American Indian Saddles 



BORROWED, TOGETHER WITH OTHER FEATURES OF HORSE CULTURE 



FROM THE SPANISH COLONIZATION, IN THE FIRST HALF OF 



THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 



By CLARK \YISSLER 



IN THE North American Indian col- 

 lections the American Museum visi- 

 tor may see some curious saddles of 

 native make. At first sight they appear 

 as crude attempts to copy European sad- 

 dles, but upon closer study prove them- 

 selves far more significant. Wrapped 

 up in their histories is the whole story 

 of bringing the horse to the New World 

 and in part his domestication in the Old. 

 Our idea of the western Indian is that 

 of a horseman, -but as far as we know, 

 all the horse-using tribes were in exist- 

 ence and living much the same as now 

 long before the horse came into their 

 hands. 



If we examine the fine old saddle in 

 the Shoshone case of the Plains Indian 

 hall, we find it c^uite different from our 

 own. First of all it has two straight 

 side bars that rest upon the back of the 

 horse. Next we note that the high 

 front (pommel) and back (cantel) are 

 about the same shape. In fact the 

 front of the saddle can be told only by a 

 curious hornlike hook under the broad 

 head of the pommel. This serves two 

 purposes : supporting one end of a curious 

 suspension seat and serving as a hanger 

 for a lasso and a whip. To us such a 

 saddle looks uncomfortable, but before 

 mounting, the Indian places over the 

 seat a folded buffalo robe or a blanket. 

 These saddles are made of wood securely 

 bound with buffalo hide, sewed on wet 

 so that it may become tight by shrink- 

 ing. In the Mills Catlin collection is a 

 sketch showing a woman making a sad- 

 dle. The binding and sewing were done 



by women and not infrequently the 

 wood work as well. 



There are several kinds of safldles in 

 the cases, but upon examination all 

 those having frames, or trees, will be 

 found of the same general pattern. 

 Their tlift'erent appearance is due to the 

 finish given their pommels and cantels. 

 While the side bars are uniformly of 

 wood and always similar in shape, the 

 bows and cantels are often made of 

 antler which being less pliable modifies 

 the form. 



Are they Indian inventions or were 

 they copied from white people? This 

 is one of the questions that arises as we 

 look over these saddles. As they are so 

 strikingly different from our own, we 

 may be led to assume them original 

 with the Indians. Yet the fact that all 

 the various tribes have the same pattern 

 should raise a suspicion that an external 

 origin exists. In the first place we find 

 among ourselves two kinds of saddles, 

 the cowboy type and the type used on 

 our streets. The former is used almost 

 exclusively west of the Mississippi River, 

 that is, in the region of the Indian saddle. 

 Further, there is clearly a resemblance 

 between the cowboy saddle and that 

 of the Indian. But the Indian saddle 

 is quite old, since exactly the same form 

 is described by Lewis and Clark. One 

 may then suspect that the cowboy sad- 

 dle and the Indian saddle came from 

 the same source. This, by the history 

 of the case, can be no other than the 

 Spanish American colonies. The saddle 

 in use in the eastern United States is the 



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