Dances With Wolves actor to be sentenced in Nevada after sexual abuse conviction

Nathan Chasing Horse, the actor known for his role in Dances With Wolves, is scheduled to be sentenced next Wednesday after being convicted of sexually abusing Indigenous women and girls, bringing to an end a case that deeply affected Native American communities across the country.

The sentencing comes about a month after a Nevada jury found him guilty on 13 of the 21 charges brought against him. Many of the convictions stemmed from allegations involving a victim who was 14 years old when the abuse began. The jury cleared him of several other sexual assault counts. Chasing Horse has denied all accusations.

If sentenced to the minimum penalty, he faces at least 25 years behind bars.

After portraying Smiles a Lot in Kevin Costner’s Oscar-winning film Dances With Wolves, Chasing Horse, who was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, traveled throughout Indian Country attending powwows and conducting healing ceremonies.

Several victims said they either took part in those ceremonies or sought medical assistance from him.

The central accuser said she was 14 in 2012 when Chasing Horse allegedly claimed that spirits required her to give up her virginity in order to save her mother, who had cancer. According to deputy district attorney Bianca Pucci, he then assaulted her and warned that if she told anyone, her mother would die. Pucci said the abuse continued for years afterward.

After the verdict, Mueller requested a new trial. He argued that a witness who testified about grooming lacked the proper qualifications and that the legal time limit to prosecute the case had passed. The judge rejected that request.

The sentencing marks the end of a years-long prosecution effort, beginning in 2023. The initial arrest sparked widespread attention and prompted authorities in other states and in Canada to pursue additional criminal allegations.

Chasing Horse was also charged with sexual assault in February 2023 related to an incident alleged to have occurred in September 2018 near Keremeos, British Columbia, a village roughly four hours east of Vancouver. Proceedings there were paused in November 2023 while his US case moved forward but resumed the following year.

He also has been banned from the Tsuut’ina Nation in Alberta, where a warrant has been issued for his arrest on multiple charges of sexual exploitation and sexual assault, according to the Vancouver Island Daily.

Once all appeals in the US case are finished, prosecutors in British Columbia will determine how to proceed, communications counsel Damienne Darby said in an email to the Associated Press.

In 2015, leaders of the Fort Peck tribe in Montana prohibited Chasing Horse from performing ceremonies on their reservation following allegations that included human trafficking, drug dealing, spiritual manipulation and intimidation of tribal members, according to IndiJ Public Media, an Indigenous news outlet.

More than four out of five American Indian and Alaska Native women have experienced violence, and more than half have been victims of sexual violence, according to research from the National Institute of Justice.

The Associated Press contributed reporting