The Jim and Vanita Oelschlager
Native American Ethnographic Collection
"Drums, Tomahawks, and the Horse: Native American Cultural Tools"
The Horse
The Spanish introduced horses in the 1400s and they ultimately became the most valued tool among the Plains tribes. No other animal so changed the nature of so many cultures in less than two hundred years. The Spanish established horse ranches in what is now New Mexico to provide horses to trade south into Mexico. Men from local tribes, especially Apache, Comanche, and Pueblo, worked on the ranches and became skilled horsemen.
The Spanish controlled their horses carefully, knowing that Natives on horseback would be difficult to suppress. Horses spread northward after the Pueblo Revolt against the Spanish in 1680. Hundreds of horses either escaped in the wild grasslands or were traded by various tribes through established trade networks. Horses not only became a vital tool in Plains Native American cultures but also had important cultural positions as companions, objects of pride, prestige, and wealth. The “Horse Culture” changed the nature of western tribal culture for nearly two hundred years, ending when most Plains Native Americans were confined to reservations in the1870s.
Culture Changes
By the end of the 1700s life changed drastically for Native Americans. On this map we address three overlapping and complex cultural changes that are divided into arbitrary time frames. It is important to remember that the experience has been different for every tribe. The geographic and environmental region determined much of their culture before European contact. The subsequent degree of European contact, disease, and trade items determined the cultural conditions until the American Revolution.
The first cultural changes occurred in the early 1700s during the years when Plains Native Americans enjoyed and adapted to the horse. This new “tool” enabled the tribes to hunt farther, move camps more easily, engaged in battles differently, and accumulate power and wealth with the ownership of large numbers of horses.
The second change occurred when the government forced most tribes to move from their homelands and live on reservations. This caused great suffering and cultural challenges. The government then passed the General Allotment Act of 1887; this law broke treaties when it divided some reservations into homesteads for individual Native families. The government then sold the remaining land to settlers.
The third cultural change began with the raised public consciousness of the Progressive Era, when social and governmental agencies slowly began to address the inequities of immigrants, ethnic groups and Native Americans. This then prompted examination of government and native relations. The result was a gradual expansion in legal protection and tribal freedom, beginning with the recognition of Native Americans as citizens in 1924.
