'Dances With Wolves' actor due in court in sex abuse probe

NORTH LAS VEGAS (AP) – A former “Dances with Wolves” actor who faces at least five felony counts for allegedly sexually abusing Indigenous girls is set to face a judge for the first time in the case on Thursday Is.

According to court records, possible charges against 46-year-old Nathan Chasing Horse include sex trafficking and sexual assault. Clark County prosecutors have not said when they will formally charge him or whether more charges will be filed.

Las Vegas police arrested Chasing Horse this week after a months-long investigation of alleged abuse, officials said, that lasted two decades.

He remained held at the Clark County Jail without bail Wednesday evening on the sexual assault charge. A judge is expected to address his custody status on Thursday and may grant bail.

Best known for his role as young Sioux tribe member Smiles a Lot in the Oscar-winning Kevin Costner film, Chasing Horse gained a reputation across the United States and in Canada as a so-called medicine man who performed healing ceremonies .

According to the arrest warrant, he is believed to be the leader of a cult known as The Circle, which people believe can communicate with higher powers.

Police said he abused his position, physically and sexually assaulted indigenous girls and women, took underage wives and led a cult. He was arrested outside the home he lived with his five wives near Las Vegas.

Chasing Horse was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, which is home to the Sikangu Sioux, one of the seven tribes of the Lakota Nation.

A 50-page search warrant obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press claimed that Chasing Horse trained his wives to use firearms, instructing them to call police officers if they tried to “break up his family.” “Shoot” with. If that failed, the wives were to take “suicide pills”.

He was taken into custody as he left his home in North Las Vegas. SWAT officers were seen outside the two-storey house in the evening as detectives searched the property.

According to an arrest report released Wednesday, police found firearms, 41 pounds (18.5 kilograms) of marijuana and psilocybin mushrooms and a memory card with several videos of sexual assaults.

The report states that additional charges may be filed in connection with the video of underage girls.

Court records listed no attorney who could comment on his behalf, and Las Vegas police said Chasing Horse was “unable” to give a jailhouse interview on Wednesday.

Las Vegas police said in the search warrant that investigators identified at least six sexual assault victims, including one who was 13 years old when she claimed the abuse. Police traced sex allegations against Chasing Horse in the early 2000s to Canada and several states, including South Dakota, Montana and Nevada, where he has lived for nearly a decade.

According to police, one of Chasing Horse’s wives was introduced as a “gift” when she was 15, while the other became a wife after she turned 16. His.

His arrest comes nearly a decade after he was removed from the Fort Peck Reservation in Poplar, Montana amid allegations of human trafficking.

Fort Peck tribal leaders voted 7-0 to ban Chasing Horse in 2015, citing allegations of alleged trafficking and drug dealing, spiritual abuse and intimidation of tribal members, Indian County Today reports did.

Angeline Cheek, an activist and community organizer who has lived on the Fort Peck Reservation most of her life, said she clearly remembers the tensions that arose inside council chambers when Chasing Horses was banished went.

“Some of Nathan’s supporters told members that something bad was going to happen to him,” Cheek told the AP. “They threatened our elders sitting in the council chambers.”

Cheek said she remembers Chasing Horse often visiting the reservation when she was growing up, especially during her high school years in the early 2000s when she would see him talking with her classmates.

Cheek, who is now 34, said she hopes Chasing Horse’s arrest will inspire more Indigenous girls and women to report crimes and spur lawmakers and elected officials across the US to address violence against Native peoples. Will be encouraged to prioritize.

But she said she also hopes the Medicine Men’s cultural significance doesn’t get lost in reports of crimes.

“There are good doctors and healer women among our people who are not trying to commercialize the sacred ways of our forefathers,” she said. “They’re supposed to heal people, not harm.”