A Dances With Wolves actor allegedly trained his wives how to use guns and told them to “shoot it out” if officers tried to “break their family apart”.
Nathan Chasing Horse also said that if that failed, they should take “suicide pills”, according to records.
The papers show the extent of Chasing Horse’s alleged cult, known as The Circle.
The 46-year-old was arrested in North Las Vegas on Tuesday following a months-long investigation into alleged abuse that authorities said spanned two decades.
He will be charged with at least two counts of sex trafficking and one each of sexual assault of a child under 16, child abuse or neglect and sexual assault, court records said.
Las Vegas police near the home of Chasing Horse. Pic: AP
After a brief hearing on Thursday, the judge ordered Chasing Horse be held without bail until his next court hearing on Monday.
At least two women told police that Chasing Horse showed his wives a stash of “small white pills”, which he called “suicide pills”, at some point in 2019 or 2020, according to the 50-page search warrant seen by the Associated Press.
The wives were instructed to “take a pill to kill themselves in the event he dies or law enforcement tries to break their family apart”.
One of Chasing Horse’s former wives told officers she believed his current wives would “carry out the instructions” to take the pills and open fire if police tried to arrest him.
Las Vegas authorities have identified at least six sexual assault victims, some as young as 14 when they say they were abused, and traced the sexual allegations against Chasing Horse to the early 2000s in multiple states, including Nevada, where he has lived for about a decade, South Dakota and Montana.
He had gained a reputation among Indigenous tribes in the US and Canada as a “medicine man” who performed healing ceremonies.
Police say he abused this position to physically and sexually assault Indigenous girls and women, take underage wives and establish a cult.
A Las Vegas police officer stands near Chasing Horse’s home. Pic: AP
Chasing Horse is also accused of recording sexual assaults and arranging sex with the victims for other men who paid him.
“Nathan Chasing Horse used spiritual traditions and their belief system as a tool to sexually assault young girls on numerous occasions,” detectives wrote in the warrant.
One of Chasing Horse’s wives was offered to him as a “gift” when she was 15 while another became a wife after turning 16, according to police.
Chasing Horse at a film premiere in 2007. Pic: AP
Officers raided his two-storey home that he shares with his five wives on Tuesday where they allegedly found memory cards containing videos of sexual assaults, firearms and 18.6kg of marijuana and psilocybin mushrooms.
His arrest comes nearly a decade after he was banished from the Fort Peck Reservation in Poplar, Montana amid allegations of human trafficking.
Arnold Rivers (C) rides with Daniel Newholy Jr (L) and Nathan Chasing Horse. Pic: AP
Chasing Horse is best known for his role as the young Sioux tribe member Smiles A Lot in the 1990 Oscar-winning film Dances With Wolves directed by Kevin Costner.
Authorities have not said when he will be formally charged.
