A Nevada judge sentenced Nathan Chasing Horse to life in prison on Monday. A jury found the former “Dances With Wolves” actor guilty on 13 counts, mostly for sexually assaulting Native American women and girls. Prosecutors said he used his status as a self-described Lakota medicine man to control his victims for years.
Judge Jessica Peterson gave the punishment in a case that involved almost
twenty years of alleged abuse in the US and Canada. Chasing Horse, who played a young Sioux child in Kevin Costner’s Oscar-winning movie from 1990, contested the charges and told the court he had been wrongfully convicted.
AP News said that the sentence allows for parole after 37 years. After an 11-day trial, a jury in Las Vegas found him guilty on 13 of 21 counts. Ten of those counts were for sexually assaulting a child under 16.
After “Dances With Wolves,” Chasing Horse traveled around Indian Country to powwows and healing ceremonies. Prosecutors alleged that for almost twenty years, he utilized his fame and claims of spiritual power to get close to weak women and girls in Native villages.
Bianca Pucci, the Deputy District Attorney, informed the court that Corena Leone-LaCroix, one of Chasing Horse’s three accusers, was just 14 years old when she said she met him. The Daily Caller said that Leone-LaCroix said Chasing Horse told her “the spirits wanted her to give up her virginity to save her mother.” She alleged he then raped her and told her to keep quiet or her mother would die.
That is not how to lead spiritually. That means forcing someone to do something as part of a ceremony.
Before giving the sentence, Judge Peterson spoke directly to Chasing Horse. The judge informed him clearly: “You preyed on these women’s trusts and their spirituality, and you manipulated them for your own personal gratification.”
Chasing Horse was unmoved. He responded with a single line: “This is a miscarriage of justice.”
On February 1, 2023, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department took a booking shot of Chasing Horse after they detained him.
The first crime said to have occurred was in Canada in 2018
There is still a warrant out for Chasing Horse in Alberta, and there are also other criminal cases ongoing there. But the Nevada case was enough to put him down for life.
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson framed the outcome in broader terms. As Newsmax reported, Wolfson said: “The outcome sends a clear message that exploitation and abuse will not be tolerated, regardless of the defendant’s public persona or claims of spiritual authority.”
Chief Deputy District Attorney William Rowles added a note aimed at the victims themselves: “For decades, victims of Nathan Chasing Horse came forward, and they were ignored. I hope this verdict gives them some peace.”
Rowles’ line, “they were ignored,” is worth paying attention to. It makes you think about how long Chasing Horse had been running before anyone in charge did anything.
Advertisement The claims go back years. It wasn’t until 2023 that the arrest happened. The sentence and conviction came in 2026.
Prosecutors said that Chasing Horse utilized cultural traditions and spiritual beliefs to take advantage of people in a certain way. He made himself out to be a “Medicine Man” or “Holy Person” in Native tribes, and then he used that trust to attack and isolate women and girls.
The records demonstrate that the accusers and their loved ones are still going through trauma and having trouble with their religion.
Nathan Chasing Horse will spend the rest of his life in prison. That punishment can’t change what he did to the women and girls he hurt. But it can do one thing that silence never could: it can tell them they were believed.
