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.
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.
Rio Yamat, The Associated Press
