As 'Dances With Wolves' actor Nathan Chasing Horse faced justice, these two Bay Area women built a network of survivors

"When a Las Vegas jury on Jan. 30 found Nathan Chasing Horse guilty of 13 felony counts, most of them related to child sexual abuse, it sent reverberations through tribal communities across North America. One of the most powerful tremors passed through Sonoma County. "I don't have the words to describe what it feels like to have this conviction come through, and to know this process started on a bench in (Santa Rosa's) Howarth Park," said Kathryn Lombera, who lives in Windsor."

"Chasing Horse found fame at 13, when he played the character Smiles a Lot in the Oscar-winning 1990 film "Dances With Wolves." Infamy found him in January 2023, when he was arrested at his home in Vegas following a multi-jurisdictional investigation into what prosecutors and victims described as years of exploitation and sexual abuse of Indigenous women - by a man who had created the persona of a respected spiritual healer."

"By the time of his arrest, a group of women - most of them survivors of Chasing Horse's predation, some them friends or relatives - were already meeting over Zoom to support one another through grief and recovery. It was Lombera, the Windsor resident, who formed the group alongside Lisa Diaz-McQuaid, co-founder of Redemption House of the Bay Area, a Santa Rosa-based nonprofit that assists survivors of human trafficking."

Nathan Chasing Horse was found guilty by a Las Vegas jury on Jan. 30 of 13 felony counts, most involving child sexual abuse. He first gained public recognition as a child actor in the 1990 film Dances With Wolves. Authorities arrested him in January 2023 following a multi-jurisdictional probe into allegations that he exploited and sexually abused Indigenous women while presenting himself as a spiritual healer. Survivors formed a Zoom support group led by local organizers, including Kathryn Lombera and Lisa Diaz-McQuaid. The conviction provided a measure of closure for victims and resonated across tribal communities, including Sonoma County.

Read at The Mercury News