The trial of former Dances with Wolves (1990) actor Nathan Chasing Horse, accused in the U.S. state of Nevada of sexually harassing Indigenous girls and women for two decades, has been suspended indefinitely, a judge said Wednesday .
The trial of Nathan Chasing Horse, who at the age of 15 played a young Sioux in Dances with Wolves, was scheduled to begin on May 1.
The 46-year-old former actor has now been charged with 18 crimes, including rape of a minor, kidnapping, indecency and child abuse.
Shortly after being indicted by a Las Vegas grand jury in February, Chasing Horse exercised its right to a 60-day trial.
But this Wednesday, his public defender, Christy Holston, asked for a halt in the proceedings while they ask the Nevada Supreme Court to dismiss the indictment.
Clark County District Judge Carly Kearney said she would set a new date for the trial if the Supreme Court upheld its recent decision to dismiss Chasing Horse’s request to dismiss.
Chasing Horse and his lawyers alleged that two women identified as his victims wanted to have sex with him.
In Friday’s ruling, the judge noted that prosecutors had provided enough evidence for a “grand jury to reasonably conclude that sexual assault occurred.”
Kearney has set a new hearing for May 10 to review the status of Chasing Horse’s appeal to the Supreme Court, which has not yet been filed on Wednesday.
Chasing Horse played the part of the “Sioux who smiles a lot” tribesman in Kevin Costner’s 1990 Oscar-winning film.
Since then, he has developed a reputation as a “healer” among the tribes of the United States and Canada.
Chasing Horse, according to police, abused this position and had underage wives for two decades in several states, including South Dakota, Montana and Nevada, where he lived for about ten years. In 2015, he was also banned from the Fort Peck Reservation in Poplar, Montana following similar allegations.
Detectives described Chasing Horse in a 50-page search warrant as the leader of a cult known as The Circle, whose followers believed they could communicate with higher powers.
Chasing Horse’s arrest report shows at least six victims have been identified, including one who was 13 when she said she was abused and another who said she was given a former actor when she was 15 years.
The January 31 arrest in Nevada sent shockwaves across the country with Indian reservations and led to new criminal charges, including in Canada and the U.S. District Court in Nevada, and on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana.