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‘Nokota Horses’ program to be presented

BISMARCK – “A Brief History of Nokota Horses” will be presented by Castle McLaughlin on Wednesday, June 5, at 7 p.m. in the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum in Bismarck.

McLaughlin, a former North Dakota resident, is curator of North American Ethnology with the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and ethnology at Harvard University.

The free program will highlight the history and significance of Nokota horses, which are the honorary state equine of North Dakota. The horses descend from wild herds in the Little Missouri Badlands that were enclosed within Theodore Roosevelt National Park in 1950. Debates about the value of these horses have focused on the origins of their wild ancestors and highlight changing approaches to history and heritage.

McLaughlin conducted research on the wild horses in Theodore Roosevelt National Park while working for the National Park Service during the late 1980s. A decade later she co-founded the Nokota Horse Conservancy to steward horses removed from the park, which are now known as “Nokota” horses.

The presentation is related to “The Horse in North Dakota” exhibit currently at the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum. The east entrance of the N.D. Heritage Center & State Museum will be open before the program begins to allow for viewing the exhibit. The west entrance and other galleries in the State Museum will close at 5 p.m.

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