Echoes of the Nokota®

How has one man’s life mission to make an unjust thing right – save North Dakota’s native horses – changed history?

Growing up in small-town North Dakota, Frank Kuntz led a typical, country life with lots of brothers and sisters, hard-working parents, and farm animals of every kind. He learned the value of a dollar, what it meant to show your worth, and how to care for the things and people that are important to you. After serving his country in Vietnam, he returned with ghosts of wrong-doings and injustices haunting him, but he continued to work hard, start a family, and have a farm of his own just a mile down the road from where he grew up.

On a parallel timeline to Frank’s life, the free-roaming descendants of Sitting Bull’s war ponies were inadvertently fenced inside the Theodore Roosevelt National Park at its inception. Thus began their struggle to find a place in a world where they were no longer wanted. And even though they faced extinction at the hands of humans over and over, they were designed by nature to survive. But how long can a wild horse herd stand against the prejudice of humans? Somewhere, deep inside their memories of ancestors, they knew their people still longed for them to return home and rejoin their families. Instinct told them their help would have to come from man – one whose soul understood their soul. So they waited. They survived. And they listened.

Never in his dreams did Frank Kuntz think that he would become the one they were waiting for.

Once in a while, choices are made that change the fate of others. The prairie winds shift, the stars align, history is saved, and legends are made.

Riddled with pain, anger, and sorrow … this is a tough story.
Sculpted by the hardest of times … the best of them too … this is a family story.
Founded on promises and passion … this is a love story.
But most of all, despite the sacrifice, loss, and injustice … this is a success story.

This is Frank’s story.

Editorial Review by J. Pittman

With the kind of dedication that comes from pure love Frank Kuntz and his family have spent their resources, their energy and their lifetimes trying to save North Dakota’s native horses.

An incredible story of commitment and love, the story of Frank Kuntz’ fight against what often seemed like impossible odds to keep his promise to the wild stallion who captured his heart as a young man and fueled a passion so deep that he dedicated his life to keeping that promise will bring you to tears many times over.