las vegas — On Friday, a jury in Nevada found the “Dances With Wolves” actor guilty. Nathan Chasing Horse The sexual assault of Indigenous women and girls in a case that sent shockwaves through Indian Country.
Jurors in Las Vegas found Chasing Horse guilty on 13 of the 21 charges he faced. Most of the convictions centered on Chasing Horse’s behavior with a victim who was 14 when the abuse began. He was acquitted of some sexual assault charges when the main victim was older and described as a wife. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 11.
The ruling marks the culmination of a years-long effort to prosecute Chasing Horse after he was first arrested and charged in 2023. Prosecutors said Chasing Horse used his reputation as a Lakota medicine man to prey on Indigenous women and girls.
While the verdict was being read, Chasing Horse stood quietly. Victims and their supporters cried and hugged in the hallway, wearing yellow ribbons.
Clark County Deputy Prosecutor William Rawls thanked the women who accused Chasing Horse of assault for testifying.
“I just hope that the people who have come forward over the years and made complaints against Nathan Chasing Horse can find some peace in this matter,” he said.
Defense attorney Craig Mueller said he would file a motion for a new trial, telling the Associated Press that he was confused and disappointed in the jury’s verdict. He said he had some “meaningful doubts about the veracity of the accusations.”
“Dances With Wolves” was one of the most notable films with a Native American cast when it premiered in 1990. After Chasing Horse appeared in the Oscar-winning film, he traveled across North America and performed healing ceremonies.
His trial came as authorities responded more strongly in recent years to the epidemic of violence against Indigenous women.
During the three-week trial, jurors heard from three women who said Chasing Horse sexually assaulted them, some of whom were minors at the time. The jury returned guilty verdicts on some of the charges relating to the three.
For nearly 20 years, Chasing Horse “weaved a web of abuse” that caught numerous women, Deputy District Attorney Bianca Bucci said in her closing statement Wednesday.
Mueller said in his closing statements that there was no evidence, including eyewitnesses. He questioned the credibility of the main accused and described her as a “despised woman.”
Sexual assault cases rarely have eyewitnesses and often occur behind closed doors, prosecutors said.
The main accused was 14 years old in 2012 when Chasing Horse allegedly told her that spirits wanted her to give up her virginity to save her mother, who had been diagnosed with cancer. He then sexually assaulted her and told her that if she told anyone, her mother would die, Bucci said during her opening statements.