Return the Nokota® Horse to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park
The Issue
The Nokota® Horse. The beautiful, strong, hardy horse of the Northern Plains should be repatriated to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. They are North Dakota’s honorary equine and an important part of our National heritage and history.
Horses and Northern Plain's Horsemen have been a part of the Northern Plains for centuries. But after the wars between the United States and Northern Plains Native Americans came to a a very bitter end with the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 the governments policy of exterminating anything “Indian” would continue well into the 20th Century. The Bison was close to extinction, Native American tribes were forced to hand over their children to indoctrination programs, and Native Horses were rounded up and sold for profit and slaughter.
Once the wild horses of the Little Missouri Badlands were fenced in the boundaries of Theodore Roosevelt National Park in 1947, The National Park Service continued the Government’s policy by trying to exterminate the wild horse herds.
Over the years and due to public pressure the policy has waxed and waned leaving what is now a herd that was heavily influenced by the Park management. The Park made the decision to change the type of horse running free to a more domesticated horse by introducing, one Arabian horse, one Shire, and three quarter horse studs. They proceeded to to use helicopter and outriders to target the well established wild dominant Stallions and older lead mares for roundup and removal. This was to make sure that domestic studs introduced by the Park would influence the breeding line of the herd.
Hand selected from the Park and protected by North Dakota Horsemen Frank and Leo Kuntz during decades of park roundups the Nokota® Horse represent the true Native Horse of the Northern Plains that roamed the Little Missouri Badlands that became the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
The time has come reverse those policies and to put the Nokota® horse back into the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. This can easily be done by re-introducing selected stallions belonging to the Nokota® Horse Conservancy into the park's current population.
The long history of what is now the Nokota® horse is well documented in Dr. Castle McLaughlin’s 1989 report, “ The History and Status of the Wild Horses of Theodore Roosevelt National Park” submitted to Theodore Roosevelt Nature and History Association. This extensive research shows that the Nokota® horse is a descendant of the horses surrendered to the U.S Army at Ft.Buford, North Dakota in 1881 by Sitting Bull and other Lakota people. Later acquired by the Marquis de Mores the founder of Medora, North Dakota and legendary North Dakota rancher A.C. Huidekoper
Dr. McLaughlin is an associate curator of North American ethnography at Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.
Please take a minute and learn more at TheNokota® Horse Conservancy http://www.nokotahorse.org/cms/
Nokota® is a registered trademark of the Nokota® Horse Conservancy.
The Issue
The Nokota® Horse. The beautiful, strong, hardy horse of the Northern Plains should be repatriated to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. They are North Dakota’s honorary equine and an important part of our National heritage and history.
Horses and Northern Plain's Horsemen have been a part of the Northern Plains for centuries. But after the wars between the United States and Northern Plains Native Americans came to a a very bitter end with the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 the governments policy of exterminating anything “Indian” would continue well into the 20th Century. The Bison was close to extinction, Native American tribes were forced to hand over their children to indoctrination programs, and Native Horses were rounded up and sold for profit and slaughter.
Once the wild horses of the Little Missouri Badlands were fenced in the boundaries of Theodore Roosevelt National Park in 1947, The National Park Service continued the Government’s policy by trying to exterminate the wild horse herds.
Over the years and due to public pressure the policy has waxed and waned leaving what is now a herd that was heavily influenced by the Park management. The Park made the decision to change the type of horse running free to a more domesticated horse by introducing, one Arabian horse, one Shire, and three quarter horse studs. They proceeded to to use helicopter and outriders to target the well established wild dominant Stallions and older lead mares for roundup and removal. This was to make sure that domestic studs introduced by the Park would influence the breeding line of the herd.
Hand selected from the Park and protected by North Dakota Horsemen Frank and Leo Kuntz during decades of park roundups the Nokota® Horse represent the true Native Horse of the Northern Plains that roamed the Little Missouri Badlands that became the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
The time has come reverse those policies and to put the Nokota® horse back into the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. This can easily be done by re-introducing selected stallions belonging to the Nokota® Horse Conservancy into the park's current population.
The long history of what is now the Nokota® horse is well documented in Dr. Castle McLaughlin’s 1989 report, “ The History and Status of the Wild Horses of Theodore Roosevelt National Park” submitted to Theodore Roosevelt Nature and History Association. This extensive research shows that the Nokota® horse is a descendant of the horses surrendered to the U.S Army at Ft.Buford, North Dakota in 1881 by Sitting Bull and other Lakota people. Later acquired by the Marquis de Mores the founder of Medora, North Dakota and legendary North Dakota rancher A.C. Huidekoper
Dr. McLaughlin is an associate curator of North American ethnography at Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.
Please take a minute and learn more at TheNokota® Horse Conservancy http://www.nokotahorse.org/cms/
Nokota® is a registered trademark of the Nokota® Horse Conservancy.
The Decision Makers
Petition Updates
Share this petition
Petition created on March 13, 2016