LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Nevada grand jury has again indicted Nathan Chasing Horse for sexually abusing Native women and girls, reviving a sweeping criminal case against the former “Dances with Wolves” actor.

The 21-count indictment unsealed Thursday in Clark County District Court, which includes Las Vegas, expands his previous charges of sexual assault, lewdness and kidnapping to include charges of producing and possessing child sexual abuse materials.

It comes after more than a year of delays in court proceedings that culminated last month when the Nevada Supreme Court ordered the dismissal of Chasing Horse’s original 18-count indictment. The court sided with Chasing Horse, saying in its scathing order that prosecutors had abused the grand jury process. But the court left open the possibility that charges could be filed again.

Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson quickly promised to file another indictment. Neither Wolfson nor a spokesperson for his office immediately responded Thursday to requests for comment by phone or email.

Best known for playing the character Smiles A Lot in the 1990 film “Dances with Wolves,” Chasing Horse was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, home of the Sicangu Sioux, one of the seven tribes of the Lakota Nation.

After starring in the Oscar-winning film, prosecutors say, Chasing Horse began emerging as a self-proclaimed Lakota medicine man while traveling across North America to perform healing ceremonies.

Prosecutors said his position in the community allowed him access to vulnerable women and girls for decades until his arrest last January near Las Vegas. He has been imprisoned since then.

Chasing Horse’s arrest resonated throughout Indian Country. Law enforcement agencies in the United States and Canada quickly filed more criminal charges, saying his arrest helped corroborate long-standing allegations against him, including on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana, where tribal leaders had banished Chasing Horse. in 2015 amid accusations of human abuse. traffic.

Authorities in Alberta, Canada, have acknowledged that his case is largely symbolic. Chasing Horse, who faces decades in prison in Nevada if convicted, may never return to Canada.

“At the end of the day,” said Sgt. Nancy Farmer of the Tsuut’ina Nation Police Service said: “It is important for us to have these orders in the system so that our victims know they have been heard. “It is extremely important that we continue to support them in that way.”

In Las Vegas, Chasing Horse pleaded not guilty to the original charges. His new attorney did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment, and his former public defender, Kristy Holston, said she had no comment on the new allegation.

The latest indictment also accuses Chasing Horse of filming himself having sex with one of his accusers when she was under 14 years old. Prosecutors say the images, taken in 2010 or 2011, were found on cellphones in a locked safe inside the North Las Vegas home that Chasing Horse is said to have shared with five wives, including the girl in the videos.

When the Nevada Supreme Court ordered the dismissal of Chasing Horse’s initial indictment, the justices said they were not evaluating his guilt or innocence and called the allegations against him serious. But the court said prosecutors improperly provided the grand jury with a definition of harassment without expert testimony, and faulted them for withholding from the grand jury inconsistent statements made by one of his accusers.

Chasing Horse’s legal troubles have been developing as lawmakers and prosecutors across the United States are channeling more resources into cases involving Native women, including human trafficking and murders.

— By RIO YAMAT Associated Press