NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AP) — Former ‘Dances With Wolves’ actor accused of sexually abusing Indigenous girl And leading the cult 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 of a child under the age of 16, and child abuse. North has been in custody outside his Las Vegas home, which he shares with his five wives, since he was arrested Tuesday afternoon.
He briefly appeared in court in North Las Vegas on Thursday but did not speak before Justice of the Peace Belinda Harris scheduled a bail hearing on Monday.Chasing Horse has not been formally charged.
On Monday, Harris is expected to address the status of Chasing Horse’s custody and may set bail after being contacted by prosecutors, investigators, the victim, and the defendant’s relatives.
Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Jessica Walsh told a judge on Thursday that the Las Vegas police detective, FBI special agent, and victim will speak at the hearing.
He has “a lot of support,” said court-appointed defense attorney Michael Wilfong, who gestured to the front row of the courtroom gallery where Chasing Horse’s family was seated. His relatives, like Wilfon, declined to comment when leaving the court.
Las Vegas police arrested Chasing Horse on Tuesday It follows a months-long investigation into an alleged abuse that authorities said spanned 20 years.
Best known for his role as Smiles-a-Lot, a young Sioux member in the Oscar-winning Kevin Costner film, Chasing Horse is a so-called medicine man who performs healing ceremonies among tribes across the United States and Canada. gained popularity among
According to the arrest warrant, he was believed to be the leader of a cult known as The Circle, whose followers believed he could 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.
Chasing Horse was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, home to the Sikung Sioux, one of the seven Lakota tribes.
According to a 50-page search warrant obtained by the Associated Press on Tuesday, Chasing Horse trained his wife in the use of firearms and instructed her to “shoot with police officers if they try to tear the family apart.” If that failed, the wife was to take “suicide pills.”
Detectives who searched his home found a firearm, 41 pounds (18.5 kilograms) of marijuana and psilocybin mushrooms, and a memory card containing multiple videos of the sexual assault, according to an arrest report released Wednesday. Did.
Additional claims may be filed in connection with the video, the report said.
Court records did not list an attorney available to comment on his behalf, and Las Vegas police said Chasing Horse was unavailable for a jail interview on Wednesday.
Las Vegas police said in a search warrant that investigators had identified at least six victims of sexual assault. Police also tracked sexual allegations against Chasing Horse back to the early 2000s in Canada, in multiple provinces including South Dakota, Montana, and Nevada, where he lived for nearly a decade.
Police say one of Chasing Horse’s wives was given to him as a “gift” when he was 15 and the other became his wife when he was 16. he.
His arrest comes nearly a decade after he was expelled from the Fort Peck Reservation in Poplar, Montana amid allegations of human trafficking.
Fort Peck tribal leaders voted 7 to 0 in 2015 to ban the Chasing Horse from ever setting foot on the reservation again.
Angeline Cheek, an activist and community organizer who has lived on the Fort Peck Reservation for most of her life, vividly remembers the tension that arose inside the council chamber when Chasing Horse was expelled. .
“Some of Nathan’s supporters told members that something bad was going to happen,” Cheek told The Associated Press. “They threatened our elders sitting in the council room. Did.”
Cheek said he remembers Chasing Horse frequenting the reservation as a child, especially when he was in high school in the early 2000s.
Cheek, now 34, said Chasing Horse’s arrest prompted more Indigenous girls and women to report crimes and encouraged lawmakers and elected officials across the country to make addressing violence against Indigenous peoples a priority. I would like to encourage
However, she also hopes that the news of the crime does not detract from the pharmacist’s cultural importance.
“There are good medicine men and medicine women among our people who don’t want to commercialize the sacred ways of their ancestors,” she said. is.”
