A Lifetime in the Making - by Julie Christen

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A year and a half ago, while winding down a long day with a glass of wine on the front porch, my husband's phone rang. It's funny how we don't get too many actual phone calls these days. Texting is usually efficient enough for most things, but when we saw the name Frank Kuntz on the screen, he said, "Huh, look at that. It's Frank Kuntz."  

The two visited a bit and caught up a little. How are your folks? How are the ponies? But it didn't take long for Frank to come right out and say to my husband, "How do you suppose Julie would you feel about writing my story?" 

That's when the phone got handed over to me. I listened to Frank's thoughts. I listened to him tell me not to answer right away. This would be a huge undertaking. This would require a lot of time. Then he told me how hard it is these days to find people he trusts, but he was tired of being quiet. He felt it was time for people to know about his lifetime fight to save the native horse of North Dakota.

Like I said, I listened to everything he had to say. But the truth is, from the moment our conversation started, I already knew what my answer would be. Yes. Yes. And Yes. I had no idea how I would make it happen, and I knew it would be difficult, but I felt in my bones that I was meant to play this part in the Nokota® horses' timeline. I hope Frank's story inspires readers as much as it has me. 

So it is with great honor that I present Echoes of the Nokota. A Memoir of Frank Kuntz.

How has one man’s life's mission to make an unjust thing right – to save the native horses of the North Dakota plains – changed history? Or rather, preserved it?

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 once again 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.

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