‘Dances With Wolves’ actor faces sexual assault charges again in Nevada

LAS VEGAS — A grand jury in Nevada has again indicted Nathan Chasing Horse for sexually abusing Indigenous women and girls, reviving a sweeping criminal case against the former “Dances with Wolves” actor.

The 21-count indictment unsealed Thursday in Clark County District Court, which includes Las Vegas, expands his previous charges of sexual assault, obscenity and kidnapping to include charges of producing and possessing child sexual abuse material.

This happened more than a year later protracted legal proceedings it ended last month in the Nevada Supreme Court dismissal order from Chasing Horse’s original 18-count indictment. The court sided with Chasing Horse, saying in its scathing ruling that prosecutors abused the grand jury process. However, the court left open the possibility of re-filing charges.

Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson immediately vowed to seek a new indictment. Neither Wolfson nor a spokesman for his office responded Thursday to telephone or email requests for comment.

Best known for playing the character “Smiles a Lot” in the 1990 film Dances with Wolves, Chasing Horse was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, home to the Sikangu Sioux, one of the Seven Tribes of the Lakota Nation.

After starring in the Oscar-winning film, Chasing Horse began posing as a self-proclaimed Lakota medicine man, traveling across North America to perform healing ceremonies, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said his position in the community gave him access to vulnerable women and girls for decades until he was arrested last January near Las Vegas. He has been in prison since then.

The arrest of Chasing Horse reverberated throughout Indian Country. Law enforcement agencies in the US and Canada quickly responded to the new criminal charges, saying his arrest helped confirm long-standing accusations against him, including on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana, where tribal leaders banished Chasing Horse in 2015 amid human trafficking allegations.

The authorities of Alberta (Canada) admitted that their case is largely symbolic. Chasing Horse, who faces decades in prison in Nevada if convicted, may never return to Canada.

“At the end of the day,” Sgt. Nancy Farmer, from the Toutina National Police Service, said: “It is important for us to have these warrants in the system so our victims know they have been heard. It is extremely important that we continue to support them in this way.”

In Las Vegas, Chasing Horse pleaded not guilty to the original charges. His new lawyer did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment, and his former public defender, Christy Holston, said she had no comment on the new indictment.

The latest indictment also accuses Chasing Horse of filming himself having sex with one of his accusers when she was under 14 years old. Prosecutors say the footage, filmed in 2010 or 2011, was found on cellphones in a locked safe in a North Las Vegas home that Chasing Horse is said to have lived with five wives, including the girl in the video.

When the Nevada Supreme Court ruled to throw out Chasing Horse’s original indictment, judges said they were not assessing his guilt or innocence, calling the charges against him serious. But the court said prosecutors improperly provided the grand jury with a definition of grooming without expert testimony, and accused them of hiding from the grand jury conflicting statements made by one of his accusers.

Chasing Horse’s legal troubles unfold as lawmakers and U.S. prosecutors allocate more resources into cases involving indigenous women, including human trafficking and murder.