NORTH LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Explosive new details are emerging in the arrest of "Dances with Wolves" actor Nathan Chasing Horse in North Las Vegas.
The investigation culminated in a raid of Chasing Horse's home on Tuesday night. A months-long investigation by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police detectives led them to accuse Chasing Horse of being a serial sexual predator with alleged crimes in two countries and multiple U.S. states.
An arrest report obtained by KTNV lays out 53 pages of allegations that Chasing Horse levied his position as a spiritual leader to sexually abuse multiple minor children, some of whom were "groomed" into his spiritual "wives" and, in some cases, allegedly sex trafficked to other men.
According to the report, Metro police detectives first learned of the allegations against Chasing Horse when they got a call from Royal Canadian Mounted Police alerting them that he was suspected of sexual assault.
That kicked off a joint investigation involving Metro, the FBI, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and tribal police in other states.
Detectives say that investigation revealed Chasing Horse had "abused his power and spiritual influence" by posing as a "Holy Man" or "Medicine Man" to groom vulnerable Indigenous girls into sexual relationships over the course of nearly two decades.
EXPLOTING ISOLATION: Native actor accused of using culture to 'groom' Indigenous girls into alleged cult
Nizhoni Widehat with the Native Voters Alliance tells KTNV that to further exploit a culture that's been systematically erased for centuries this way makes these accusations particularly hard to handle.
"I'll never get to do certain dances or know how to wear these things. These things that should be me are gone, and this guy is using them as a way to keep people. To trap people. To steal them. And his own people, even. It's a heinous crime," Widehat said.
Detectives say a large portion of Chasing Horse's alleged sexual abuse and trafficking happened within what they described as a "cult" that began in South Dakota, called "The Circle." Police say Chasing Horse served as the head of this alleged cult.
For now, Metro police say they've confirmed at least three victims in this case were abused in Clark County, but they believe more will come forward.
Detectives write that Chasing Horse "has long been accused of sexual assault of minor Indigenous girls, sex trafficking, and spiritual abuse."
Through interviews with multiple women, Metro police lay out allegations that Chasing Horse "groomed" young girls into becoming his spiritual "wives." He allegedly lived with multiple of these women in his North Las Vegas home. Several of these women, in interviews with police, alleged Chasing Horse sexually trafficked them, drugged them with high concentrations of THC referred to as "Phoenix Tears," and physically abused them.
Detectives note that Chasing Horse's alleged "wives" do not appear to have been legally married to him — rather they were instructed to change their last names to Chasing Horse to "symbolize" being married to him.
Multiple women alleged they met Chasing Horse as children. Similar details were described in multiple police interviews, revealing what police described as a pattern of grooming behavior.
One woman alleges Chasing Horse raped her when she was 14 years old under the guise of communing with spirits to cure her mother's illness. She told police Chasing Horse recorded sex acts with her on a cell phone "approximately 20 times." After her 16th birthday, she became one of his "wives" and moved in with him in North Las Vegas for approximately seven years.
In 2020, the woman said she told Chasing Horse she was "thinking of leaving him." The report states Chasing Horse told her he had to "get something out of it" before she left, and "he was going to let his 'bros' have sex with her." She recalls being repeatedly beaten until she "finally agreed," according to the report.
Between April 2020 and December 2021, Chasing Horse allegedly arranged multiple encounters where the woman was blindfolded and raped by unidentified men, sometimes at Chasing Horse's home and other times at two hotel-casinos in the northwest Las Vegas area, the report states.
At one point, two of Chasing Horse's so-called "wives" told police the actor apologized to the women for doing this and claimed it was only him who had sex with them — though one woman told police she saw it was other men and not Chasing Horse.
The woman also alleges she was repeatedly physically abused by Chasing Horse, including one instance where she says her nose was broken and her shoulder dislocated. She told police she was refused medical care, so she reset her own nose and shoulder by watching YouTube videos for reference.
During a raid of Chasing Horse's home this week, police noted locating multiple items of evidence, including child pornography, pounds of drugs, and evidence that Chasing Horse may have violated bald eagle and golden eagle protection laws.
Child pornography videos were found on a cell phone described by the first victim Metro police interviewed, detectives noted in their report.
Officers say they located a sizable stash of marijuana, psilocybin mushrooms, and cannabis extract, including:
- 41 pounds of marijuana
- 241 grams of psilocybin mushrooms
- 267 grams of THC wax
- 34 grams of an "unknown green substance"
- 53 grams of an "unknown brown substance" believed to be the "Phoenix tears" which several of the women said they were given. In the report, they described the THC-based concoction as so strong, it would put them to sleep for hours at a time.
Investigators note those substances will be submitted for testing and could result in additional charges, as could an array of bird parts police found that may be in violation of Nevada's statute protecting bald and golden eagles.
In a chest freezer and around Chasing Horse's laundry room, detectives detailed finding the following:
- a partially stuffed bald eagle
- bald eagle wings
- a bald eagle head
- a hawk or raptor
- a lunch box with dismembered eagle parts
- a woodpecker
- feathers
- two unidentified birds
- multiple boxes of eagle feathers.
As of this report, Chasing Horse faces two counts of sex trafficking, one count of sexual assault of a child under 16, child abuse, and sexual assault.
In laying out probable cause for the charge of child abuse, detectives noted multiple unsecured firearms in the residence, writing that children seen coming and going would have been able to access them.
Chasing Horse is due to appear in court for the first time on Thursday afternoon.
