For the past three days, Ronda Kauk has watched through high-powered binoculars as low-flying helicopters pursue hundreds of her relatives across Mono Lake and corral them into massive metal trailers.
“I feel numb, heartbroken,” Kauk told Native News Online through tears. “Like I failed to protect them. These horses are my ancestors, my relatives. It hurts.”
The wild horses of Mono Lake are sacred to Kauk and other Native peoples in the eastern Sierra Nevada region. The federal government claims the area is overrun with a herd of nearly 700, the impetus for the roundup and removal of three-quarters of the horses that began Wednesday.
The area’s tribes have called for a two-year delay to allow for non-lethal fertility management alternatives, including immunocontraception, and meaningful co-management planning with tribal governments. According to a press release from the Utu Utu Gwaitu Paiute Tribe, the U.S. Forest Service has not responded to those calls.
Kauk is a member of the Mono Lake Kutzadika’a Tribe and works as a tribal historic preservation officer and cultural monitor for the nearby Utu Utu Gwaitu Paiute Tribe of the Benton Paiute Reservation. She is also the founder of the Indigenous Wild Horse Society. On June 30, Kauk, along with Utu Utu Gwaitu Paiute Tribe Chairman Shane Saulque and Vice Chairwoman Rana Saulque, filed a lawsuit against the federal agencies behind the removal and asked the court for an emergency order to halt this week’s roundup. The court denied the order Tuesday, contesting claims that tribal consultation never took place. The lawsuit remains active.
“Every day this operation continues, it happens on land where our history and our voices haven’t been heard,” Rana said in a statement released earlier this week. “The agencies know that. We know that. Our lawsuit continues, and we intend to hold them accountable for what happens on our ancestral lands while this case is still being decided.”
In the meantime, Kauk and others are grieving the loss of the horses — which are considered living culture — as the government’s land management policies conflict with Indigenous knowledge and cultural reverence. Along with the loss of the horses, low-flying helicopters and motorized vehicles used to round up the animals cause damage to sacred sites on the land, which is home to burial sites and is rich with cultural objects.
“I feel like they’re raping the land, stealing our children, our culture,” Kauk said. “That is how I feel right now.”
The Forest Service announced the removal on June 22, saying the horses are in excess, pose safety risks and damage habitats. According to the announcement, the agency’s management plan stipulates that the area can sustain only 130 to 238 wild horses at a time. As of Thursday, 354 wild horses had been rounded up by C.D. Warner Livestock LLC, a Utah-based company that the Forest Service contracted for the removal. The horses will be held in off-range corrals in Modoc County and put up for adoption.
Kauk has been up before sunrise this week to witness the removal. She says she feels a responsibility to be there for the horses who have brought her healing.
Years ago, after Kauk’s mother died, she was walking in the woods near her home when she came face-to-face with one of the wild horses, an older mare in the herd.
“We just came up on each other, and we just stared into each other’s eyes,” she said. “I felt like she was saying to me, ‘You’re okay, do not be afraid.'”
