The indian and the horse
The indian and the horseIn the United States today people from all corners of the earth come together to form a melting pot. It can be described as a mesh of diversity which melds together to form a unique nation. The uniqueness of this country can best be attributed to by the contributions made by each of the different cultures that call it home. While many of these contributions may go unnoticed some have vastly changed the lifestyles of those who inhibit this land. As it remains well documented the first inhabitants of what was known as the New World were the American Indians. What may have been viewed by outsiders as a simple way of life was much rather a complicated oneness with the land which was shared by all of the different tribes. This lifestyle, however, was greatly changed with the arrival of the Europeans. Many new things where introduced to the Indians. It can be disputed that theses "new things" may have, in the long run, done more harm than good. Three of the more influential "gifts" introduced to the New World were the gun, liquor, and the horse. This paper will examine the affect of the horse on the Indian way of life.
In the present day, the many purposes that horses had served have been replaced by modern technology. They are now viewed as luxury pets or as sports items. However, the horse had a great impact on the human lifestyle in the past, especially that of the Indians of the New World. According to archaeologists, the horse was present when the Indians first set foot on the American continent, but it was never tamed (Wissler 264). The Indians may have hunted the wild horse for food and used its skin for various purposes, similar to the buffalo. This could have possibly led to the extinction of the horse in the New World long before the arrival of the Europeans. While Indians of the past are stereotypically believed to have use nature to the fullest they may have overlooked the many benefits a tamed horse could provide. If these wild, hunted horses were tamed then the outcome of the arrival of the Europeans could have been drastically different.
The horse was introduced to the New World through early Spanish expeditions around the Gulf of Mexico. It had been believed that bands of wild horses, which later populated the country, had originated from the strays of Coronado's and De Soto's sixteenth century expeditions (Wissler 265). However, in Indians of the United States Clark Wissler states, "…inspection of the chronicles - many of which gave statistics on numbers of horses, and details of their losses - would indicate the impossibility of populating the country by strays" (265). This virtually destroys the idea that all of the wild horses of the New World originated from strays. One can assume that there had to have been enormous number of strays in order to populate the country,...
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