilty.
His lawyer had also argued that 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.
Chasing Horse’s arrest last January reverberated around Indian Country and helped law enforcement in the U.S. and Canada corroborate long-standing allegations against him, leading to more criminal charges, including on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana. Tribal leaders had banished Chasing Horse in 2015 from the reservation amid allegations of human trafficking.
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 funneling more resources into cases involving Native women, including human trafficking and murders.
