Alleged cult leader now facing sex assault charge in tribal court

A judge from the Fort Peck Tribal Court signed a warrant on Friday charging Chasing Horse, 46, with aggravated sexual assault of a child, according to a copy of the warrant obtained by the Review-Journal. The warrant marks the fourth jurisdiction in which Chasing Horse faces charges.

Chasing Horse was banished in 2015 from the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, which is located in northwest Montana and is home to the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux tribes, after he was accused of human trafficking, spiritual abuse and intimidation of tribal members.

Officials were able to file the new warrant after additional victims came forward in the wake of Chasing Horse’s arrest in Nevada, said Supervisory Criminal Investigator Ken Trottier.

“Because of those victims, now we’re able to corroborate our case,” Trottier said Monday.

Prosecutors have accused Chasing Horse of a series of crimes across the United States and Canada that stretch back to the mid 2000s. He was arrested Jan. 31 after police raided his North Las Vegas home, where he lived with up to six women he viewed as wives, according to a Metropolitan Police Department arrest report.

He has been accused of misusing his spiritual influence to operate a cult known as The Circle, and had up to 350 followers at the height of his influence, prosecutors have said. Multiple women, some who first met Chasing Horse as young children, have told police they were raped by him starting when they were teenagers.

Chasing Horse is also known for playing the character Smiles A Lot in the 1990 Kevin Costner film “Dances With Wolves.”

Clark County prosecutors have charged Chasing Horse with felony counts of sexual assault against a child under 16, sex assault, child abuse, possession of visual pornography of a child under 16 and four counts of sex trafficking of an adult. He has also been charged with unlawful acts pertaining to a bald or golden eagle, and hunting, trapping, possessing or selling part of a bird of prey, both misdemeanor counts.

Police who raided Chasing Horse’s home found multiple firearms, drugs and bald eagle parts, along with a cellphone containing images of Chasing Horse allegedly assaulting an unresponsive young girl, prosecutors said.

He is accused of instructing his wives on how to operate the firearms to prepare for a potential shootout with law enforcement and of telling them to take suicide pills if he were ever arrested or killed.

On Wednesday, Chasing Horse was charged in federal court with two counts of sexual exploitation of children and one count of possession of child pornography, according to a criminal complaint.

A warrant has also been issued in Canada, stemming from a report of a “historic sexual assault” received last year by authorities in Keremeos, a village in British Columbia, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

The warrant from the Fort Peck Reservation stems from two allegations received by the Fort Peck Tribes’ criminal investigation division in 2005, Trottier said.

Trottier said the allegations were made by a 13-year-old and 15-year-old girl. One reported that she was raped, while the other reported a statutory rape.

The case was investigated and sent to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, but Chasing Horse wasn’t prosecuted because there was no corroborating evidence, Trottier said.

Trottier said that between the 2005 allegations and when Chasing Horse was banished from the reservation, police received two other allegations that didn’t rise to the level of a criminal offense.

Federal authorities in Montana are also continuing to investigate Chasing Horse, Trottier said.

Last week, a North Las Vegas judge ordered Chasing Horse to be held on $300,000 bail. He remained in the Clark County Detention Center on Monday afternoon, jail records show.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.