To Live and Die in the West by Jason Hook Martin Pegler

Author:Jason Hook, Martin Pegler [Jason Hook, Martin Pegler]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, United States, 19th Century, Civil War Period (1850-1877)
ISBN: 9781579583705
Google: oIdfr5fuGCAC
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2001-01-15T01:22:07+00:00

A wooden-framed Crow woman’s saddle covered with rawhide. The pommel and cantle have a second covering of soft, tanned skin. It is decorated with pendants beaded with white, dull green, rose, and two shades of blue, on red and olive green woollen cloth. (Berne Historical Museum)

Indeed, the horse actually became a measure of wealth, providing material evidence of a man’s prestige. The successful warrior could build up a large herd by raiding, and gained influence through the generosity he showed with his horses. Through offering them as loans and gifts the benefactor gained prestige, while the poor man was also helped. This extended to the horse being given as compensation to a wronged man, and to their being offered as gifts accompanying marriage proposals.

Clearly, then, the horse permeated every aspect of the Indians’ lives. Trade, culture, leisure, hunting and war all came to revolve around it. Consequently, children were accustomed to horses from an early age; infants were carried in back-cradles while their mothers rode, and both boys and girls were capable riders by the age of seven. The boys then progressed to trick-riding; for example, a Comanche youth learned to ride bareback, and to pick up increasingly heavy weights from the ground at a gallop, in preparation for rescuing fallen comrades. Boys also tended the herds, and at an early age would be responsible for breaking horses—often in a swamp or river to discourage bucking and provide a soft landing! Throughout his life the Indian would be dependent on the horse, which even pervaded his religion. Its importance was such that it followed a prominent man to the grave, being sacrificed to accompany its rider after death as it had during life.

Naturally, the horse had an immeasurable effect on the fighting ability of the Plains Indians. Within a short time they had fully adopted a horse culture, to the extent that Indians such as the Comanche were said to be transformed from ungainliness to grace and elegance simply by mounting a horse. Logically, they also developed into fearsome fighters on horseback, the Sioux being described by Gen. George Crook of the US Army as the greatest light cavalry the world had ever known.

The mounted Indian warriors could taunt pedestrian enemies and outflank apparently superior opposition with their remarkable skills, performing such feats of horsemanship as lifting fallen comrades to the saddle, and concealing themselves by hanging below their mounts while at the gallop. Their affinity with nature and knowledge of animals contributed greatly to their riding ability, superior to that of most whites; and to their immensely skilled fieldcraft, which allowed them to maximise the advantages of mounted mobility.

The horse suited the needs of the Indians so admirably and was used so effectively that it ushered in a whole new culture and lifestyle. By placing them on a much more equal footing with their environment, the horse could be said to have created, rather than just transformed, the Plains Indians.

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