NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. (AP) — A former “Dances With Wolves” actor accused of sexually abusing indigenous girls and cult leader must be held without bail until his next court hearing, a judge ordered Thursday morning.
Nathan Chasing Horse, 46, faces charges of sex trafficking, sexual assault against a child under the age of 16, and child abuse. has been in custody since his arrest 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 before 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 custody status while he awaits trial and could set bail after hearing from attorneys, investigators, victims and family members of the defendant.
Clark County Assistant District Attorney Jessica Walsh told the judge Thursday that Las Vegas police detectives, FBI special agents and the victims will speak at the hearing.
Pointing to the front row in the courtroom gallery where Chasing Horse’s family members were sitting, public defender Michael Wilfong said he has a “great amount of support.” His relatives refused to comment as they left the court, as did Wilfong.
Known for his role as the young Sioux tribesman Smiles a Lot in Kevin Costner’s Oscar-winning film, Chasing Horse earned a reputation among tribes across the United States and Canada as a so-called medicine man who performed 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 Wednesday. Police said 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, which is home to the Sicangu Sioux, one of the seven tribes of the Lakota nation.
A 50-page search warrant obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press says Chasing Horse trained his wives in the use of firearms, instructing them to “shoot” with police officers if they tried to “separate their family.” Failing that, he told their wives to take “suicide pills.”
SWAT officers and detectives apprehended Chasing Horse and evacuated the family’s home without incident.
Detectives searching the 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, according to the arrest report of Chasing Horse posted on Wednesday.
Additional charges related to the videos could be filed, according to the report.
Las Vegas police said in the search warrant that investigators identified at least six sexual assault victims, including one who was 13 when she says she was abused. Police also tracked down sexual allegations against Chasing Horse in the early 2000s in Canada and in several states, including South Dakota, Montana and Nevada, where she has lived for about a decade.
One of Chasing Horse’s wives was offered to him as a “gift” when he was 15, according to police, while another became a wife after she turned 16. He is also accused of recording sexual assaults and arranging sexual relations between victims and other men who paid. to the.
His arrest comes nearly a decade after he was forced off 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 from ever setting foot on the reservation again, citing alleged trafficking and allegations of drug dealing, spiritual abuse and intimidation of tribal members, Indian Country Today reported.
Angeline Cheek, an activist and community organizer who has lived on the Fort Peck reservation for most of her life, said she clearly remembers the tensions that arose inside the tribal council chambers when Chasing Horse was banished.
“Some of Nathan’s supporters told the members that something bad was going to happen to them,” Cheek told the AP. “They threatened our elders sitting in the council chambers.”
Cheek said she remembered Chasing Horse visiting the reservation frequently as a child, especially during her high school years in the early 2000s, when she would see him talking to his classmates.
Cheek, now 34, said she hopes Chasing Horse’s arrest will inspire more indigenous girls and women to report crimes and pressure lawmakers and elected officials in the US to prioritize addressing violence against native people.
But he said he also hopes the cultural significance of healers doesn’t get lost in the news of the crimes.
“There are good medicine men and women among our people who are not trying to commercialize the sacred forms of our ancestors,” Cheek said. “They are supposed to heal people, not harm.”
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