I wrote a professional Essay on the Topic: “The importance of impact of horse acquisition by Native Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes in the 19th Century’s Colorado”
Introduction
Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes happened to choose the “horse” to support their equestrian lifestyle at the dawn of the 19th century in the Colorado region. The most interesting element for these nomadic equestrian people was the ‘horse’ that was tagged with offering a broad-based system of economic production. However, the acquisition of horse by these tribes was easier said than done because this acquisition acted as a catalyst for bringing the levels of violence and noticeable stress between the two tribes. Both of these tribes could not afford to lose their grip on the acquisition of horse because not only horse supports their nomadic equestrian lifestyle, but it was also a great source of a path to acquire wealth and a source to maintain an ecological relationship with the prevailing environment during those times. The benefits of the acquisition of horse were almost unlimited. Not only horse was being used as a carrying capacity coupled with rifle and goods, but it was also being utilized for fueling their nomadic lifestyle through the grasslands of the Great Plains. Furthermore, these tribes were able to kill adult bison thereby accumulating lots of venison through this mode of transport. There are lots of other lifestyle factors that were associated with horse acquisition.
Furthermore, the new American expansion in the 19th century brought a stressful situation where both tribes had to negotiate with the new influx of American settlers and to compete with them by acquiring the most critical material good i.e. horse. The acquisition of horse was also vital for fighting with the American settlers if an instance of violence occurs. Horse acquisition became so much important that both tribes used to fall prey to high levels of violence with the American influx previously unknown by them. Having said that, this essay states a thesis statement i.e. “The acquisition of horse by native Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes was inevitable thanks to the nineteenth century’s economic advantages in a nomadic lifestyle, domestic and foreign affairs, and the challenges brought by American expansion.” Do you have piles of pending work to complete, and someone just added another long assignment to the “to-do” list? We are here to help! At essaysonly
Essay Body
The nomadic equestrian cultures of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes
When Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes started moving to the Great Plains, they had a choice to select the best option for them i.e. to grab the opportunities offered by a culture of equestrian horse wherein the benefits were more than the anticipated risks. The impacts of horse acquisition were genuinely revolutionary[1]. Horse gave them a burst of affluence and power, a kind of re-alignment with the then environment, and horse altered their material lives in every sense of the word. The culture of horse flourished at a breathtaking pace, thereby allowing them to maintain their equestrian lifestyle on the banks of Red Rivers, Sheyenne, and Missouri. Despite the built-in advantages of farming and the related benefits, their life without horse would have been a great destruction thanks to their susceptibility to intermittent violence, warfare, and raiding. Therefore, the acquisition of horse was essential for their survival as a whole.
The perfect combination of rifle and horse
The nomadic equestrian cultures of Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes forced them to fully embrace two things that are referred to as “rifle” and “horse”. The reason being, these native tribes had to depend on horse for their mobility so as to cut their time of travel, and when horse was combined with a rifle, it offers them to facilitate their mobility with a proper defense. As stated by Hilger “The horse offered native communities a life of mobility and cut their traveling time in half. Combined with the rifle, the animal granted Native peoples the possibility of transforming into mobile fighting forces.”[2] It was the combination of horse acquisition, as well as the rifle which made their hunting wild scenarios more efficient and effective. It also helped them in the case of warfare or fighting with the other tribes or with other native American settlers during the 19th century.
The impact of horse acquisition from economic standpoint
The acquisition of horse was also feasible from economic standpoint because the efficiency and increase in their carrying capacity were also dependent on horse. In the past, these native tribes were familiar with dogs’ acquisition but dogs with a travois could not carry their luggage more than 80 pounds. On the other hand, a single horse was capable of carrying 200 pounds of luggage, and if accompanied with a travois, it could carry 300 pounds in addition to that 200.
Secondly, horse remained a pivotal but cost-effective source for the reason that it only needed the widely available and free energy in the shape of grass on the Great Plains. By directly consuming the grassland energy, both tribes were able to fuel their equestrian lifestyle in the best possible way.[3] It was again horse that used to help these tribes to follow and kill herds of bison, thereby helping them to procure the greatest wealth in those days. Bison was extremely important prey for the survival of these tribes thanks to its sheer mass with calories/kg equals to 2,100 when compared with the other prey such as bighorn and deer for only 200 calories/kg; it was surely a good resource worthy of investing energy and time.[4]
The political influx of Americans and the importance of horse
When it comes to fighting with the American influx in the event of any violence, horse acquisition becomes extremely important in every sense of the word. According to Karr, … “American foreign policy authoritatively deemed all Indians of a particular tribe "hostile" when an instance of violence was incurred against an American settler, justifying brutal assaults against an entire tribe of Plains Indians rather than only the individuals responsible.[5] In the early 19th century, a gradual influx of Americans forced the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes to collectively join hands on the Great Plains so that they could fight back the imminent challenges of the new American settlers. Their first objective was to cover the Arkansas River Valley related verdant prairie for the reason that their horses and bison were both dependent on these grasslands, which in turn, vital for maintaining their nomadic equestrian culture. These two tribes also joined hands with military clout, the Lakota Sioux in a bid to strengthen their defense to the south and north, and to secure their prominent sources of firearm trade and horse. History reveals that their alliance with Lakotas made them one of the powerful tribes on the Great Plains.[6] While fighting the influx of new American settlers, horse acquisition remained the top-most priority because acquiring a horse means an extension of the person. That is to say, owning a horse reflects owning everything for these tribesmen. For instance, if any economic profit was secured due to the horse, then that economic profit would be given to the owner of the horse, and not to the person who used that horse to earn the profit. If an owner gives his horse to some rider to use in the battlefield, then whatever that rider captures during the battle will be considered the property of the owner of the horse.
