BIXBY - For the past 30 years, sisters Mary and Carrie Dann, members of the Western Shoshone Tribe, have grazed their livestock on U.S. Bureau of Land Management open range land in remote Crescent Valley, Nev.

They assert that a 140-year-old treaty gives them the right to do so, and their perseverance in asserting those rights won them the "Right Livelihood Award", an award from Stockholm, Sweden, that is sometimes called the alternative Nobel Prize.

The U.S. BLM feel differently about the Dann's assertion, though. Consequently, a dozen or so of the Dann's near 1,000 horses that were slated for slaughter a few weeks ago are now headed to the south Bixby home of Nadia Loden, who heads up Freedom Farms horse rescue.

According to a Nevada BLM release, the Danns and the Western Shoshone Tribe were served with an unauthorized use and order to remove notice for unauthorized livestock grazing on public lands Crescent Valley.

"The unauthorized livestock are causing significant resource damage and are severely straining the grazing capacity of the allotment, which is shared by five ranchers with valid grazing permits," the Nevada BLM's release stated.

Earlier aerial and ground surveys showed more than 250 cattle and 980 horses on public land in the allotment - livestock thought to belong primarily to the Danns. On Sept. 22, the U.S. BLM removed 227 of the Dann's cattle that were grazing in trespass on the open range. They were sold at auctions.

The unauthorized horses were to be round up for auction, too, and presumably slaughtered.

That was until the state decided to solicit help from horse organizations like Freedom Farms across the West.

"Well, we're glad they did that," said Loden, who has dedicated her life to the rescue effort since learning of it Jan. 6.

The U.S. BLM gave the rescue groups two weeks to reply to its invitation to help, and two weeks to pick up the horses, Loden said.

"So, you know you gotta (sic)do what you gotta do," Loden said.

The group of non-profit horse rescue organizations led by Habitat for Horses, a Hitchcock, Texas, rescue group headed by Jerry Finch, found homes for 600 of the horses before the deadline arrived.

"Our job is to take care of the horses," Finch told Reno Journal Gazette, "not interfere with the dispute over land."

Apparently, the group did its job well enough to earn a stay of execution. The state informed the group of horse rescue organizations that they had an extra two weeks to find $150,000 and homes for the remaining 380 horses.

"They don't want to see anymore horses go to slaughter," Loden said, of the state of Nevada.

Of the 980 horses that are rounded up, the ones with brands will go back to their owners and the mustangs that are federally protected will go into the BLM's mustang program to be rehabilitated and offered for adoption.

The remaining horses are termed estray horses, and they were the ones that were in need of rescue, Loden said.

"Essentially, they are wild horses," she said. "BLM protects the mustangs. They are federally protected. Then, on the other side of the coin, there are horses that are just like the BLM mustangs, they are wild, they're living off the land, they haven't had people interfere with them, and yet 'Oh, well, they're not mustangs. They're nothing. They deserve to die."

Apparently, they don't, as, said Loden, the phone has been ringing off the hook with calls from people who want to help.

"We're just really amazed because we think that we actually have homes for all of the horses at this point," she said. "All of them are going to probably be placed, and there will probably be a few people who don't get horses that wanted them, but that's OK."

The estray horses will be rounded up and transported to holding pens in Nevada, where they will undergo medical exams. Then they will be transported to Franklin, Texas, where they will be trained.

"They'll be pretty well-rounded horses at that point, but they will still need some brushing up," Loden said.

While at Franklin, they will undergo more medical treatment, then they will be transported to the individual rescue organizations across the region, including Freedom Farms in Bixby.

From those rescue organizaitons, the horse adopters - about 12 from Oklahoma, Loden estimated - can pick them up.

"We are checking out the adopters really well. You just have no idea how many people call and go, 'Well my 5-year-old son wants a horse.' Well that's nice. Go buy him a pony. A wild horse is not for your 5-year-old son," Loden said. "What we are trying to do is find competent homes. People who are trainers. People who are breeders. People who have extensive background or knowledge of wild horses or horses period. People that could manage a wild animal."

Though she fears that Freedom Farms isn't outfitted with fences that can corral wild horses, Loden will keep the rescued horses destined for homes in Oklahoma at her place for a short time.

It's a small price for a horse lover to pay, all the work to get them there, not to mention the work she will have to keep them there once they arrive, as she fears they may mow down her fences and flee toward town if they grow tired of being fenced in.

"There are people like me who can't think of one horse going to slaughter," she said. "I don't think I have slept a full night since Jan. 6."

Loden said they have received pledges covering the minimum $150,000 the group needed to save the estray horses and provide them with new homes.

But they don't have the $150,000 in hand, and possibilities exist that the group may not receive all of the pledge money toward the cause, or that those that pledge to provide homes may back out.

Loden said there's a possibility more horses may be found and, consequently, more money may need to be raised, and more homes may need to be found. And all of this must be accomplished by Feb. 5.

For more information on the estray horse rescue effort, call Loden at 366-4818 or call the Nevada 980 Project/Habitat for Horses at (409) 935-0277.