A Nevada jury found actor Nathan Chasing Horse guilty on 13 charges, mostly related to sexual assault, and a judge sentenced him to life in prison Monday, authorities said. The convictions followed testimony from three women, including one who said the abuse began when she was 14; Chasing Horse was acquitted on some charges.
At the Clark County sentencing hearing, victims and family members told Judge Jessica Peterson they continue to suffer trauma and have struggled with their faith after Chasing Horse, who has portrayed a Lakota medicine man and led ceremonies across Indian Country, used his position as a spiritual leader. Wearing a detention center uniform, Chasing Horse stared ahead while victims read statements; he denied the charges in court and told the judge, “This is a miscarriage of justice.”
Prosecutors said Chasing Horse exploited his reputation to prey on Indigenous women and girls. Deputy District Attorney Bianca Pucci told jurors during the January trial that he had for nearly two decades “spun a web of abuse” that entrapped multiple women.
One accuser who has spoken publicly, Corena Leone-LaCroix, said she was 14 in 2012 when Chasing Horse allegedly told her the spirits required her to give up her virginity to save her mother, who had cancer. Prosecutors say he then sexually assaulted her, threatened that her mother would die if she told anyone, and continued to assault her for years. Jurors heard testimony that several women sought him out for ceremonies or healing and that some were groomed through his spiritual practices.
Defense attorneys challenged the credibility of the main accuser, at times calling her a “scorned woman,” and argued in a motion for a new trial that a witness was not qualified to discuss grooming and that the statute of limitations had expired. The motion was denied.
Family members described a loss of trust and a struggle to reclaim faith and spiritual practice after what they called a betrayal of sacred traditions. One victim said she still faces medical complications tied to an ectopic pregnancy and subsequent surgery that prosecutors linked to the assaults. At sentencing, another victim called the verdict “a fresh start,” saying she plans to rebuild her life and keep fighting for her future.
Chasing Horse, who was born on South Dakota’s Rosebud Reservation and appeared as the young Sioux tribesman Smiles a Lot in the film Dances With Wolves, was first arrested and indicted in 2023. That arrest prompted additional investigations in other U.S. states and in Canada.
British Columbia prosecutors charged him in February 2023 with sexual assault for an alleged September 2018 incident near Keremeos, B.C. That Canadian case was paused in November 2023 because of the U.S. charges and later resumed. Damienne Darby of the British Columbia Prosecution Service said prosecutors will evaluate next steps after Chasing Horse exhausts appeals in the United States. A warrant also remains outstanding in Alberta, the Tsuut’ina Nation Police Service said.
Dr. Crystal Lee, CEO and founder of United Natives, an organization that serves sexual abuse survivors, said she hopes the sentence helps victims find peace. Lee said the case highlights the need to hold high-profile perpetrators accountable and to believe survivors, noting Chasing Horse used his status as an actor and as a medicine man to exploit trust in ways similar to other faith leaders who abuse power. “I think it makes us question who we trust and why we trust,” she said.