Woman at center of Nevada case against Nathan Chasing Horse speaks out

[0:00] Tonight, we take you inside the high-stakes trial of Nathan Chasing Horse, a self-described medicine man, once revered, now reviled, charged in 2024 with crimes including sexual assault with a minor and possession of child pornography. [0:17] The 50-year-old pleaded not guilty. [0:21] It's been a staggering fall from grace for Chasing Horse. [0:24] The former child star acted in the Oscar-winning Dances with Wolves alongside Kevin Costner. [0:29] He broke through in Hollywood again in another Indigenous story, Dream Keeper, and Steven Spielberg's Into the West. [0:44] He'd transformed himself from a respected actor to a respected medicine man. [0:49] In a video posted online, a young Chasing Horse describes how he viewed the role of a healer. [0:54] The ceremony is, it's wakan, taku wakan, it's something sacred, it's a mystery. [0:59] But authorities say his actions were criminal, accusing him of luring young girls from California to Canada, allegedly raping them and making some of them his spiritual wives under the false guise of traditional practices. [1:13] Well, chilling, new details tonight about Nathan Chasing Horse. [1:16] Former actor and accused cult leader is facing several felony charges, including sexual assault. [1:21] The investigation spanning multiple countries involving federal investigators and tribal officials. [1:27] In 2023, SWAT officers raided Chasing Horse's home. [1:32] He's been behind bars ever since and has always denied all wrongdoing. [1:38] Nathan Chasing Horse spun a web of abuse, caught many girls in that web. [1:45] His attorney saying the allegations are lies. [1:48] This is a criminal case. It's based on evidence. [1:53] And there's quite literally no evidence. [1:56] The journey behind the gut-wrenching testimony. [1:59] No one deserves to have what happened to us. [2:03] A stunning conclusion to a story Nightline has been following for nearly three years. [2:12] Indigenous culture is beautiful. It's the people that misuse it that are ugly. [2:16] He didn't help a damn person. [2:17] Getting a rare glimpse into Chasing Horse's controversial spiritual group, The Circle. [2:23] You can't question the guy. He's the all-knowing. [2:26] Who uses a child. [2:28] He uses the love for their parent as a weapon. [2:33] Who does that? [2:36] What will be his fate? [2:38] This is your baby, Sharon. [2:43] I first met Corinna, who goes by Wren, in 2023. [2:48] She says from the moment she met Chasing Horse, he drew her in. [2:52] How old were you when you first met him? [2:54] I was seven, and I remember thinking he was one of the most beautiful people I'd ever seen. [2:59] He had a way of just, like, swallowing the energy wherever he was. [3:03] Wren's mother, Melissa Leone, became a follower of Chasing Horse. [3:07] Like her, he's Lakota, the largest tribe of the Sioux Nation, [3:11] known for fabled warriors like Sitting Bull, who defeated the U.S. Army at Little Bighorn. [3:17] I was really raised in a white home. [3:19] I wasn't raised native. [3:21] How important was it to rediscover that? [3:24] Ugh. [3:25] It was like the lights being turned on in a dark room. [3:28] It felt so open. [3:30] It felt so loving. [3:32] Wren and Melissa say they believed Chasing Horse for more than a decade. [3:37] He kept his inner circle close, Wren and Melissa a part of it, [3:41] accompanying him in videos posted online. [3:43] He used our spirituality to trap us. [3:51] As she got older, Wren's talent in traditional dances, like jingle dancing, was often showcased at powwows. [3:57] Chasing Horse would have her upload these videos to YouTube. [4:03] In 2012, Melissa says she was given a grim cancer diagnosis, [4:08] and she turned to her spiritual leader, Chasing Horse. [4:11] He said, that's okay. [4:13] Send Wren and ask for ceremony. [4:15] So Wren obeyed. [4:17] She went to see Chasing Horse at his Vegas home. [4:20] She says she had no idea she was walking into danger. [4:24] He had taken me into a closet, and the spirits had come in. [4:29] There was a rattle. [4:30] They had said that my mom had gotten sick because of her own anger. [4:34] So you were asked to sacrifice yourself to save your mom? [4:38] Yeah. [4:38] He said that it would cost me my virginity. [4:43] I had tried saying no at first, and he said that if I didn't, that my mom would die and she wouldn't get help. [4:53] He had raped me shortly after that, yeah. [4:56] Wren was just 14. [4:59] I just can't remember thinking that this is for your mom. [5:04] As a 25-year-old, you know what consent means. [5:10] Did you give consent? [5:11] No. [5:12] Were you able to give consent? [5:13] No. [5:15] That would be the first of many times Chasing Horse sexually assaulted Wren. [5:20] Melissa says she had no idea what her daughter was enduring. [5:24] It makes me feel like the worst mother on the planet. [5:28] It's unforgivable. [5:31] And how she held that for so long. [5:35] Can you articulate why you didn't tell her? [5:38] He said that it was a sacred promise between him, me, and the spirits, and that if I told, that my mom would get sick again. [5:46] Mary Catherine Nagel is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and an attorney who works closely with indigenous victims of violence and sexual assault. [5:54] Our religious leaders, our spiritual leaders, they are trusted. [5:58] And when they violate that trust, it's incredibly damaging. [6:02] More than 50% of Native American and Alaskan Native women will experience sexual violence in their lifetimes. [6:11] Individual perpetrators have to be held accountable. [6:13] It's hard, though, because I think the stigma on our communities is so incredibly strong. [6:19] So there's a lot of pressure to shove it under the rug, hide it. [6:23] Wren says that when she was 16, after years of keeping Chasing Horse's alleged physical advances secret, she told her mom that she was in love and wanted to become one of his spiritual wives. [6:35] I've heard some people suggest that perhaps your mother should have been able to protect you. [6:42] I get really upset when they try saying that, because there's no way my mom could have known. [6:48] The way he disconnected all of us wives from our families, I had to make myself so small to be there. [6:57] Chasing Horse allegedly had at least six spiritual wives at the same time. [7:02] He had had me change my name when I was 18. [7:05] What did you change it to? [7:06] Chasing Horse. [7:07] We all couldn't get married to him legally, so he had us all legally change our last names. [7:11] Wren says he encouraged them to get tattoos to match his. [7:16] Why spiders? [7:17] The spirits that he believed in, they were spider spirits. [7:21] After nearly a decade, Wren finally left the circle in 2021, when she was 23. [7:26] Do you think of yourself as a survivor? [7:29] It's interesting. [7:31] No, I did not survive that. [7:35] The person I was did not survive that. [7:40] So no, I'm not a survivor. [7:42] Even years later, she's still reeling from that loss. [7:47] I feel like the important parts of me are still here. [7:53] But he took that little girl from me. [7:56] But I like who I am now. [7:58] I like the strength I have found in myself now. [8:01] Wren used that strength to come forward to authorities, helping build a criminal case against the so-called medicine man. [8:07] Chasing Horse's trial finally began this past January on 21 felony counts connected to Wren and at least two others. [8:16] Prosecutors painting him as a man who used and abused his power to take advantage of young women. [8:21] Your body is no longer yours. [8:25] Those are the words of Nathan Chasing Horse to 14-year-old Corinna. [8:32] It's not a criminal case. [8:34] In fact, it's a divorce case. [8:36] That's what it really is. [8:37] In turn, the defense painting Wren as a scorned ex-wife. [8:41] This isn't some sex cult. [8:44] This isn't some bizarre pedophile at large running around. [8:49] This is a grieved wife, one of six, mad at her husband, who then files false allegations. [8:58] How could this be a divorce case if it started when I was 14 and he was 32?