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New charges have been filed against Native American actor Nathan Chasing Horse in Las Vegas.
The Clark County prosecutor filed single counts of possessing and producing child sexual abuse materials against the 48-year-old.
Prosecutors said Monday in court that Chasing Horse recorded videos of himself having sex with one of his accusers when she was younger than 14. In at least one video, the girl was “fully passed out,” prosecutor William Rowles said.
When Rowles described the videos, Chasing Horse closed his eyes and shook his head.
His defense attorney, Kristy Holston, declined to comment after court Monday. Rowles also said he had no comment.
Remains in custody
Chasing Horse remains in custody in Las Vegas after being arrested there in January 2023.
Rowles said 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.
Chasing Horse also faces nine sex-related charges in Alberta and one in B.C. Additionally, he is wanted in Montana in connection with an alleged sexual assault on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation.
The offences on both sides of the border are alleged in court documents to have occurred between 2012 and 2023, while Chasing Horse travelled across North America as a self-described “medicine man” and provided healing ceremonies.
He is suspected of running a cult called “The Circle” while he lived with numerous Indigenous girls and women.
Chasing Horse has pleaded not guilty.
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Tsuut’ina police file charges against Nathan Chasing Horse
A sudden flurry of activity in the case began late last week.
That’s when the Nevada Supreme Court dismissed an 18-count indictment against the “Dances with Wolves” actor after Holston successfully argued that a definition of grooming — presented to the grand jury without expert testimony — had tainted the state’s case, and that prosecutors should have shared with the grand jury inconsistent statements made by one of the victims.
However, the state can refile the charges with an expert (on grooming) before a new grand jury, said Sgt. Mike Cavilla of the Tsuut’ina Police Service in Tsuut`ina Nation, located west of Calgary.
“My understanding is the (District Attorney’s) office has 30 days.”
Cavilla said he has been “in contact with the FBI agents out of Las Vegas” to keep on top of the rapid developments.
Dene Nation
In Tsuut’ina, a Dene Nation, Chasing Horse is accused of four counts of sexual assault, three counts of sexual exploitation, one count of sexual interference with a person under the age of 16 years, and one count of removal of a child from Canada under the age of 16 years involving two alleged victims.
Documents filed in British Columbia show Chasing Horse was charged with one count of sexual assault linked to the southern Interior village of Keremeos in Sept. 2018.
There are warrants for his arrest in both Alberta and B.C., said Cavilla, noting it would be a lengthy process to extradite Chasing Horse to Canada to face the charges here.
“We’re hoping one of the U.S. agencies will pick him up” if he`s released in Las Vegas, he added.
Chasing Horse played the role of Sioux tribe member Smiles a Lot in Kevin Costner’s Academy Award-winning 1990 film.
He was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota.
-With files from The Associated Press and The Canadian Press
