An actor who starred opposite Kevin Costner in "Dances With Wolves" was arrested in Las Vegas for sex abuse on Tuesday, Jan. 31, and police say he was a polygamist operating a cult.
Nathan Lee Chasing His Horse, who goes by Nathan Chasing Horse, was arrested after a three-month investigation. In a search warrant obtained by the Associated Press and TMZ, investigators alleged that the former actor targeted Indigenous girls without a father figure. He then allegedly groomed and coerced them into having sex with him — the girls were told that "spirits" insisted they have sex with Nathan so they could join "The Circle," which authorities say was the name of the cult.
The alleged abuse — which included girls younger than 13 — spanned two decades.
Nathan, who played the young Sioux tribe member Smiles a Lot in the Oscar-winning film, gained a reputation among tribes across the United States and in Canada as a so-called "medicine man." Police said he performed healing rituals and used his position to abuse young Native American girls.
TMZ said Nathan, 46, "recorded his sexual assaults and arranged sexual encounters between his victims and other men who would pay him." Police contend that Nathan would give the young girls emergency contraceptive pills to prevent pregnancies after sex.
The 50-page search warrant claimed that Nathan shared his Las Vegas home with five wives, and they were instructed to take "suicide pills" and prepare for a shootout with police.
Nathan, who appeared in several TV movies, has been accused of human trafficking before. A 2015 warrant in Poplar, Montana, claimed, "Nathan Chasing Horse used spiritual traditions and their belief system as a tool to sexually assault young girls on numerous occasions."
Tuesday evening's arrest is related only to alleged crimes committed in Clark County, Nevada.
Nathan was booked into jail on charges of child abuse or neglect, sex assault, sex assault against a child and sex trafficking of an adult.