Native Americans and the Horse

Western Indians Begin to Acquire the "Big Dog"
In 1541, Viceroy Mendoza put allied Aztec chieftains on horses to better lead their tribesmen in the Mixton War of Central Mexico. This appears to have been the first time that horses were officially given to the Indians. Indians were seen to rub themselves with horse sweat, so that they might acquire the magic of the "big dog."

But the early relationship between Native Americans and horses was not always mutually beneficial. Indians, especially the Apaches, acquired a taste for roasted horse meat. After 1680, the Pueblo Indians forced the Spanish out of New Mexico. Many horses were left behind. The Pueblo learned to ride well but didn't live by the horse. They mainly valued the horse as food and as an item to trade with the Plains Indians for jerked buffalo meat and robes. Horses and horsemanship gradually spread from tribe to tribe until the Plains Indians became the great mounted buffalo hunters of the American West.

Plains Indian Horsemen
The alliance of the American Indians and the Spanish horse gave the Indians great mobility and changed their way of life. Tribes of horses were dominant over other tribes who relied on moving camp on foot. The plains Indians were great mounted buffalo hunters. They traded meat and buffalo hides for glass beads, metal tools, cloth and guns.

The Observations of Artist George Catlin
George Catlin (1796-1872) was an American painter and student of Indian life. Much of our present-day knowledge about the habits and customs of American Indians comes from Catlin's journals and paintings. He records much about wild horses and their alliance with the Indians:

Indians and Horses at War
In many tribes, horses were the measure of wealth. So, horses were often the cause, as well as the means of waging war between alien tribes. The Indians' own pictographs often featured their most prized possession and companion - the horse.

Wallace Coffey is a Comanche horseman. According to Wallace, when the Spanish introduced the Comanche to the horse, "our responsibility was to be stable hands. We were literally slaves to the Spaniards and were the ones that fed the horses and cared for them. When the horse became an ally to the Comanche," Wallace says, "it wasn't just as a beast of burden. The horse really became a companion and a friend."

The Comanche became legendary horsemen, terrorizing their enemies, frightening away settlers, keeping the plains open and wild. By the late 1800's more than a million mustangs roamed the Texas frontier. So many mustangs that early maps of the region labeled the plains with just two words -- "Wild Horses."

But the days of freedom for Indians and horses were about to end. Late in September, 1874, Ranald S. MacKenzie, Commander of the 4th U.S. Cavalry tracked the Comanche to their secret camp in the Palo Duro Canyon. Historian Andy Wilkinson tells the story.

| The Ancient Connection | The Horse in Agriculture | Moving Man and Machinery |
| Native Americans and the Horse | Horses and the Journey to the New World |
| Palo Duro Canyon Tragedy | The Sporting Horse | Waging War from Horseback |

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