Horses was one of the best things to happen to the American Indians. The American Indians became to culture baseline for the Indians. The helped them travel, carry large loads, and hunt a lot faster. They gave todays American horse culture the building blocks to a successful horse bond and life.
When horses first came to America in the 1600’s the Indians thought they were “god like”. People who had never seen a horse and were naming they thought of this, “He put us in mind of a stag that had lost his horse, and we did not known what name to give him. But as he was a slave to man, like the dog, which carried our things, he was named the Big Dogs.” That was quote from Piegan in 1787. People named the horses because it meant character. The most well known chiefs are called crazy horse and have other names with the word horse in them. For a very long time Indians were not allowed to ride let alone own the horses. With the horses being “god like” they started basing their religion off of horses. Along with religion they had medicine cults which were used to influence horse races, heal or calm, and make the broodmares foals come out strong. The people in the medicine cult were usually the most respected members of the tribes. Horses were thought to be a link between the supernatural world and earth. Indians were known for their bonds with their horses and with his bond they had “visions”. Visions were for people who wanted knowledge and being able to fast. The people who had these visions usually shared only these visions with their horses but not other people from the tribes. With these bonds of the horse, the horse would in return would help the human. Many people believed that their horse saved their life in battle or war. When they did this they would carve the horse into wood or staffs. The owner of that horse would take this staff to dances. When carving this staff they would show where the horse was injured or killed and they would cut off a piece of mane or tail. Having the staff was just a small part of the art culture of the Indians. They made art for the horse as well, such as masks or martingales for parades. They decorated both of those pieces of tack that they couldn’t be used anytime else. They also made saddles and bridles into works of art. The saddles were made out of animal pelts and started off as functioning but got into decoration. Bridles were used for almost always functioning purposes. They were really decorative as well. People who painted pieces of art would usually have horses in them, the owner would be showing the bond between the two or it would be a battle scene, the more common of the two. Images of horses were a sign of respect. But that was only the cultural side of the importance of horses to the Indians.
The horses were used for so much besides just having cultural influences. When they first arrived in 1680 in Nebraska, the Apache tribe traded horses among tribes in trade for hides and other important things they needed. Horse trading became a big part of the Indians economy. One ordinary horse would be eight buffalo robes, one race horse would be ten guns and one really nice hunting horse would be many pack animals. Some tribes would have basically a “game” instead of buying horses they would do raiding. Raiding is when they stole an enemies horse and brought back to their tribes. The best prize would make it to the chiefs tipi and steal the priced horse. When horses are brought back to the tribe it was given to a widow or a lower class person. People made charms to have good luck during the raids. When they had the best horses they would go into mounted parades. This showed people how rich they were. They would show off how many horses they had and how nice their tack was and how much they had of that as well. After they did mounted parades they moved onto rodeos and fairs to show off their culture. Horses became their caste system. The more horses you had, the richer you were which meant you were up higher on the caste system. Before horses, the Indians had to carry wood by themselves and only had enough strength to to do small tipis. With horses in the picture, they could do large decorative tipis with no problem by using a travois, which is just a ball that could haul stuff, similar to a wagon. Women had to work less because they didn’t have to help with getting food or carrying things. The effort for hunting for buffalo really decreased because instead of having to track a herd of buffalo by foot(which took days) they could have one man killing one buffalo. With having less time dedicated to hunting, they could focus on socializing and culture. They also didn’t have to worry about food shortages.
Indians bred the most well known horses known to date in America. They bred Chicksaw ponies with English Thoroughbreds to make the American Quarter horse, Appaloosas which was Nez Perce with an Akhal Teke, American Indian horses and Mustangs. Their most known breed was the Nez Perce. Lewis of the Lewis and Clark brothers, said “their horses appear to be of an excellent race, they are lofty, elegantly formed, active and durable; in short many of them look like fine english coursers and would make a figure in any country.” In 1874 the attack of the comanches happened and they caught thousands of horses, almost all but a few were shot. A few years later they caught another 6-7 thousand and some were auctioned off but most were killed.With these horses being killed it killed off many breeds such as the Nez Perce. In 1995 they bought 33 Appaloosa broodmares and 3 Akhal Teke stallions and started breeding creating the Nez Perce registry. This was founded by the Nez Perce Tribe.
Overall the horses shaped the Indians to who they are today. They helped them survive when they were lacking that, they showed them culturally how to live, and they also gave todays horse culture the baseline. Horses have always been part of Americans history and even though they are not spoken off a lot in this day and age they are known in history.
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| Kindred Spirit by Shanon Standridge |
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| This is a horse pulling a travois, used to carry heavy loads that the humans could not carry themselves http://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-e6253060876bd8913729ec3a19f6b9ab?convert_to_webp=true |
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| A decorated bridle that Native Americans would have used. Has a bit but most Indians would not have used bits. http://www.hawkhillpress.com/images/0626BS__04_V3copy.jpg |
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Indian and Horse by American painter Jim Clements
This is a picture of a Nez Perce horse, ridden by Nez Perce Indians
I used this website as my main source for religious information and medicine. NMAI - A Song for the Horse Nation This was my main source for this essay, it has everything to do with horses and Native Americans. NatGeo - People of the Horse This website has the basic stuff for Native Americans and horses but they have events that happened with the Natives and horses Nez Perce This gave information on the Nez Perce breed. Nebraska Studies This website gives information on the horses and Native Americans before the Spanish showed up. American Indian Horse Timeline It gives me a timeline about when the horses came to America with the Spanish |
