The Indian And The Horse

Want to read the rest of this paper? Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay and over 50,000 other term papers

replaced by modern technology. They are now viewed as luxury pets or as sports items. However, the horse had a great impact on the human lifestyle in the past, especially that of the Indians of the New World. According to archaeologists, the horse was present when the Indians first set foot on the American continent, but it was never tamed (Wissler 264). The Indians may have hunted the wild horse for food and used its skin for various purposes, similar to the buffalo. This could have possibly led to the extinction of the horse in the New World long before the arrival of the Europeans. While Indians of the past are stereotypically believed to have use nature to the fullest they may have overlooked the many benefits a tamed horse could provide. If these wild, hunted horses were tamed then the outcome of the arrival of the Europeans could have been drastically different.
The horse was introduced to the New World through early Spanish expeditions around the Gulf of Mexico. It had ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays. Write better papers. Get better grades. Already a member? Login

natural habitat of the horse is the grassland. However according to A Sense of the American West by James Sherow, "The reliance upon plains grasses meant certain obstacles in maintaining healthy horses in winter… Healthy Indian horses in the fall suffered from malnutrition by the end of winter" (Sherow 98). While the grasslands, which supported the horses, were plentiful it was difficult to maintain the health of large herds. However, this did not discourage Indians (men, women and children) to ride horses. As a result the previously wild horse developed a new order of life (Wissler 265).
The horse became a very beneficial tool in aiding the hunting of buffalo, which was the ...

Succeed in your coursework without stepping into a library. Get access to a growing library of notes, book reports, and research papers in 2 minutes or less.

CITE THIS PAGE: