A descendant of Mountain Chief of the Blackfeet Tribe (and a long line of Montana pioneers), Alvin “Dutch” Lunak grew up on a ranch at Badger Creek, where he learned to ride horses and work cattle. He attended school at Holy Family Mission, then the Blackfeet Boarding School in Browning, and later Flandreau Indian Boarding School in South Dakota.
When Dutch was a junior in high school, he was kicked out of Flandreau. His grandfather encouraged him not to attend any further schooling; however, a high school teacher and rodeo coach at Browning, Barbara Weathered, drove to the ranch and encouraged him to go to school in Browning and to participate in high school rodeo. This was the beginning of his rodeo career, and Mrs. Weathered would turn out to be his mother-in-law, as Dutch married Ann Weathered in August of 1977.
Dutch’s skill with horses not only included riding the rankest of them, but he also had a natural touch when it came to training them. The first movie Dutch worked on, was with a cleanup crew for Heaven’s Gate, which featured an artificial town, built at Two Medicine Lake. He acquired the job of tearing it down and replanting the film location area. During the filming of War Party in Blackfeet Country, Dutch was informed they needed a stunt and photo double for actor Kevin Dillon, and he was asked to teach the actor how to ride a horse. In 1988, he received his biggest paycheck ever for wrangling and stunt work on Dances with Wolves.
Dutch has helped many people get started in the movie business. The stuntmen from the Blackfeet Reservation have garnered awards from the Screen Actor Guild and other movie organizations. In 2011, they were awarded recognition for outstanding performance by a stunt ensemble for their work in Cowboys and Aliens. The resume of the stuntmen includes around forty features and numerous television shows.
Dutch is technically “retired” but still owns stunt and cast horses that are regularly used for filmmaking. In recent years Dutch has spent more time on the ranch building his own cattle herd and bucking horse string. In 2007, the Lunak family and the Vince Michael family came together to create Black Eagle Rodeo Co. The entire Lunak family participates in the rodeo production and takes great pride in providing quality bucking horses and roping cattle to rodeos across Montana.