The arrival of the horse in North America had a bigger positive effect on Native American peoples than just about any other thing involving the invasion by Europeans that started in 1492.
And, oh my, how our Native American friends’ ancestors took to the horse!
Some reports stated that early indigenous peoples called this amazing creature: God’s Dog, it changed everything.
Between the Medicine Wheel in the Bighorn Mountains and the Red Ochre potential world heritage site at Sunrise, Wyoming, Indian peoples roamed Wyoming for over 13,500 years.
And they did it mostly on foot. Their beasts of burden were dogs, pulling travois, which could slowly carry small loads. They traveled thousands of miles, following buffalo herds and moving to and from hunting grounds.
Some amazing recent discoveries show that surprisingly, early Indian tribes in Wyoming spent a lot of time in the summer and fall at high altitudes, sometimes as high as 10,000 feet.
But I digress. Let’s talk about horses.
It Started In 1540
Horses first appeared in North America in 1540 when Spaniards Cortez, Coronado, and DeSoto used them in present-day Florida and Mexico. As the Conquistadors moved northward, the Plains Indian tribes, including the Shoshone and Arapaho of Wyoming, discovered this amazing creature and figured out its potential for their needs. First sightings of a Plains Indian tribe with horses were in 1745 in Kansas.
The horse immediately became their mode of transportation, their beast of burden, and their animal of choice. Owning horses became the biggest symbol of individual wealth for Indians and for the tribes, themselves.
I have been doing some research of early Indian times in Wyoming and there are some amazing statistics.
A few years ago, we visited Torrington with the late Brian Heinz. We visited a location south of that town where a major meeting of Indian tribes was held near the aptly-named Horse Creek. The site had been moved from the historic Fort Laramie site for a logical reason that seems mind-boggling today: too many horses.
45,000 Horses!
Some context is needed here. Most tribes were like the Arapahos being hunter-gatherers and were nomadic. They literally did not have a permanent defined home. Everything they owned moved with them constantly.
As much as they loved horses, moving horses became a big deal.
The famous Fort Laramie treaty of 1851 between the U. S. government and the Arapaho, Shoshone, Cheyenne, Gros Ventre, Cheyenne, Crow, Assiniboine, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara tribal nations, had to be moved from Fort Laramie to an area 30 miles south at Horse Creek.
Just getting the tribes together was a herculean feat by Indian agents. Many tribes were traditional enemies. And one of their primary activities was stealing horses from each other. Without fences, keeping track of horses was a big deal.
The numbers describing that 1851 council are huge. The U. S. government budgeted $100,000. The council involved 1,500 Indian lodges and, astonishingly, some 45,000 horses.
For example, seven years later in 1858, a census by a government agent listed 2,400 members of the Arapaho Tribe and listed among their possessions some 15,000 horses.
The 1851 treaty was designed to compensate Indian tribes for the loss of some of their hunting grounds in exchange for allowing settlers to travel the Oregon Trail through their territory.
Most of the tribes and most of the leaders attending were exhausted from constant fighting and overwhelmed at the sight of thousands of white settlers invading the west.
As an aside, I recently read where the Colonel in charge of Fort Laramie during that historic treaty only had 160 soldiers at the fort. He was terrified of how he could break up a war that might break out among the tribes. Luckily, no major mishap occurred.
500,000 People Passing Through
Over the next 17 years, some 500,000 people would travel the various Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails. This push to the Pacific Ocean was called “manifest destiny,” which described our nation’s desire to extend itself from sea to sea.
The great trek westward not only negatively affected the tribes’ ability to hunt buffalo, but also in one case, actually was one of the reasons there is now a Northern Arapaho Tribe in Wyoming and a Southern Arapaho Tribe in Oklahoma.
The trails cut right smack through the historical hunting and camping grounds of the Arapaho tribe. As a result, some preferred being south of the trail and some north of the trail, hence the historic split.
The U. S. Senate ratified the 1851 treaty but reduced compensation to the tribes from 50 years to 10 years. Some tribes did not receive anything at all.
Expert Horsemen
Through it all were the ubiquitous horses. The Indians became expert horsemen and astute breeders. Rarely in history has such an effect been caused by the introduction of a new animal in the mix.
Some facts from Cheyenne’s Virginia Cole Trenholm’s excellent book, “The Arapahoes,” were used in compiling this column.
Fort Laramie held a 150th anniversary celebration seven years ago celebrating another big treaty signed there, the treaty of 1868.
Bill Sniffin can be reached at: Bill@CowboyStateDaily.com
