After four days of jury selection, opening statements began in Las Vegas court Tuesday in the trial of Nathan Chasing Horse, an actor and self-proclaimed spiritual leader accused of abusing Indigenous girls and women for over two decades.
Chasing Horse, who’s best known for playing a character named Smiles a Lot in the 1990 Oscar-winning western “Dancing with Wolves,” was arrested in North Las Vegas in January 2023 following months of investigation into alleged sex crimes he’d committed in Clark County.
He faces 21 charges, including sexual assault, sexual assault of a minor, kidnapping of a minor and the use of a minor in producing pornography.
He has denied any wrongdoing.
During opening statements, the defense maintained Chasing Horse’s innocence, saying the actor is being falsely accused.
But prosecutors told a different story, saying the man who was seen by some as a spiritual healer and medicine man used his position to prey on his victims.
The actor is accused of sexually assaulting one of his victims, a 14-year-old girl, after telling her that she needed to give up her virginity to help her mother, who was diagnosed with cancer.
“[The victim] wanted to appease the spirits,” Clark County Deputy District Attorney Bianca Pucci told the court. “She wanted to appease the medicine man,” who was 36 at the time of the alleged crime.
He allegedly took the girl on a road trip in 2012 and sexually assaulted her multiple times, Pucci said.
The victim — who met Chasing Horse when she was 6 and participated in Lakota ceremonies as a pipe girl — also had her arms and hand tattooed with a spider to remind herself to keep her silence, prosecutors said.
Another victim, who was 19 at the time of the alleged crimes, had also known Chasing Horse since she was a young girl, according to prosecutors.
“She felt like he was a protector, a medicine man, part of the Lakota culture,” Pucci said.
The trial is expected to last four weeks.
With News Wire Services
