An alleged cult leader accused of targeting the Native American community and sexually assaulting multiple women appears to be heading to trial Tuesday after years of litigation.

Authorities have said Nathan Chasing Horse, 49, who played Smiles a Lot in the 1990 film “Dances With Wolves,” committed crimes in the U.S. and Canada while running a cult called “The Circle.”

Chasing Horse, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Indian Lakota Tribe, cast himself as a “medicine man” and used Native American culture and ceremonies to build trust, police have alleged. Prosecutors said his group had up to 350 followers at its height.

Multiple women have told police Chasing Horse assaulted them and filmed himself “having intercourse with them while they were conscious and unconscious,” according to a prior arrest report.

He was arrested in 2023 after a police raid on the North Las Vegas home where he lived with multiple women he viewed as wives. He was indicted in October 2024 on counts of sexual assault with a minor under 16, first-degree kidnapping of a minor, open and gross lewdness, sexual assault, use of a minor under 14 in producing pornography and possession of child pornography.

The 21-count indictment lists the initials of three alleged victims, two of whom prosecutors allege he sexually assaulted and one of whom they say he used to produce child pornography. For one of the alleged victims, the allegations span from 2012 to 2020.

“It’s always difficult for a defendant in a sexual assault case to defend against numerous counts and multiple alleged victims, because a jury is going to hear from multiple people who may or may not know each other, who are making similar allegations and the totality of the evidence might be overwhelming and compel a jury to convict the defendant,” former Clark County District Attorney David Roger said.

The trial is likely to receive attention nationally, including from Indian country.

“(T)his case involves serious harm and violence with deep and lasting consequences for Tribal communities,” Native Voters Alliance Nevada spokesperson Mathilda Miller said in a text. “We expect the legal system to confront that harm and deliver real accountability and justice.”

Chasing Horse, who is an inmate at the Clark County Detention Center, declined an interview request.

At a pretrial hearing on Friday, defense attorney Craig Mueller and Chief Deputy District Attorney William Rowles debated issues related to the child pornography charges and offered a window into how they see the case.

Much of the case, Mueller said, “is just some live testimony of people who have some reason to have less than accurate recollections.”

Rowles said two of the alleged victims have provided similar accounts.

“He held an important position within his community as the medicine man,” the prosecutor said, adding, “He’s using his position of power within this community, his status within his community and culture, to gain access to these women and then sexually assault them, take advantage, abuse them.”

The high-profile nature of the trial also came up during the hearing.

District Judge Jessica Peterson said press coverage would make it difficult to pick a jury.

Mueller said Chasing Horse’s family members were shot at six or eight months ago. He believed the shooting was a result of press coverage, he said, and the family has left the jurisdiction.

“We should probably get some structures on not putting the witnesses on video tape and, hopefully, with the front page of the newspaper,” he said, adding that the case “does seem to inflame people’s passions.”

Peterson said victims of sexual abuse should not be shown and asked attorneys to provide law about showing other witnesses. She said she might issue an order to the media with prohibitions to follow in exchange for the “privilege of being in the courtroom.”

Chasing Horse has already had multiple trial dates vacated, and the current trial — expected to last three or four weeks — appeared to be at risk of being delayed, too, because of a deterioration of Chasing Horse’s relationship with his lawyer.

In a Dec. 30 filing, defense attorney Craig Mueller wrote that his relationship with his client was “terminated at the defendant’s request.”

But during a Monday hearing, Peterson said she would not allow Chasing Horse to fire his attorney.

After Chasing Horse repeatedly attempted to speak over Peterson, she ordered him removed from the courtroom.

Chasing Horse was allowed back in and voiced complaints about Mueller’s performance, including that the attorney did not object to the presence of reporters or adequately communicate with him.

“How can Mr. Mueller be ready for trial when he has not visited me during the 13 months of being retained?” Chasing Horse asked. “He has not questioned me, asked me any questions. He has not delivered any information about the investigations.”

He added: “My life is on the line here, Your Honor.”

At a bench conference, Chief Deputy District Attorney William Rowles seemed concerned.

“I didn’t want to do this on the record, but have you visited him?” the prosecutor asked Mueller, adding that he did not want to go to trial and then have a verdict reversed, according to a recording provided by the court.

Mueller replied that his understanding was that an investigator “has been over there several times,” apparently referring to jail visits, but said he would want to double check that.

By Wednesday, the relationship between Chasing Horse and Mueller appeared to have improved. Chasing Horse appeared in custody before another judge and he chatted with Mueller while seated in the courtroom.

“We appear to be ready, Judge,” Mueller told District Judge Tierra Jones.

After court, he said, “I believe he wants me to continue as his attorney.”

He added that his preparations for the trial would be “extensive and complete.”

“Mr. Chasing Horse is going to get the constitutionally guaranteed effective assistance of counsel in the trial,” Mueller said.

At the Friday hearing, Chasing Horse said he no longer wanted to fire the lawyer.

Mueller indicated someone from his office had made seven jail visits. He showed Peterson thick binders of trial preparation materials.

“Mr. Chasing Horse is a very intelligent man,” the attorney said. “He’s got great questions. He keeps me on my toes.”

Grand jury testimony offers a window into what alleged victims might tell jurors at trial.

One testified that she met Chasing Horse at a ceremony as a 6- or 7-year-old girl.

He helped her with breathing issues and developed a close relationship with her, adopting her as a granddaughter.

As a medicine man, his position was “extremely important” and meant that he was viewed as a conduit between the human and spirit worlds, she said.

When she was 14, her mother was diagnosed with cancer and Chasing Horse instructed her that the spirits wanted her virginity to cure her mother, then had sex with her though she did not want to do so, she testified.

She said that although she did not believe she had a choice, she previously told police she was proud of her choice, because she thought she had saved her mother.

She told grand jurors Chasing Horse “said that because of the responsibility that he carries that one of the ways that he helps himself heal and recover from helping so many people is by having sex with multiple women.”

Another alleged victim said she met Chasing Horse when she was 3 or 4. She came to see him as a father figure and spiritual leader.

When she was about 17 years old, a helper of Chasing Horse started talking to her about sex and the importance of losing virginity to the right person, she testified.

She alleged Chasing Horse had sex with her, something she did not want to happen.

“I think internally I was screaming, but there were no words coming out and I felt, like, powerless in that moment,” she told the grand jury, describing her reaction to what she said was Chasing Horse touching her breasts.

Chasing Horse said the grandfathers or the spirits “told him he had to do that to me,” she testified, referring to Chasing Horse having sex with her.

“I was thinking why, why would the grandfathers or the spirits want this to happen(?)” she said.

Defense attorney Robert Draskovich, who has represented many defendants in sexual misconduct cases, said with multiple victims, he would focus on how their stories have changed and how their testimony may have been tainted, including through interactions with each other.

“You always have to give a competing narrative,” he said. “Juries always expect an explanation as to why they’d make this up, and oftentimes, that’s one of the hardest obstacles to overcome.”

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