The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1907-10-05
HORSES AND THE INDIANS.
HOW THE REDSKINS CAME p
THEIR sTEEDS THROUGH
THE SPANISH.

The Southern Plains Proved very
Favorable to the Breed and the
Horses Greatly acknowledgements
Had Horses Early in 18th Century
The first horses seen by the malh'
land Indians were those OF the span
ish invaders OF Mexico. A few years
later De Soto brought the horse INTO
Florida and westward to the MISSISSIPPI
nj. while Coronado, on his march 10
cjuiyira in 1541, introduced it to the
Indians of the great plains. When the
Aztecs saw the mounted men OF CORES
they supposed horse and man 10 10
one and were greatly alarmed at inc
strange animal. The classical Centaur
owed it's origin to like mlsconception'
A tradition existed among the Pawnees
that their ancestors mistook niue
ridden bv 2. man for a single amman
and shot at it from concealment, cap
turing the mule when the man fell.
The horse was marvel to the IN
dams and came to be reSaroe" do
sacred. For a long time 1t was "or-
shipped by the Aztecs, and Dy most
OF the tribes was considered 10 nave
a mysterious or sacred character. lts
origin was explained By number OF
myths representing horse; to nave
come out of the earth through lakes
and springs or from the sun. Wnen
Antonio de Espejo visited the Hopl
of Arizona in 1888, the Indians spread
cotton scarfs or kits on the ground lot
the horses to walk on, believing the
latter to be sacred. This sacred char
acter is sometimes shown in the names
given to the horse as the Dakota sunka
wakan. mysterious dog" Its use IN
TRANSPORTATION accounts for the term
dog" often applied to it, as the Six
Ska ponokamita, ELK dog" Cree mis-
tatim, big dog Shawnee wishawa'
eek"
The southern plains proved very
favorable and horses greatly multi
piled. Stray and escaped horses form
ed wild herds, and, as they had few
carnivorous enemies, their increase
and spread were astcnishinSly rapid.
The movement CT the horse was from
south to north, at about an equal rate
on both sides of the mountains. It
moved northward in three ways: ~
The increase of the wild horses ana
their dispersal into new regions was
rapid. ca For $50 years before the
first exploration OF the west by resi-
dents Of the United States Spanlards
| from the Mexican provinces had Deen
making long Journeys northward ana
eastward to trade with the Indians,
even, it is said, as far north as the
camps of the Kiowa, wien these were
! living on Tongue Rivei. (S) AS soon
! as the Indians nearest to the Spanish
settlement, appreciated the uses OF the
horse they began to make raiding ex-
petitions to capture horses, and as
knowledge of the animal extended the
tribes still further to the north began
to procure horses from those next
south CT them So it was that tribes
in the south had the first horses and
always had the greatest number. while
the tribes further north obtained them
last and always had fewer of them.
I Some tribes declare that they posses
sed horses for some time before they
learned the uses to which they could
be put
On the north Atlantic Coast horses
were imported early in the 18th cen
fury. and the Iroquis possessed them
toward the end of that century and
were regularly breeding them prior to
! 1886. For the northern plains they
seem to have been first obtained from
the region west of the Rocky Noun
| tains. the Silsika having obtained
their first horses from the Kutenal,
ShOsoni and other tribes across the
mountains. about the year 1900. w.
| T. Hamilton, who met the Nez Perces,
Cayuse and other tribes of the Co.
lunbia region between 1910 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 strong war
party, went south and captured horses
1t 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 long time
before other sections of the same tribe.
The Cheyenne relate variously that
they procured their first horses from
the Arapaho, from the Kiowa and