Alleged cult leader Nathan Chasing Horse waits to appear in North Las Vegas Justice Court on Oct. 9, 2024. (Credit: K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS - Nathan Chasing Horse has been sentenced to life in prison for sexually assaulting Indigenous women and girls.
A Nevada judge gave the "Dances With Wolves" actor his sentence on Monday.
Nathan Chasing Horse sentenced to life in prison
What they're saying:
Accusers and their families told Judge Jessica Peterson they continue to suffer from the trauma caused by Chasing Horse and struggle with their faith after he exploited his position as a spiritual leader.
Chasing Horse, wearing his navy blue Clark County Detention Center uniform, stared straight ahead as victims read their statements. He denied the charges against him.
"This is a miscarriage of justice," he told the judge on Monday.
Jury convicts Nathan Chasing Horse on sexual assault charges
The backstory:
In January, jurors found Chasing Horse guilty of 13 of 21 charges he faced, most involving a victim who was 14 years old when the assaults began.
He was acquitted on several sexual assault charges from a later period when the victim was older and living with him and other companions.
The abuse that authorities said spanned two decades led to the arrest of Chasing Horse in 2023 following a monthslong investigation by Las Vegas police. He was taken into custody as he left the home he shared with his five wives in North Las Vegas.
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During the raid, police found memory cards with videos of the sexual assaults, firearms, 41 pounds of marijuana and psilocybin mushrooms in the home, according to an arrest report.
At least two women told police that Chasing Horse had shown his wives a stash of "small white pills" that he called "suicide pills" sometime in 2019 or 2020, years before his arrest.
The women were instructed to "take a pill to kill themselves in the event he dies or law enforcement tries to break their family apart," according to the warrant.
One of Chasing Horse’s former wives also told police that she believed his current wives would "carry out the instructions" to take the pills and open fire on law enforcement if officers came to the home to arrest Chasing Horse.
Las Vegas police said in the document they had identified at least six sexual assault victims, some who were as young as 14 when they say they were abused, and traced the sexual allegations against Chasing Horse to the early 2000s in multiple states, including Nevada, where he has lived for about a decade, and South Dakota and Montana.
Known for his role as the young Sioux tribe member Smiles a Lot in the Oscar-winning Kevin Costner film "Dances with Wolves," Chasing Horse gained a reputation among tribes across the United States and in Canada as a so-called medicine man who performed healing ceremonies. But police said he abused his position, physically and sexually assaulting Indigenous girls and women, taking underage wives and leading a cult.
More charges pending
What's next:
The initial arrest reverberated around Indian Country, with law enforcement in other states and Canada following up with more criminal charges. Those charges are still pending.
A warrant against Chasing Horse remains outstanding in Alberta, the Tsuut’ina Nation Police Service in Alberta said in a statement following Chasing Horse’s conviction in January. The Tsuut’ina Nation Police Service said that it was in contact with the Alberta Crown Prosecutors Office regarding the warrant.
The Source: This story was reported from Los Angeles. The Associated Press, FOX News, previous FOX Local reporting contributed.