Days before the first official roundup after the 1971 Act passed at Stone Cabin and Stone Cabin today. There would be no wild horses left in Stone Cabin (or anywhere) if it were not for the work of pioneers like Velma Bronn Johnston.

March is Women’s History Month. The theme for Women’s History Month 2025 is “Moving Forward Together! Women Educating & Inspiring Generations.” A perfect representation of that spirit resides in the legacy of Velma Johnston, Wild Horse Annie.

Without the passage of the 1971 Act that finally put an end to mustanging and created a jurisdiction where law and rule could be enforced and challenged, we would not have wild horses and burros in the western U.S. today.

Velma Johnston was a true crusader at the heart of that movement.

Who was she?

Velma Bronn Johnston was born on March 5, 1912.  When she was 11 years old she became disfigured after having to spend months in a cast in a San Francisco hospital while being treated for polio. Throughout her childhood she was often ridiculed and taunted by other children and later spoke about how this taught her empathy for others, including mustangs, that through no fault of their own were ostracized. She married Charles Johnston, her neighbor. They ran a dude ranch (on the Truckee river near Wadsworth NV) and Velma worked as a secretary in Reno.

A moment that changed her life forever came in in 1950, when she saw a trailer heading down the road with blood dripping from it. The truck was crammed full of wild horses heading to slaughter for pet food. The blood was coming from a colt that was being trampled to death. In the years to come she was given the nickname “Wild Horse Annie” as an insult. She adopted the moniker.

Velma waged a 27-year campaign to protect America’s wild horses and burros. She was the driving force behind the 1959 law, the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, the “foster program” that has become today’s adoption program and so much more. On June 27, 1977, Velma lost her battle with cancer.

In 1959 her crusade of exposure led to the passage of legislation  known as the Wild Horse Annie Act (P.L. 86-234)  It prohibited the use of any form of motorized vehicles to capture wild horses and well as the poisoning of water holes done either to capture or kill wild horses. Federal and state authorities rarely, if ever, enforced the law.

She continued her fight. The Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act (P.L. 92-195) which was unanimously passed and signed into law in 1971. This law had the intention of protecting and preserving wild horses as a priority at the time of the passage of the Act in 303 areas throughout the western US.

Screenshot taken from Velma’s testimony to Congress

To truly understand the courage and vision of Velma Johnston you have to understand the world in which she lived in. Things like the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA) did not exist yet. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) that created guidelines that included actual analysis of any action proposed by land managers and public involvement was only passed in 1970. The newly formed Environmental Protection Agency sent photographers out to capture impacts from severe pollution due to a lack of protective regulations (Manhattan and a New York Times article from 1970 featuring NV. You could spend hours researching the history of degradation on landscapes from livestock, extraction and industry.

Taking a stand to protect equines (free-roaming horses and burros) in an era where mustanging (made infamous through the movie The Misfits) represented fast cash without any care of the brutality or damage being done, was a courageous act. The pages of  Wild Horse Annie, Velma Johnston and her fight to save the mustang by Alan J. Kania condense her life down into a single book (worth the read). A united livestock industry operated through threat and intimidation and she kept a shotgun by her door. Velma was on a “hit list” of Charles Manson because she was seen as cooperating with the federal government (after she fought tooth and nail just gain federal jurisdiction and was battling it out with the federal government to create meaningful to protect our herds after the passage of the Act).

Perhaps one of the best ways to try to understand Velma is through her own words?

You can read testimony given to Congress in to urge the passage of the 1971 law HERE. Her testimony points to aspects of her character that reflected her meticulous attention to detail and record keeping.

After the Act had passed and the battle to interpret the new law began, Velma penned a reflective memoir. In 1972, less than 5 years before her death, she talks about the fight and what was left undone: The Fight to Save a Memory.

Velma would die 4 months after the Howe Massacre decision on June 27, 1977. (Learn more HERE)

Tour being given to Velma Johnston, Wild Horse Annie, of the first capture of wild horses by the BLM at Stone Cabin

Velma was present at the first official roundup of wild horses after the 1971 Act passed at Stone Cabin. The first litigation was filed where the judge stated: “This Court is not saying that the BLM is free to round up wild horses whenever a particular range has an overgrazing problem. Nor is the Court saying that every time the removal of wild horses will have a limited, slightly positive effect on the environment of the range, the BLM can proceed to remove a certain number of those horses.” But this is what BLM has done over and over and over. BLM has never, not once, demonstrated that any removal at Stone Cabin (or elsewhere) has achieved any rangeland health improvement as they remove wild horses and increase the range of livestock into the HMA and approve mines.

Stone Cabin

Today, we are actively fighting a battle in the courts at Stone Cabin as BLM ignores any collection of data, range improvement and all of the things they put into a plan to satisfy that early court order… continuing the work begun 4 decades ago… as BLM just plans to continue roundup and stockpile and call it “management.” The case is moving into the final round of briefings.

After winning two landmark cases in the last ten months, our team continues to push open the door to gain fair management on the range. Our team is very active, right now, in the courts: We are fighting to gain real management planning that includes transparency and habitat protection. We are suing the Interior Board of Land Appeals in Federal Court for denying advocates the right to protect wild horses from habitat loss due to massive mining expansion. We are fighting in the courts, right now, to expose cruelty and waste in off-limits to the public facilities. We are fighting to protect the last stronghold of wild burros left in this country. We are filing more litigation in the coming days to protect our wild ones from abuse and death on and off the range. 

Our wild ones in holding are also a target as they are being deemed a taxpayer burden. Right now we have more wild horses and burros in holding than live free on the range as BLM pushes roundups to achieve an absurdly low number on less than 17,000 they call “low Appropriate Management Level” (or the number allowed on the range in 10 western states). There are claims that the vast majority in holding are simply unadoptable and represent a political hotbed in debates. We are pushing back.  (More HERE)

We will not allow bully tactics and fear to stop us from taking a strong stand.

But without the courage and awareness of early pioneers like Velma, there would be no fight left to fight today… and our wild ones would have faded into the history books. 

Onward… in gratitude. 

All of our work is only possible with your support. We thank you for keeping the critical work we do at WHE running for our wild ones.