“Dancing with Wolves” actor Nathan Chasing Horse, who authorities said abused his position as leader of The Circle cult, has been sentenced to life behind bars for decades of sex crimes against Indigenous women and girls.
The 50-year-old, who continues to assert his innocence, was sentenced Monday and will be eligible for parole after serving 37 years.
Chasing Horse, who was convicted by a Las Vegas jury in January and faces pending charges in Canada and other U.S. states, told the judge Monday that his sentence “is a miscarriage of justice.”
He was found guilty in January of 10 counts of sexual assault of a minor under 16, one count of open/gross lewdness, one count of sexual assault, and one count of possession of visual presentation depicting sexual conduct of a child, according to local ABC affiliate KTNV at the time.
Of the 21 charges he faced, Chasing Horse was found not guilty of five counts of sexual assault, one count of kidnapping of a minor, one count of possession of visual presentation depicting sexual conduct of a child, and one count of use of a minor to produce pornography.
The majority of the crimes for which Chasing Horse was convicted centered on a victim who was 14 when the abuse began, with the acquittals stemming in part from charges when she was older.
Chasing Horse was convicted three years after his arrest in 2023, when a SWAT team raided the home he was said to share with five wives.
He made his screen debut as Smiles A Lot in Kevin Costner’s 1990 Best Picture-winning epic, “Dances with Wolves.” Chasing Horse went on to appear in a handful of other productions between 1993 and 2007, ending with the TV movie, “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.”
Authorities say Chasing Horse spent nearly 20 years abusing his position as a Lakota medicine man to take advantage of women and girls.
With News Wire Services