The Shared History of Wild Horses and Indigenous People
Indigenous & Native American scholars are pushing back against the idea that horses only arrived in the Americas with the Spanish and are working to preserve their native breeds. An article published in March of 2020 works to dive deeper into this sentiment and the role their horses have as spiritual kin. The article can be found here, and it’s only a 7 minute read, so I highly recommend going to the source to check it out and read more. If you’ve been keeping up with my mustang dialogues, this article is important for you!
“Horses and the Native people of North America are not just spiritually intertwined; their histories echo each other. After the conquistadors arrived, both were slaughtered, forced into subservience, and pushed onto inferior lands. Both have survived. “Side by side, they are with us, and they’ve experienced everything we’ve been through,” Running Horse Collin says.”
The Sacred Way Sanctuary describes their goals as follows:
“ We are a research, education, and preservation facility that is home to a foundation herd of between 80 and 90 Indigenous Native American horses. The origin of these horses can be traced to Native Peoples across North America. Our Mission is to educate the world regarding the true history of the horse in the Americas and its relationship with the Indigenous Peoples. This historical reconstruction has been compiled by combining Traditional Knowledge from a number of Native Nations with cutting edge academic research. We advocate for the preservation of the very rare Indigenous horse of the Americas, and facilitate its return to our Native communities. Our Governing Council of Traditional Native Elders and Scholars from the United States and Canada ensure the information we present, our Interpretive Center, and horse husbandry techniques are all culturally, historically, and spiritually accurate and in line with traditional protocols. “
Find them and more information at their website, here.
For good measure, here is a link to a PhD Dissertation by one of the indigenous scholars involved that runs through the work and reasoning behind many of these claims. Here is another article talking about this, and another because I think it’s fascinating.
I would love to hear thoughts, but don’t be a jackass.
