‘Dances with Wolves’ actor is again indicted on sexual abuse charges in
Nevada
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[November 01, 2024]
By RIO YAMAT
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A grand jury in Nevada has again indicted Nathan
Chasing Horse on charges that he sexually abused 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 on his previous charges of
sexual assault, lewdness and kidnapping to include charges of producing
and possessing child sexual abuse materials.
It comes after more than a year of delayed court proceedings that
culminated last month in the Nevada Supreme Court ordering the dismissal
of Chasing Horse's original 18-count indictment. The court sided with
Chasing Horse, saying in its scathing order that prosecutors had abused
the grand jury process. But the court left open the possibility for
charges to be refiled.
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson quickly vowed to seek
another indictment. Neither Wolfson nor a spokesperson for his office
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, according to prosecutors,
Chasing Horse began propping himself up as a self-proclaimed Lakota
medicine man while traveling around North America to perform healing
ceremonies.
Prosecutors said his position in the community granted him access to
vulnerable women and girls for decades until his arrest last January
near Las Vegas. He has been jailed ever since.
Chasing Horse's arrest reverberated around Indian Country. Law
enforcement in the U.S. and Canada quickly followed up with more
criminal charges, saying that his arrest helped corroborate
long-standing allegations against him, including on the Fort Peck Indian
Reservation in Montana where tribal leaders had banished Chasing Horse
in 2015 amid allegations of human trafficking.
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Nathan Chasing Horse sits in Las Vegas court, April 3, 2023. (AP
Photo/Ty O'Neil, File)
Authorities in Alberta, Canada, have
acknowledged that their case is largely symbolic. Chasing Horse —
who faces decades in a Nevada prison if convicted — might not ever
return to Canada.
“At the end of the day,” Sgt. Nancy Farmer of the Tsuut’ina Nation
Police Service has said, “it is important for us to have these
warrants in the system so our victims know they’ve been heard. It’s
extremely important that we continue to support them that way.”
In Las Vegas, Chasing Horse had pleaded not guilty to the original
charges. His new lawyer didn't immediately respond to an email
seeking comment, and his former public defender, Kristy 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 younger than 14.
Prosecutors say the footage, taken in 2010 or 2011, was found on
cellphones in a locked safe inside the North Las Vegas home that
Chasing Horse is said to have shared with five wives, including the
girl in the videos.
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.
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