Study: Horses Were in American West by Early 1600s

A new study suggests that horses were present in the American West by the early 1600s. That is earlier than most written histories have estimated.

The new finding came from examinations of horse bones gathered from museums across the central Great Plains and northern Rocky Mountain areas of the U.S.

The study's estimate supports spoken histories of several Native American groups. The groups say their communities kept horses of Spanish origin before Europeans physically¹ arrived in their homelands.

A study describing the findings recently appeared in the publication Science. More than 80 co-writers took part in the study, including archaeologists, geneticists and historians. The team also included scientists from the Lakota, Comanche and Pawnee Native American nations.

Past research suggests that the ancestors of modern horses first appeared in North America millions of years ago. That is before horses arrived on the central plains of Europe and Asia, where they were domesticated³. But those early horse ancestors disappeared from North America about 6,000 years ago.

In the new study, scientists examined more than 20 sets of horse remains⁴ from sites in several U.S. states. They aimed to establish that horses were ridden and raised by Indigenous⁵ groups by the early 1600s.

William Taylor is an archaeologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder⁶ and was one of the writers of the study. He told The Associated Press (AP), "Almost every aspect of the human-horse relationship is manifest in the skeleton in some way."

The study suggests the horses were present in the American West and Southwest many years before the Pueblo⁷ Revolt of 1680. That revolt involved allied⁸ Indigenous groups pushing Spanish colonizers out of New Mexico.

The fleeing armies left behind many horses and other animals. The study says historical records incorrectly identified that moment as the entrance of the horse into the cultures of Indigenous groups in North America.

"Now we can wave goodbye to the Pueblo Revolt as an explanation for the spread of the horse into the American West," said Peter Mitchell. He is an archaeologist at Britain's Oxford⁹ University. He was not involved in the study.

Indigenous groups have long disputed this timeline. This is because spoken histories of many groups suggested they had seen horses before meeting Europeans.

Jimmy Arterberry is a co-writer of the study and a historian with the Comanche Native American nation in Medicine Park, Oklahoma. He told the AP that multiple spoken histories state that Indigenous groups first saw horses that had either run away from Spanish camps or been traded through tribal¹⁰ networks.

"We have always known and said that we came across horses before we came across the Spanish," Arterberry said.

Yvette Running Horse Collin is one of the writers of the study. She is an evolutionary¹¹ geneticist at the Center for Anthropobiology and Genomics of Toulouse in France. She is also a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation. Collin said the findings show that the spoken histories and traditions of Indigenous peoples can be useful in understanding the past.

"Our cultures have been so misrepresented for so long," she said. "Too often history has been told around us, without us."

More than 70 years ago, archaeologists took artifacts from burials and ceremonial sites without asking Native peoples in the area. The study was started by Lakota researchers. Some consider it one step in repairing mistrust between Indigenous groups and archaeologists.

The study also suggests that, over time, the genetics of horses in North America went from being mainly of Spanish origin to a mixture of British and Spanish.

Words in This Story

origin – n. where something begins or comes from

domesticate² – v. to tame an animal to keep as a pet

aspect – n. one part of a situation, problem, subject etc.

manifest – v. to show a quality or condition

evolution – n. the theory that changes in plants and animals happen because of natural processes over long periods of time

1 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

2 domesticate   

vt.驯养；使归化，使专注于家务

参考例句：

• Many thousand years ago people learned how to domesticate animals.数千年以前人们就学会了饲养动物。
• If you domesticate this raccoon,it will have trouble living in the wild.如果你驯养这只浣熊，它生活在野外将会有困难。

3 domesticated   

adj.喜欢家庭生活的；（指动物）被驯养了的v.驯化( domesticate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He is thoroughly domesticated and cooks a delicious chicken casserole. 他精于家务，烹制的砂锅炖小鸡非常可口。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The donkey is a domesticated form of the African wild ass. 驴是非洲野驴的一种已驯化的品种。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

5 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

6 boulder   

n.巨砾；卵石，圆石

参考例句：

• We all heaved together and removed the boulder.大家一齐用劲，把大石头搬开了。
• He stepped clear of the boulder.他从大石头后面走了出来。

7 pueblo   

n.（美国西南部或墨西哥等）印第安人的村庄

参考例句：

• For over 2,000 years,Pueblo peoples occupied a vast region of the south-western United States.在长达2，000多年的时间里，印第安人统治着现在美国西南部的大片土地。
• The cross memorializes the Spanish victims of the 1680 revolt,when the region's Pueblo Indians rose up in violent protest against their mistreatment and burned the cit

8 allied   

adj.协约国的；同盟国的

参考例句：

• Britain was allied with the United States many times in history.历史上英国曾多次与美国结盟。
• Allied forces sustained heavy losses in the first few weeks of the campaign.同盟国在最初几周内遭受了巨大的损失。

9 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

10 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。

11 evolutionary   

adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的

参考例句：

• Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
• These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。