570 



HORSES 



[b. a. b. 



the camps of the Kiowa, when these 

 were Hving on Tongue r. (3) As soon as 

 the Indians nearest to the Spanish settle- 

 ments appreciated the uses of the horse, 

 they began to make raiding expeditions 

 to capture horses, and as knowledge of 

 the animal extended, the tribes still far- 

 ther to the N. began to procure horses 

 from those next S. of them. So it was 

 that tribes in the S. had the first horses 

 and always had the greatest number, 

 while the tribes farthest N. obtained 

 them last and always had fewer of them. 

 Some tribes declare that they possessed 

 horses for some time before they learned 

 the uses to which they could be put. 



On the N. Atlantic coast horses were 

 imported early in the 17th century, and 

 the Iroquois possessed them toward the 

 end of that century and were regularly 

 breeding them prior to 1736. For the 

 northern plains they seem to have been 

 first obtained from the region w. of the 

 Rocky mts., the Siksika having obtained 

 their first horses from the Kutenai, Sho- 

 shoni, and other tribes across the moun- 

 tains, about the year 1800. W. T. Hamil- 

 ton, who met the Nez Perces, Cayuse, 

 and other tribes of the Columbia region 

 between 1840 and 1850, tells of the tradi- 

 tion among them of the time when they 

 had no horses; but having learned of 

 their existence in the S., of the purposes 

 for which they were used, and of their 

 abundance, they made up a strong war 

 party, went S., and captured horses. It 

 is impossible to fix the dates at which any 

 tribes procured their horses, and, since 

 many of the Plains tribes wandered in 

 small bodies which seldom met, it is 

 likely that some bands acquired the horse 

 a long time before other sections of the 

 same tribe. The Cheyenne relate va- 

 riously that they procured their first 

 horses from the Arapaho, from the Kiowa, 

 and from the Shoshoni, and all these 

 statements may be true for different 

 bodies. A very definite statement is 

 made that they received their first horses 

 from the Kiowa at the time when the 

 Kiowa lived on Tongue r. The Cheyenne 

 did not cross the Missouri until toward 

 the end of the 17th century. For some 

 time they resided on thatstream, and their 

 progress in working westward and south- 

 westward to the Black-hills, Powder r., 

 and Tongue r. was slow. They probably 

 did not encounter the Kiowa on Tongue r. 

 long before the middle of the 18th century, 

 and it is possible that the Kiowa did not 

 then possess horses. Black Moccasin, 

 reputed trustworthy in his knowledge 

 and his dates, declared that the Cheyenne 

 obtained horses about 1780. The Pawnee 

 are known to have had horses and to have 

 used them in hunting early in the 18th 

 century. Carver makes no mention of 



seeing horses among the Sioux that he 

 met in 1767 in w. Minnesota; but in 1776 

 the elder Alexander Henry saw them 

 among the Assiniboin, while Umfreville 

 a few years later spoke of horses as com- 

 mon, some being branded, showing that 

 they had been taken from Spanish settle- 

 ments. 



The possession of the horse had an 

 important influence on the culture of the 

 Indians and speedily changed the mode 

 of life of many tribes. The dog had pre- 

 viously been the Indian's only domestic 

 animal, his companion in the hunt, and 

 to some extent his assistant as a burden 

 bearer, yet not to a very great degree, 

 since the power of the dog to carry or to 

 haul loads was not great. Before they 

 had horses the Indians were footmen, 

 making short journeys and transporting 

 their possessions mostly on their backs. 

 The hunting Indians possessed an insig- 

 nificant amount of property, since the 

 quantity that they could carry was small. 

 Nowall this waschanged. An animal had 

 been found which could carry burdens 

 and drag loads. The Indians soon real- 

 ized that the possession of such an animal 

 would increase their freedom of movement 

 and enable them to increase their prop- 

 erty, since one horse could carry the load 

 of several men. Besides this, it insured a 

 food supply and made the moving of camp 

 easy and swift and long journeys possible. 

 In addition to the use of the horse as a 

 burden bearer and as a means of moving 

 rapidly from place to place, it was used as 

 a medium of exchange. 



The introduction of the horse led to 

 new intertribal relations; systematic war 

 parties were sent forth, the purpose of 

 which was the capture of horses. This 

 at once became a recognized industry, fol- 

 lowed by the bravest and most energetic 

 young men. Many of the tribes, before 

 they secured horses, obtained guns, which 

 gave them new boldness, and horse and 

 gun soon transformed those who, a gen- 

 eration before, had been timid foot wan- 

 derers, to daring and ferocious raiders. 



On the plains and in the S. W. horses 

 were tiequently used as food, but not 

 ordinarily when other flesh could be 

 obtained, although it is said that theChiri- 

 cahua Apache preferred mule meat to 

 any other. It frequently happened that 

 war parties on horse-stealing expeditions 

 killed and ate horses. When this was 

 done the leader of the party was always 

 careful to warn his men to wash them- 

 selvesthoroughly with sand or mud and 

 water before they went near the enemy's 

 camp. Horses greatly dread the smell of 

 horse flesh or horse fat and will not suffer 

 the approach of any one smelling of it. 



The horse had no uniform value, for 

 obviously no two horses were alike. A 