Regarding the influx of American settlers, the Fort Laramie Treaty (1851) is worth mentioning. Both tribes were called in to enter a peace treaty that was deemed to be benefiting for all.[7] After both tribes were endowed with gifts and feasts, they agreed to talk to the intermediaries of Americans at Fort Laramie. That treaty resulted in an agreement wherein the Cheyenne's and Arapaho tribes were given a claim of the region of southern Wyoming and present-day Colorado. These two tribes dealt well with the American settlers during those times as they claimed the Front Range as their territory because the said territory was extremely important for upholding their horse resources and the wild game so as to continue and maintain their equestrian lifestyle. Americans attempted to inculcate an executive control system on the tribes, and in response, Arapaho carefully dealt with the situation to promote their own culture by choosing an intermediary to deal with Americans.[8] [9] Arapahos intelligently maintained their political relationship with the American influx by using the Americans to frighten their enemy tribes regarding their claims to the Front Range. At the same time, they also had problems with American settlers. For example, the Plains Tribes were prevented to hunt buffalo, and as result, they started hunting the trespassing Americans. This raised many issues of these tribes with the American settlers as well.
As a consequence, history recorded the famous “sand creek massacre” as well as many more fights wherein the influx of new American settlers significantly damaged these two tribes. All in all, horse acquisition remained the most important resource for these tribes during those times, and the horse remained a proven fact and strategy they utilized from time to time to strengthen and elongate their equestrian lifestyle on the Great Plains.
Conclusion
This essay acknowledges the very fact that the acquisition of horse for both Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes at the start of the 19th century was an unignorable and undeniable reality. It was the horse that used to fully support their equestrian nomadic lives, and its combination with a gun/rifle used to make them strong warriors on those Great Plains. Additionally, the horse acquisition had dramatically increased their carrying capacity plus their defense mechanism during their fights with the new American settlers. The essay also acknowledges that horse remained the primary resource and motivation for these tribes to deal with the new American expansion in the 19th century, as well as for fighting against these Americans in the wake of any potential violence. This research essay investigates the importance of horse acquisition for both these tribes and reaches to a conclusion that the acquisition of horse was vital to preserve and uphold their nomadic equestrian culture, to sustain their wild hunting scenarios by combining horse acquisition with rifle, and to have economic advantages by utilizing such an economically viable resource of horse that only feeds on the free grass of the Great Plains. All in all, horse acquisition remained their popular and viable choice to not only deal with the new American influx during the 19th century, but also to fight back with Americans and other adversarial tribes if any violence occurs.
The easiest way to hire my services is by ordering at https://essaysonly.com/. Just place your order and write PROMO-CODE “PHD-101” and they will assign the task (most probably to me) or some PhD level writer.
Feel free to click the “CHAT ICON” and discuss your project with them. I am working for them since 2017 and they are 100% legitimate, confidential, and reliable in delivering the research tasks without compromising on the deadline. Thanks
Feel free to hire me for:
Grant Writing / Funding Proposals
SWOT Analysis
Personal Statements
Analytical Essays
Argumentative Essays
Case Studies
Essays
Literature Reviews
Proposals
Annotated Bibliography
Bibliography
David, Lavender and Sievert Lavender David. Fort Laramie and the Changing Frontier: Fort Laramie National Historic Site, Wyoming. Vol. 118. United States Government Printing, 1983.
Elliot, West. The contested plains: Indians, gold seekers, & the rush to Colorado. University Press of Kansas, 1998: 54-57.
John, H, Moore. John H. The Cheyenne. Wiley-Blackwell, 1999.
Karr, Ronald Dale. "'Why Should You Be So Furious?': The Violence of the Pequot War."
Kornfeld, Marcel. "Pull of the Hills, Affluent Foragers of the Western Black Hills." PhD diss., Ph. D. dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, 1994.
Loretta, Fowler. Arapahoe Politics, 1851-1978: Symbols in Crises of Authority. U of Nebraska Press, 1986.
Loretta, Fowler. Tribal sovereignty and the historical imagination: Cheyenne-Arapaho politics. U of Nebraska Press, 2002.
Stephen, Hilger. "Strategies of the Arapahos and Cheyenne’s for combating nineteenth century American colonialism." PhD diss., Colorado State University. Libraries, 2009: 22.
The Journal of American History 85.2 (Dec., 1998): 882-883.
[1] West, Elliott. The contested plains: Indians, goldseekers, & the rush to Colorado. University Press of Kansas, 1998: 54-57.
[2] Hilger, Stephen. "Strategies of the Arapahos and Cheyennes for combating nineteenth century American colonialism." PhD diss., Colorado State University. Libraries, 2009: 22.
[3] Ibid., 1.
[4] Marcel, Kornfeld. "Pull of the Hills, Affluent Foragers of the Western Black Hills." PhD diss., Ph. D. dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, 1994.
[5] Karr, Ronald Dale. "" Why should you be so furious?": The violence of the Pequot War." The Journal of American History 85, no. 3 (1998): 882-883.
[6] Moore, John H. The Cheyenne. Wiley-Blackwell, 1999.
[7] Lavender, David, and David Sievert Lavender. Fort Laramie and the Changing Frontier: Fort Laramie National Historic Site, Wyoming. Vol. 118. United States Government Printing, 1983.
[8] Fowler, Loretta. Arapahoe Politics, 1851-1978: Symbols in Crises of Authority. U of Nebraska Press, 1986.
[9] Fowler, Loretta. Tribal sovereignty and the historical imagination: Cheyenne-Arapaho politics. U of Nebraska Press, 2002.