NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AP) – Former ‘Dances With Wolves’ actor charged with sexually abusing Native girls and leader of a cult must remain detained without bail until his next hearing, a judge ordered Thursday morning.
Nathan Chasing Horse, 46, faces charges of sex trafficking, sexual assault of a child under 16 and child abuse. He has been in custody since his arrest on Tuesday afternoon near the North Las Vegas home he shares with his five wives.
He appeared briefly in court in North Las Vegas on Thursday, but did not speak until Justice of the Peace Belinda Harris scheduled a bond hearing for Monday. Chasing Horse has not been formally charged.
On Monday, Harris is expected to address Chasing Horse’s detention status as he awaits trial and could set bond after hearing from attorneys, investigators, victims and relatives of the defendant.
Clark County Assistant Chief District Attorney Jessica Walsh told the judge on Thursday that Las Vegas police detectives, FBI special agents and victims would speak at the hearing.
Motioning to the front row of the courtroom gallery where Chasing Horse family members were seated, public defender Michael Wilfong said he had “a lot of support”. His relatives declined to comment as they left the courthouse, as did Wilfong.
Known for his role as a young Sioux tribesman Smiles a Lot in Kevin Costner’s Oscar-winning film, Chasing Horse earned a reputation among tribes in the United States and Canada as a so-called healer who held healing ceremonies.
He is believed to be the leader of a cult known as The Circle whose followers believed he could communicate with higher powers, according to an arrest warrant issued on Wednesday. Police say he abused his position, physically and sexually assaulted Indigenous girls and took underage wives for two decades.
Chasing Horse was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, home to the Sicangu Sioux, one of the seven tribes of the Lakota Nation.
A 50-page search warrant obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday said Chasing Horse trained his wives in the use of firearms, ordering them to ‘shoot’ with officers if they tried to ‘break up their families’ . If that failed, he would tell his wives to take “suicide pills.”
SWAT officers and detectives arrested Chasing Horse and evacuated the family’s home without incident.
Detectives who searched Chasing Horse property and vehicles found firearms, 41 pounds (18.5 kilograms) of marijuana and psilocybin mushrooms, and a memory card with multiple videos of sexual assaults, the report said. Chasing Horse arrest report released Wednesday.
Additional fees could be filed related to the videos, according to the report.
Las Vegas police said in the search warrant that investigators have identified at least six sexual assault victims, including one who was 13 when she says she was abused. Police have also traced sex allegations against Chasing Horse to the early 2000s in Canada and several states, including South Dakota, Montana and Nevada, where he has lived for about a decade.
One of Chasing Horse’s wives was given to him as a “gift” when she was 15, police say, while another became a wife after she turned 16. He is also accused of recording sexual assaults and arranging sex between victims and other men who paid him.
His arrest comes nearly a decade after he was banished from the Fort Peck Reservation in Poplar, Montana amid human trafficking allegations.
Fort Peck tribal leaders voted 7-0 to ban Chasing Horse in 2015 from setting foot on the reservation again, citing alleged trafficking and accusations of drug trafficking, spiritual abuse and intimidation of members tribal, Indian Country Today reported..
Angeline Cheek, a community activist and organizer who has lived on the Fort Peck reservation most of her life, said she clearly remembers the tensions that arose inside tribal council chambers when Chasing Horse been banned.
“Some of Nathan’s supporters told the members something bad was going to happen to them,” Cheek told the AP. “They made threats against our elders sitting in the council chambers.”
Cheek said she remembers Chasing Horse visiting the reservation frequently when she was growing up, especially during her high school days in the early 2000s when she saw him talking with his classmates.
Cheek, now 34, said she hopes Chasing Horse’s arrest will inspire more Indigenous girls and women to report crimes and push lawmakers and elected officials across the United States to prioritize in the fight against violence against indigenous people.
But she added that she also hopes the cultural significance of healers will not get lost in news about the crimes.
“There are good healers among our people who don’t try to commercialize the sacred ways of our ancestors,” Cheek said. “They’re supposed to heal people, not hurt them.”
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