Actor Nathan Chasing Horse hit with federal charges in child sex abuse probe

The "Dances with Wolves" actor is also facing state sex abuse charges in Nevada.

February 9, 2023, 6:18 PM

Nathan Chasing Horse, the actor who was arrested last month on sex abuse allegations in Nevada, is now facing federal charges after he was accused of sex crimes against minors over a number of years.

The actor, who is best known for his role in the 1990 Academy-Award winning movie "Dances With Wolves," was charged by federal prosecutors in a Las Vegas federal court on Wednesday with two counts of sexual exploitation of children and one count of possession of child pornography.

Charging documents obtained by ABC News show that Chasing Horse is accused of coercing minors, identified as Victims 1 and 2 to "engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing any visual depiction of such conduct, knowing and having reason to know that such visual depiction would be transported or transmitted."

The documents describe alleged videos of sexual encounters between Chasing Horse and a minor. Chasing Horse is also accused of coercing Victim 1 into sending him sexually explicit images of herself. He is also accused of possessing images and videos of child pornography.

It is unclear if Chasing Horse has retained an attorney yet in the federal case.

The federal charges against Chasing Horse came hours after a judge in state court set his bail at $300,000 in a hearing on Wednesday, and ordered Chasing Horse to wear an electronic monitoring device and have no contact with minors, including his children. He also banned him from having contact with firearms, drugs or alcohol.

According to court records reviewed by ABC News, Chasing Horse was charged with multiple alleged state crimes in the state, including sexual assault, sexual assault against a child, sex trafficking adults and child abuse or neglect.

His preliminary hearing in state court is set for Feb. 22, where he is facing allegations of using his position as a so-called "medicine man" or spiritual leader to sexually exploit Indigenous women and girls, according to ABC affiliate KTNV in Las Vegas, who was in the court room.

ABC News has reached out to public defender Kristy Holston, who is representing Chasing Horse in this case while he hires a private attorney, but a request for comment was not immediately returned.

In the courtroom prosecutors argued that Chasing Horse is a “danger” to the community and requested bail to be set at $2 million. Chasing Horse's attorneys asked that bail be set at $50,000 and argued that he worked as a "spiritual adviser" that is “akin to a preacher, a pastor or a rabbi” in Indigenous communities and has “dedicated his life” to serving his community. Chasing Horse had a number of community members showing their support to him in the court room on Wednesday.

Model Quannah Chasinghorse, Chasing Horse's daughter, spoke out about the charges against her father in an Instagram post on Tuesday evening, where she voiced her support for his alleged victims.

"I stand with the victims of Nathan Lee Chasing His Horse, and those demanding justice and healing of the survivors, our communities in Indian country overall," she wrote, urging people to donate to organizations like the National Indigenous Women's Resource Center to support the work of ending the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women.