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How did horses spread from Spanish New Mexico to the Great Plains?
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Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains
Dancers at the Totah Festival Powwow performing the Northern Tradition dance, a dance inspired by Plains traditions, on September 1, 2007, in Farmington, New Mexico.
The spread of horses from Spanish New Mexico to the Great Plains was a gradual process that occurred over the course of approximately 100 years, beginning around 1600.1
Horses were introduced to the Americas by Spanish conquistadors and were initially concentrated in Spanish settlements in New Mexico. From there, they reached the Great Plains through several primary channels:12
- Trade and Exchange: Indigenous groups, such as the Southern Ute and Eastern Shoshone, were among the first to obtain horses from the Spanish settlements by the mid-1600s. These groups subsequently acted as middlemen, facilitating the transmission of horses and equestrian culture to other tribes further north and east.2
- Capture and Taming: Horses were also acquired by capturing animals from rival groups or by taming individuals from the wild herds that began to proliferate across the Great Plains as escaped animals reproduced.134
As these animals spread, they transformed the lives of Plains peoples, providing the mobility necessary to hunt bison more effectively and significantly increasing productivity in the region.514