The Horse and the Indian. 
[The introduction of the horse to America is a subject 
that has always had a great interest, especially for West- 
[j ern m-en or for people familiar with that part of the West 
j: where the wild horses used to range in numbers. 
Geologists tell us that in late Tertiary times, and per¬ 
haps even still later, there was native to America a horse 
. scarcely, if at all, distinguishable from some of the 
horses of the* present day. We know also that coming 
I down through. Tertiary times, there was a long line of 
ancient horselike animals, which, beginning as very 
small, many-tced beasts, gradually, as time went on, in¬ 
creased in size, and 1 with this increase in size, lost one 
| toe after another, until, as just said, at the very end of 
i the Tertiary, a horse had been developed like those of 
to-day. Nevertheless, before the recent period all Ameri¬ 
can horses had been swept out of existence. Primitive 
man in America was a foot traveler, and his only 
domestic animal was the dog. 
The first explorers from the United States who pushed 
out on to the Western plains found the Indians there 
already horsemen, and in many cases liberally provided 
with horses. Some of these Indians, especially those of 
the southern plains, have been spoken of for many years 
jj as being the best horsemen in the world. Thus, in the 
public mind, the horse and the Indian—especially the 
Lf Indian of the plains—are always connected. In the 
“Handbook of Indian Tribes,” recently published by 
I the Bureau of Ethnology in Washington, appears the 
I I following article giving the history of the horse in its 
relations to the Indian.— Editor.] 
# 
The first horses seen by the mainland Indians 
were those of the Spanish invaders of Mexico. 
! A few years later De Soto brought the horse 
into Florida and westward to the Mississippi, 
while Coronado, on his march to Quivira in 1541, 
introduced it to the Indians of the great plains. 
When the Aztec saw the mounted men of Cortes 
I they supposed horse and man to be one and were 
i greatly alarmed at the strange animal.. The clas¬ 
sical Centaur owed its origin to a like miscon¬ 
ception. A tradition existed among the Pawnee 
that their ancestors mistook a mule ridden by 
a man for a single animal and shot at it from 
( concealment, capturing the mule when the man 
! fell. 
The horse was a marvel to the Indians and 
1 came to be regarded as sacred. For a long time 
it was worshipped by the Aztec, and by most of 
; the tribes was considered to have a mysterious 
or sacred character. Its origin was explained 
by a number of myths representing horses to 
have come out of the earth through lakes and 
[ springs or from the sun. When Antonio de 
Espejo visited the Hopi of Arizona in 1583, the 
Indians spread cotton scarfs or kilts on the 
| ground for the horses to walk on, believing the 
latter to be sacred. This sacred character is 
; sometimes shown in the names given to the horse 
i as the Dakota sunk a wakan, “mysterious dog.” 
: Its use in transportation accounts for the term 
“dog” often applied to it, as the Siksika pono- 
kamita, “elk dog"”; Cree mistatim, “big dog’’; 
[ Shawnee mishdwa, “elk.” (See Chamberlain in 
Am Ur-Quell, 1894.) 
The southern plains proved very favorable, 
and horses greatly multiplied. Stray and es¬ 
caped horses formed wild herds, and, as they 
had few carnivorous enemies, their increase and 
! spread were astonishingly rapid. The movement 
of the horse was from south to north, at about 
an equal rate on both sides of the mountains. 
It moved northward in three ways: (1) The 
increase of the wild horses and their dispersal 
into new regions was rapid. ( 2 ) For 150 years 
before the first exploration of the west by resi- 
I dents of the United States, Spaniards from the 
Mexican provinces had been making long jour¬ 
neys northward and eastward to trade with the 
Indians, even, it is said, as far north as the 
camps of the" Kiowa, when these were living on 
Tongue River. (3) As soon as the Indians, 
nearest to the Spanish settlement, appreciated 
the uses of the horse they began to make raid¬ 
ing expeditions to capture horses, and as knowl¬ 
edge of the animal extended, the tribes still further 
to the north began to procure horses from those 
next south of them. So it was that tribes in 
the' south had the first horses and always had 
the greatest number, while the tribes furthest 
north obtained them last and always had fewer 
of them. Some tribes declare that they pos¬ 
sessed' horses for some time before they learned 
the uses to which they could be put. 
