Records: ‘Dances with Wolves’ actor armed cult against cops

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nathan Chasing Horse trained his wives in the use of firearms, ordering them to “shoot” with police officers if they ever tried to “break up their family,” according to records obtained by LAS VEGAS. Associated Press. If that failed, the ‘Dancing With Wolves’ actor said they would have to take “suicide pills.”

The abuse that authorities say spanned two decades led to Chasing Horse’s arrest on Tuesday following a month-long investigation by Las Vegas police. He was taken into custody as he left the home he shares with his five wives in North Las Vegas. SWAT officers were seen outside the two-story house in the evening as detectives searched the property.

During the raid, police found memory cards containing videos of the sexual assaults, firearms, 41 pounds of marijuana and psilocybin mushrooms in the home, according to an arrest report released Wednesday.

Known for his role as a young Sioux tribesman Smiles a Lot in Kevin Costner’s Oscar-winning film “Dances with Wolves”, Chasing Horse has earned a reputation among tribes in the United States and Canada as a so- saying healer 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.

Chasing Horse, 46, will be charged with at least two counts of sex trafficking and one count each of sexual assault of a child under 16, child abuse or neglect and sexual assault, according to court records. Authorities have not said when he will be formally charged.

He was jailed before midnight in the Clark County jail, where he remained held without bail on charges of sexual assault pending his first court appearance, scheduled for Thursday in North Las Vegas. There were no attorneys on Chasing Horse’s court records who could comment on his behalf, and Las Vegas police said he was “unable” to give an interview in jail on Wednesday.

According to a 50-page search warrant obtained by the AP, Chasing Horse is the leader of a cult known as The Circle.

At least two women have told police Chasing Horse showed his wives a stash of “little white pills” he called “suicide pills” in 2019 or 2020, years before his arrest.

The women were instructed to “take a suicide pill in case he died or law enforcement tried to break up their family,” according to the warrant.

One of Chasing Horse’s former wives also told police she believed his current wives would ‘carry out instructions’ to take the pills and open fire on law enforcement if officers came to the house. home to stop Chasing Horse.

Las Vegas police said in the document they had identified at least six sexual assault victims, some of whom were as young as 14 when they said they were abused, and traced the sexual allegations against Chasing Horse in the early 2000s in several states, including Nevada, where he lived for about a decade, and South Dakota and Montana.

“Nathan Chasing Horse used spiritual traditions and their belief system as a tool to sexually assault young girls on numerous occasions,” the detectives wrote in the warrant, adding that his followers referred to him as “Medicine Man” or ” Holy Person” because they believed he could communicate with higher beings.

One of Chasing Horse’s wives was given to him as a “gift” when she was 15, police say, while another became a wife after she turned 16.

Chasing Horse is also accused of recording sexual assaults and arranging sex with the victims for other men who paid him off.

He was arrested nearly a decade after being banished from the Fort Peck Reservation in Poplar, Montana amid human trafficking allegations.

Fort Peck tribal leaders had voted 7-0 to bar Chasing Horse from setting foot on the reservation again, citing trafficking allegations in addition to charges of drug trafficking, spiritual abuse and intimidation of tribal members, reported Indian County Today.

State attorneys general and lawmakers across the United States are considering creating specialized units to handle cases involving Native American women.

In South Dakota, where police say Chasing Horse committed some of its crimes, the attorney general’s office has placed a new emphasis on crimes against Native Americans, including human trafficking and murder.

Chasing Horse was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, home to the Sicangu Sioux, one of the seven tribes of the Lakota Nation.