The arrival and integration of horses into North American Indigenous cultures is a story deeply rooted in history, predating common assumptions and revealing a complex relationship that flourished long before European settlement. An extensive international study, supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation, has unveiled compelling evidence that horses were present on the Great Plains as early as the 16th century, significantly earlier than previously understood. This groundbreaking research, involving collaborators from institutions worldwide and crucially incorporating the knowledge of the Lakota, Comanche, and Pawnee Nations, re-evaluates the timeline of horse domestication and spread in the Americas.
A Reimagined History of Horse Integration
For centuries, the narrative of horses in North America has been largely shaped by observations from European and American settlers during the 18th and 19th centuries. However, this new study challenges those perspectives by analyzing archaeological horse remains, demonstrating that Indigenous peoples were integrating horses into their societies decades before the widely accepted timeline following the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Lead author William Taylor, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado Boulder, highlighted that scientific evidence indicates horses were deeply intertwined with Indigenous societies across much of the Western United States from at least the early 1600s. This suggests a far more ancient and profound connection between Indigenous cultures and these animals.
Tracing the Ancestry and Spread of Horses
Horses, and their evolutionary ancestors, originally developed in North America before migrating across continents. While these native equines likely disappeared by the end of the first millennium, the horses that became integral to Indigenous life were reintroduced by Europeans. The Spanish were among the first to bring horses to the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries, followed by other European powers. Genetic analysis of the studied horse remains primarily points to Spanish or Iberian heritage, aligning with the types of horses introduced by the Spanish. Later, British horses also contributed to the genetic landscape of horses in the Great Plains.
Indigenous Knowledge and Archaeological Evidence Converge
The interdisciplinary approach of this study is key to its revelations. By combining archaeological findings with Indigenous oral histories, researchers have painted a more accurate picture of horse dispersal. Evidence from sites like Paa-ko Pueblo in New Mexico and American Falls Reservoir in Idaho shows that horses had migrated from the Southwest to regions as far north as Idaho within the first half of the 17th century. The examination of horse remains from Blacks Fork in Wyoming provided particularly striking insights. These remains indicated that the horse was born and raised locally, signifying it was cared for and held significant importance upon its death. This occurred at a time when European exploration of the western United States had not yet commenced.
It is theorized that horses may have been acquired from the periphery of Spanish settlements and moved through established Indigenous trade routes, connecting the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountain region. Another possibility is that domesticated horses were brought by the Pueblo people as they migrated from Spanish New Mexico towards present-day Kansas.
This research also lends scientific weight to the oral traditions of the Comanche and Shoshone peoples. Contrary to some historical assumptions that the Comanches migrated from Wyoming to the southern Great Plains specifically to acquire horses before the 18th century, the study’s findings suggest that horses were already a part of their lives during their earlier presence in Wyoming.
A Deeper, More Nuanced Understanding
The collective findings of this study underscore that the relationship between Indigenous communities and the horses introduced to the Americas by Europeans began decades earlier than Western scholarship had previously acknowledged. As tribal historian of the Comanche Nation in Oklahoma, Jimmy Arterberry, stated, “All this information has come together to tell a bigger, broader, deeper story — a story that Natives have always been aware of but has never been acknowledged.” This research not only corrects historical timelines but also validates and amplifies Indigenous perspectives, offering a richer, more inclusive understanding of the horse’s enduring legacy in North America.