On the north Atlantic coast horses were im¬ 
ported early in the 17th century, and the Iro¬ 
quois 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 west 
of the Rocky Mountains, the Siksika having ob¬ 
tained their first horses from the Kutenai, Sho- 
shoni, and other tribes across the mountains, 
about the year 1800. W. T. Hamilton, who met 
the Nez Perces, Cayuse, and other tribes of the' 
Columbia region between 1840 and 1850, tells 
of the tradition among them of the time when 
they had no horses; but having learned of their 
existence in the south, of the purposes for which 
they were used, and of their abundance, they 
made up a strong war party, went south, 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 be¬ 
fore other sections of the same tribe. The 
Cheyenne relate variously 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 re¬ 
ceived their first horses from the Kiowa at the 
time when the Kiowa lived on Tongue River. The 
Cheyenne did not cross the Missouri until to¬ 
ward the end of the 17th century. For some 
time they resided on that stream, and their pro¬ 
gress in working westward and southwestward to 
the Black Hills, Powder River and Tongue River 
was slow. They probably did not encounter the 
Kiowa on Tongue River long before the middle 
of the 18th century, and it is possible that the 
Kiowa did not then possess horses. Black Moc¬ 
casin, 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 hunt¬ 
ing early in the 18th century. Carver makes no 
mention of seeing horses among the Sioux that 
he met in 1767 in west Minnesota; but in 1776 
the elder Alexander Henry saw them among the 
Assiniboin, while Umfreville, a few years later, 
spoke of horses as common, some being branded, 
showing that they had been taken from Spanish 
settlements. 
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 previously 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 insignificant amount 
of property, since the quantity that they could 
carry was small. Now all this was changed. 
An animal had been found which could carry 
burdens and drag loads. The Indians soon re¬ 
alized that the possession of such an animal 
would increase their freedom of movement and 
enable them to increase their property, since one 
horse could carry the load of several men. Be¬ 
sides this it insured a food supply and made the 
moving of camp easy and swift and long jour¬ 
neys 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 in¬ 
tertribal relations;- systematic war parties were 
sent forth, the purpose of which was the capture 
of horses. This at once became a recognized 
industry, followed by the bravest and most ener¬ 
getic 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 generation before, had 
been timid foot wanderers, to daring and fero¬ 
cious raiders. 
On the plains and in the southwest horses 
were frequently used as food, but not ordinarily 
when other flesh could be obtained, although it 
is said that the Chiricahua 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 themselves thoroughly 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 war pony or a 
buffalo horse had a high, an old pack pony a 
low, value. A rich old man might send fifteen 
or twenty horses to the tipi of the girl he wished 
to marry, while a poor young man might send 
but one. A doctor might charge a fee of one 
horse or five, according to the patient’s means. 
People paid as they could. Among the Sioux 
and the Cheyenne the plumage of two eagles 
used to be regarded as worth a good horse. 
Forty horses have been given for a medicine 
pipe. _ 
Indian saddles varied greatly. The old saddle 
of Moorish type, having the high peaked pommel 
and cantle made of wood or horn covered with 
raw buffalo hide, was common, and was the kind 
almost always used by women; but there was 
another type, low in front and behind, often 
having a horn, the prong of a deer’s antler, for 
a rope. The Indians rode with a short stirrup— 
the bare back seat. To-day the young Indians 
ride the cowboy saddle, with the cowboy seat— 
the long leg. Cow skin pads stuffed with the 
hair of deer, elk, antelope, buffalo or mountain 
sheep were commonly used instead of saddles by 
some of the tribes in running buffalo or in war, 
but among a number of tribes the horse was 
stripped for chasing buffalo and for battle. Some 
tribes on their horse stealing expeditions carried 
with them small empty pads, to be stuffed with 
grass and used as saddles after the horses had 
been secured. The Indians of other tribes 
scorned such luxury and rode the horse naked, 
reaching home chafed and scarred. 
Horse racing, like foot racing, is a favorite 
amusement, and much property is wagered on 
these races. The Indians were great jockeys 
and trained and handled their horses with skill. 
When visiting another tribe they sometimes took 
race horses with them and won or lost large 
sums. The Plains tribes were extremely good 
horsemen, in war hiding themselves behind the 
bodies of their mounts so that only a foot and 
an arm showed, and on occasion giving exhibi¬ 
tions of wonderful daring and skill. During the 
campaign of 1865 on Powder River, after Gen. 
Conner’s drawn battle with a large force of 
Arapaho and Cheyenne, an Arapaho rode up and 
down in front of the command within a few hun¬ 
dred yards, and while his horse was galloping 
was seen to swing himself down under his horse’s 
