Sketch by Cailin in the Mills 



Collection of the American Museum 



Indian saddles were made by the women, who bound the wooden parts together with buffalo hide, sewed on 



while wet so as to be tight on shrinking. Even the wooden parts were often made by the women. In the camp 



scene above, a saddle is shown staked to the ground while its rawhide cover dries and sets. 



English type and was introduced by the 

 EngHsh colonists. The history of the 

 English saddle is well known and it is 

 clearly differentiated from the saddle of 

 southern Europe and Asia. The latter 

 is quite like the cowboy saddle in all its 

 essential features. It is therefore cer- 

 tain that the Indian saddles were bor- 

 rowed from Spanish colonists. 



One scarcely need be reminded that 

 the Indian saddle is but one feature of 

 horse culture and investigation shows 

 that the whole of this culture, or the 

 horse culture complex, was borrowed 

 from the Spanish colonies. The historic 

 details of how the Indians took up the 

 horse are lost, but they must have done 



498 



it quickly. The Spanish adventurer, De 

 Soto, carried horses across the Missis- 

 sippi in 1541 and at the same time an ex- 

 pedition under Coronado set out from 

 Santa Fe, New Mexico, toward the same 

 river. Both carried horses, some of 

 which certainly escaped. In any event 

 these expeditions demonstrated the value 

 of the horse to the Indians. At that time 

 many of the tribes were using dogs to 

 transport baggage by means of a travois, 

 examples of which may be seen in the 

 Plains hall. We infer that when they 

 saw the Spanish pack trains, they w^ere 

 struck by the superiority of the white 

 man's "dog"; at least the Indian names 

 for horse are derived from the words for 



