The Northward Spread Of Horses Among The Comanche Indians

There currently are about 9.2 million horses in North America. They are widespread with many breeds and disciplines that each horse fits into. Horses did not always inhabit North America as they do now. Roughly four hundred years ago the horse made it to America through Spanish soldiers, also known as conquistadores. These conquistadores successfully conquered parts of Mexico and South America before traveling north to the southwestern portion of what is now today’s United States in the 1540’s in search of gold and other treasures. As the conquistadores traveled they came in contact with a few different Native American groups. They tried hard to convert these new people to Roman Catholicism, which was the Spanish religion. In the 1680’s the

The largest issue, according to Francis Haines’s article “The Northward Spread of Horses among the Plains Indians”, was their poor understanding of how the horse works. A horse is a prey animal, its first instinct is to run away. This is quite similar to cows and sheep, but they are generally less frightened especially when one compares a domestic cow to a wild horse. Horses also have a much different digestive track than the other grazers that the Comanche may be more acquainted to. They require a variety of different forages in their diet. They also graze quickly to the point of which the Indians must move on a regular basis. This was easy for the Comanche Indians because they did not stay in one place and tended to move around quite a lot. Once the Comanches understood the horse they started to become unstoppable. The horses provided transportation and a quick getaway for their

The most common item to raid for was captives. Due to a major epidemic in 1492 which lead to a devastating loss in the Comanche population they begun to raid for captives more and more. According to Rivaya-Martinez, the captives spiked in the Comanche population in 1840. This was a response to a major population loss due to battles being fought and Comanches being killed. As the horse was introduced and they began using them for larger, faster, and more efficient raids, they needed more captives. Rivaya-Martinez states that, at one point in time, 96% of their captives were used as horse herders. Due to horses greatly influencing the Comanche Indians so much there were many large herds that needed to be attended. The captives main job were to keep the horses in the area and to keep them from wandering far. Horse herds were so large that sometimes there were multiple herders per herd. A Spanish soldier, named Francisco Xavier Ortiz, who spent time with the Comanche Indians in 1786 reported that there was an estimate of thirty mounts per tent and eight and a half mounts per adult male. Imagine tending to eight to nine horses every day per person. Seventy years later in 1856 an Indian Agent for the U.S. Government, named Whitfield, also observed the Comanche Indians and reported that there were fifty horses per lodge and twenty-five per adult male. Horses in the community multiplied by three in just