The Rise and Fall of the Plains Indians Horse Cultures Pekka Hämäläinen Introduction The thesis in Mr. Hämäläinen’s article is “The horse era began for most Plains Indians with high expectations but soon collapses into a series of unsolvable economic, social, political, and ecological contradictions.” In “The Rise and Fall of the Plains Indian Horse Cultures,” Pekka Hämäläinen discusses how the introduction of horses by European explorers allowed the Plains Indians to transform themselves from obscure foot nomads into an equestrian people. Academia has commonly contrasted the achievements that the horse culture brought to native Americans with the death, disease, and despair that the Europeans brought to America. Hämäläinen proposes that today’s scholars consider the Plains Indian culture “the ultimate anomaly—ecological imperialism working to Indians’ advantage.” Many historians view the introduction of the horse and the Plains Indian culture as a success story. However, until looked into deeper, it is shown that horses in reality, brought “destabilization, dispossession, and destruction.” The horse was a two-edged sword. While it helped to move, hunt, trade, and fight, it led to the destruction of the environment, ruined economies, and uneven social pyramids.
The Kiger Mustang came to the New World from Spain in the 1600’s. The word mustang is from the word “mesteno” which means “unclaimed sheep”; it later became the word for wild or unclaimed (BLM). The Kiger Mustang was not really identified in the United States until 1971 when a group of horses were brought into captivity. They were noted, by the people who brought them in, to have strange markings. A man by the name of Ron Harding, a Bureau of Land Management Wild Horse Specialist, tested them and discovered their dominant genes were coded for the dun factor markings.
It wasn’t until the introduction of the horse and equestrian related practices to Native Americans in the plains that the bison population would become threatened. Up until the spread of the horse trade into Native American tribes in the late 1700s to early 1800s, Natives relied on more than one source to sustain themselves. Pedestrian bison hunting was practiced, but generally only a few bison were killed at once and they were not the only source of food. Soon though, the Natives were introduced to the horse, which initiated a great deal of change in their societies. It was discovered that bison hunting was much more efficient from the back of a horse than on the ground.
The frontier definitely moved at a different pace since they had horses and canoes versus cars, ships, planes, etc. Just think about how the Indian trails turned into roads, the roads then turned into turnpikes, then the railroads, etc. Improvements are always being made by each new generation, although, people may not realize the significance of our past history it is definitely a huge part of our present history. We need to understand the different stages of colonial life that brought about our development and advancement. From fur trading, farming, mines, and ranch life, each of these were very important and had a major influence on our economic and political history.
Chapter 13 1.) The westward movement entangled the United States in the affairs of foreign powers when we came into contact of previously existing Natives and Spanish that lived on the land that we were expanding towards. That involved us in military affairs with other countries. On page 424, it explains that Spain held title to most of the trans-Mississippi west property and that for the last hundred years or so were expanding and settling, and tried only to fail to keep people from migrating to that area. It goes on to explain that Americans before the great migration of the 1840s migrated for the attraction of fur businesses.
July 21 - August 7 The closer we came to the mountains, the more formidable the snow-covered peaks became. Once we crossed the Continental Divide, we could ride the westward-flowing Columbia River. But the trek from the Missouri River to the Columbia River was going to require horses. And to get horses, we would have to find the Shoshone tribe. August 8-24 Today Lewis spotted an Indian on horseback.
1. How did western settlement, particularly in terms of railroad expansion and farming, lead to inevitable conflicts with the Native Americans? Highlight at least one engagement in your answer. It lead to conflicts because they would run their railroads and settlements right through the Indian settlements. They would kick the Indian out of their land and take it for their own, The United States quickly became one of the twentieth century’s most powerful nations after settling more than three million square miles of rich, diverse land.
As we learned the horse was brought by the Spanish and in the beginning, horses could only be bred by Spaniards and Creoles. The Native Americans or “Indians” as they called them were not allowed to ride or breed horses that were reserved for the “higher class”; however, the Indians had to look after the animals, which involved riding and taming them. Eventually as the years went by and their experience grew they learned to control the wild horses with a rope and therefore the Spanish had to change the law. Soon the Indigenous people became accomplished horsemen in New Spain. The enthusiasm for competitions among horsemen and bullfights were traditions inherited by Creoles and Mestizos from the Spanish.
That is why the Cherokee should stay on Georgian land. My final explanation is about the amount of respect that the Cherokees get, and the amount that they deserve. Two other Indian tribes, the Choctaw and Creek, were moving off to Indian territory and encountered a large amount of conflicts. All of their horses were stolen and hundreds died from diseases.
Student: Marko Simovic Date: 9/21/2011 Subject: History 201 Teacher: Patrick O’Neil The significance of Native American and European interactions After Europeans discovered American continents and started exploring it, they found out that this continent was already inhabited by culturally and socially completely different people that they referred as Indians. The clash of these two totally different civilizations brought us to an entirely new era; the era of massive migrations that shaped the world map and brought the picture of world we know today. This encounter had many influences on both cultures; challenging Europeans conquer abilities and in same time giving Indians a sharp look on how does Eastern part of world looks like. When Europeans first came to North America, they did not have much respect for Indian culture and their way of living, calling them savage, lawless and rude without any laws or society organization. They are I