A former actor accused of running a sex cult was arrested by Las Vegas police Tuesday for allegedly sexually assaulting Indigenous girls as young as 13 for roughly two decades, police records show.
“Dances With Wolves” actor Nathan Chasing Horse, 46, was taken into police custody after SWAT officers raided his north Vegas home, where he reportedly lives with his five wives.
Chasing Horse, whose full name is Nathan Lee Chasing His Horse, is the apparent leader of a cult called “The Circle” and has been charged with sex trafficking, sexual assault of a child younger than 16, and child abuse, according to the arrest warrant.
The former actor, known for his role as the young Sioux tribe member Smiles a Lot in the 1990 Kevin Costner film, was arrested after a months-long investigation spurred by a tip police received in October 2022.
Chasing Horse has allegedly abused at least six victims, investigators found, according to a 50-page search warrant obtained by the Associated Press.
The sexual abuse accusations against the accused cult leader date back to the early 2000s and span multiple states, including Montana, his home state of South Dakota, and Nevada — where he has lived for the past 10 years.
Chasing Horse — a member of the Sicangu Sioux tribe of the Lakota nation — attracted followers across tribes in the US and Canada who believed he was a “Medicine Man” and “Holy Person” who could communicate with higher beings and perform healing ceremonies, according to the warrant.
“Nathan Chasing Horse used spiritual traditions and their belief system as a tool to sexually assault young girls on numerous occasions,” the document states.
Followers of The Circle cult offered their young daughters to Chasing Horse to take as wives. One girl was allegedly offered as a “gift” to him when she was 15 years old and another married him when she turned 16.
He was reportedly banished from the Fort Peck Reservation in Poplar, Montana, in 2015 amid allegations of human trafficking, the warrant reports.
He has been accused of prostituting young Indigenous girls by offering them for sex with other men who allegedly paid him.
The youngest of his alleged victims was just 13 years old.
The warrant also states that Chasing Horse allegedly recorded his sexual assaults with his victims.
The former actor’s arrest comes as prosecutors and lawmakers across the country have begun to pay greater attention to crimes against Indigenous women, including human trafficking and murder.
With Post wires
