Hello and Happy Friday!

As we mentioned earlier this week, there is A LOT happening that we have not been able to publicly talk about – but we promised when we could, we would. 

Today I am so happy to talk about something that has been being worked on for YEARS now!

This one is fun!

A few years ago, our friends Frank Kuntz and his daughter Christa Ruppert felt that we needed to be introduced to Sabina Pierce. 

Sabina is a National Geographic Explorer – a photojournalist working on story about North Dakota’s honorary equine – The Nokota Horse. 

We have spent a lot of time over the years talking to Sabina and taking her out to the park to see the Theodore Roosevelt National Park wild horses.

Over the years, Sabina has talked to a list of amazing people.  Of course, included in her interviews were Frank & Christa, along with Jon Eagle Sr., Dr. Castle McLaughlin, Christine McGowan, Gus Cothran, The Nokota Horse Conservancy and so many more. 

The reason Sabina chose to write this story was to find a way to save this rare breed of horses. 

She came out, talked to all of us, went back and pitched the idea to her editor and began the long process of working to get a grant from National Geographic to do the story. 

Sabina’s hard work paid off!  National Geographic awarded her a grant to do her story on The Nokota horse!

After literally YEARS of working on this project, Sabina’s story has been released!  It is an amazing story of the Nokota horse that we know you will enjoy reading!

In the midst of Sabina working on her story, Theodore Roosevelt National Park announced their plans to eliminate the herd.  Sabina became just as immersed in our advocacy for the TRNP wild horses as she did the story on the Nokota.  She told us many times over the years that she would try her best to include us in the story, but she wasn’t sure she would be able to. 

We are excited to be a part of Sabina’s final product!

This is equally exciting as it first and foremost brings attention to the Nokota horses and the effort over the years to save this rare breed – a breed THAT ORIGINATED IN THEODORE ROOSEVELT NATIONAL PARK!

It is also exciting because Sabina has become a friend and ally over the years.  She is a great source of information and has shared many resources with us that have proven to be extremely helpful!

Sabina is sharing her finished product with her editors at National Geographic Magazine and hopes this will make its way into their print magazine.  Since National Geographic funded this project, the magazine has the first dibs on her story. The magazine has gone through a lot of downsizing and changes like all media in the past few years so it’s not an easy task. For now, we hope you will take the time to read Sabina’s story on the Nokota horse that has been years in the making. 

Thank you to Sabina for writing such a wonderful piece!  We are honored to be included!

From Sabina:

“My project is a multimedia immersive story map to help educate the public to how amazing the Nakota’s are with the hopes of gaining them much needed dedicated land so they can live in familial herds passing down their innate wisdom and unique DNA.   Since the TRNP horses are the origins of the Nakota’s it is only fair their story is told and their history, as their history is the Nakota’s too.”

We are also grateful to our friends Frank & Christa for introducing us to Sabina!  It is truly amazing what can happen when people choose to work together and highlight each other’s strengths!

Sabina’s teaser:
“I see the Nokota horses’ story as a love triangle. The land, the horses, and the people who love them. With around 750 remaining, they’re teetering on extinction.

Their story begins on the Great Northern Plains where they developed emotional intelligence and resilience to not just survive, but to thrive in familial herds. As a keystone species they give back to the land by spreading seeds as they roam.  Like elephants, elders passed down innate wisdom with a cocktail mix of hardy, diverse DNA crafted over centuries.  Initially bred by the Lakota from wild, traded, and stolen horses, becoming prized war horses and buffalo runners that ranchers admired. When Sitting Bull surrendered in 1881, his horses were seized and sold to ranchers.  In an era of open range ranching some escaped. Thriving in North Dakota’s cavernous badlands, mixing with feral ranch horses they became the last wild horses in the state. When their home was fenced in in 1956, becoming Theodore Roosevelt National Park, some thought they’d be safe. But it wasn’t so. The park (NPS) saw them as invasive and wanted them gone. And they could, as national parks are exempt from the 1971 Wild Free-roaming Horse & Burro act.”

You can read Sabina’s Nokota story here: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/dc1afeb601d641c296ff0d8f5e5af9fc

The photo below is of Sabina when she was with us in TRNP in 2023.

Please share this amazing story!  We will also provide a sharable link on our social media pages!

Thank you for your support and have a great weekend!

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