LAS VEGAS (AP) — Prosecutors say Nathan Chasing Horse used his reputation as a Lakota medicine man to prey on Native women and girls and sexually assault them, while his defense attorney during introductory statement at his trial on Tuesday that the former actor is being falsely accused.
Chasing Horse, best known for portraying the character Smiles A Lot in the 1990 film “Dances with Wolves,” has pleaded not guilty to 21 charges, including sexual assault and sexual assault of a minor.
The trial is the culmination of years of efforts to prosecute Chasing Horse after he was first arrested and charged in 2023 in a case that sent shockwaves through Indian Country. “Dances with Wolves” was one of the most prominent films featuring Native Americans when it premiered in 1990. His trial also comes as authorities have increased their response to an epidemic of violence against Native women in recent years.
Wearing a blue tie and black suit with his hair pulled back, he sat quietly taking notes as his family sat in the back row of a packed Las Vegas courtroom.
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, Chasing Horse traveled North America to perform healing rituals, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said Chasing Horse sexually assaulted the two victims, who were 14 and 19 at the time. In 2012, he allegedly told a 14-year-old girl that spirits wanted her to give up her virginity to save her mother, who had been diagnosed with cancer. He then sexually assaulted her and told her her mother would die if she told anyone, Clark County Deputy District Attorney Bianca Pucci said.
“She wanted to appease the spirits,” she said, referring to the 14-year-old. “She wanted to calm down the medicine man.
Craig Mueller, Chasing Horse’s defense attorney, said prosecutors will not present any evidence of the charges, including DNA or eyewitness evidence.
Pucci showed photos of Chasing Horse with a 14-year-old girl who met Chasing Horse when she was 6 and played a respected role in Lakota ceremonies as a piper. Chasing Horse symbolically adopted her and she considered him a grandfather, Pucci said.
Chasing Horse, who was 36 at the time, allegedly took the 14-year-old on trips to various ceremonies, Pucci said. He repeatedly sexually assaulted her in hotel rooms and had a spider tattooed on her arm and hand to remind her not to tell anyone, Pucci said. Chasing Horse also has a spider tattoo on his neck.
Chasing Horse “stuck her in his net,” Pucci told jurors.
A 14-year-old girl and her mother moved from California to North Las Vegas to live with Chasing Horse and his multiple wives. There, Pucci said, Chasing Horse continued to sexually assault her until she and her family found another place to live.
In 2014, when she was 16, she moved back in with him and his wives. She changed her last name to his at 18 because she believed Chasing Horse was doing a good job protecting her mother, who had gone into remission from cancer, Pucci said.
Mueller likened the woman to an angry wife, saying she made false accusations and lived happily with Chasing Horse for five years.
Prosecutors made Chasing Horse look like a monster, when in fact he is well-respected, Mueller said. He showed the jury pictures, including a family portrait of Chasing Horse and his wives, as well as a photo of Chasing Horse at a powwow. “Just like any family,” Mueller added.
“This is not some bizarre pedophile running around,” Mueller said.
Pucci said prosecutors will show the video to the jury to support their allegations.
She said jurors will also hear from another victim, who was 19 when Chasing Horse sexually assaulted her. She also knew him from childhood through ceremonies.
“She felt like he was a protector, a medicine man, a part of Lakota culture,” Pucci said.
The Associated Press typically does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted or abused.
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