By james art LAS VEGAS, Nev. (AP) – A grand jury in Nevada has indicted Nathan Chasing Horse again on charges he sexually abused Native women and girls for decades, reopening a massive criminal case against the former “Dances with Wolves” actor .
The 21-count indictment unsealed Thursday in Clark County District Court expands the 48-year-old’s previous charges of sexual assault, obscenity and kidnapping to include charges of producing and possessing child sexual abuse material.
It comes after the Nevada Supreme Court in September ordered that the original 18-count indictment against Chasing Horse be dismissed, while leaving open the possibility that the charges could be refiled. By then, the case had been stalled for more than a year until Chasing Horse contested it.
The court sided with Chasing Horse, saying in its scathing order that prosecutors abused the grand jury process.
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson quickly vowed to seek a new charge. Neither Wolfson nor Chasing Horse’s attorney, Christy Holston, immediately responded Thursday to phone or email requests for comment.
Best known for his role as the character Smiles A Lot in the 1990 film Dances with Wolves, Chasing Horse was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, which is home to the Sikangue Sioux, one of the seven tribes of the Lakota Nation.
After starring in the Oscar-winning film, authorities say he supported himself as a self-proclaimed Lakota medicine man while traveling across North America to perform healing ceremonies.
He is accused of using this position to gain the trust of vulnerable indigenous women and girls, lead a cult and take underage wives. Chasing Horse pleaded not guilty.
His lawyer also argued that the charges should be dismissed because the former actor said the sex was consensual. Authorities say one of his accusers was under 16, the age of consent in Nevada, when the abuse began.
Chasing Horse’s arrest last January reverberated across Indian Country and helped law enforcement in the US and Canada confirm longstanding allegations against him, leading to more criminal charges, including on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana. Tribal leaders had driven Chasing Horse off the reservation in 2015 amid allegations of human trafficking.
He has remained in a Las Vegas jail since his arrest.
When the Nevada Supreme Court ordered that the original indictment against Chasing Horse be dismissed, the justices said they were not prejudging his guilt or innocence, calling the charges against him serious. But the court said prosecutors improperly provided the grand jury with a haircut without expert testimony and accused them of withholding from the grand jury inconsistent statements made by one of his accusers.
Chasing Horse’s legal troubles unfold at the same time that U.S. lawmakers and prosecutors are directing more resources to cases involving Native women, including human trafficking and murder.
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