Posted on 04/11/2023 9:34:56 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Indigenous peoples as far north as Wyoming and Idaho may have begun to care for horses by the first half of the 17th Century, according to a new study by researchers from 15 countries and multiple Native American groups.
A team of international researchers has dug into archaeological records, DNA evidence and Indigenous oral traditions to paint what might be the most exhaustive history of early horses in North America to date. The group's findings show that these beasts of burden may have spread throughout the American West much faster and earlier than many European accounts have suggested...
To tell the stories of horses in the West, the team closely examined about two dozen sets of animal remains found at sites ranging from New Mexico to Kansas and Idaho. The researchers come from 15 countries and multiple Native American groups, including the Lakota, Comanche and Pawnee nations...
For many of the scientists involved, the research holds deep personal significance, added Taylor, who grew up in Montana where his grandfather was a rancher...
The researchers drew on archaeozoology, radiocarbon dating, DNA sequencing and other tools to unearth how and when horses first arrived in various regions of today's United States. Based on the team's calculations, Indigenous communities were likely riding and raising horses as far north as Idaho and Wyoming by at least the first half of the 17th Century -- as much as a century before records from Europeans had suggested.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
Well, they actually had horses long before that. But the natives ate them into extinction rather than riding them.
IIRC someone brought in a bunch of camels too.
Notice the language in the excerpt. “Native Americans” “CARE” for horses.
Evil white Europeans “use” and “exploit” them. Those are the terms I’m used to in writings about animals. But mention any other group - they care for them.
Yup, I’m cynical.
As for this, regardless, I have to wonder how Indians took advantage (another term) of horses. Are they implying Indians figured it all out themselves? Which they could, but I have to think much came from seeing the white man. Never mind whites gave them horses at all. Thanks, whites!
Horse ancestors originated in NA. But disappeared long before any Indians or other humans were here.
What did Indians get around on before we brought over horses?
Shanks Mare
The Comanches were an easy target for other, more martially proficient tribes until they acquired horses, after which they became feared by Indian and white man alike.
Shank’s mare.
Not likely, they died with all the other megafauna during the beginning of the Younger Dryas.
I think it was our military who invested in Camels. Anothr brilliant move.
There’s a range of opinion of course, of course.
There’s a very small amount of scientifically dated remains of humans and animals from North American (and S A and the Caribbean for that matter) that antedate 1492.
Artifacts and petroglyphs related to horses have mostly not been scientifically dated (and thanks to NAGPRA etc, probably never will be), and oral traditions are, uh, fluid and not generally trustworthy, irrespective of their geographical and ethnic source.
Anyway, here’s one take on the “we had horses before Columbus” view:
https://ictnews.org/news/yes-world-there-were-horses-in-native-culture-before-the-settlers-came
Flood, Fire, and Famine
in the History of Civilization
by Richard Firestone,
Allen West, and
Simon Warwick-Smith
I know, it started the whole continent smoking. Hey, at least there aren’t millions of ancient filter butts around.
I grok that.
Iberian horses, of course, suggests a strong Arabian influence introduced by the Moors that bore the wonderful traits of those horses, endurance, density of bone, bottom, and intelligence. There is scarcely a breed in the world that is not improved by introduction of Arabian blood. By the 18th and 19th century the British horses referred to already had Arabian genes already bread into many.
Most of the "cactus hill" keyword:
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