A Horse’s Tale

 

True or not, it was too good a tale to overlook.  I heard it from a fellow who was running a rock shop in Marin County.  You never know where you’re going to hear a good story, or who will tell it to you, or when. 

I happened to be in town because of a meeting I had to go to that weekend.  Having some time to spare, I spent it wandering around the Old Town section, alert as always for Odd Stuff or Strange Things.  The rock shop looked promising.  It was quite large, and crammed full of rare and unusual items – crystals, minerals, fossils, artifacts, folk art.  I didn’t have a lot of cash, nor was I sincerely in need of any of the stuff there (some Philistines would have called it junk!), but I hated to leave without buying something.  After considerable deliberation I selected an odd-looking fossil.  It was labeled “horse tooth.”

The man running the place  - either the manager or an employee, I wasn’t sure – was tall, lean, in his forties.  He looked like someone who spent time outdoors and took care of himself.  I wondered how many of the rocks and fossils he had collected himself. 

He polished my selection with a chamois and began wrapping it in tissue paper. 

“This horse tooth is from the State of Nevada,” he explained.  “Most people don’t know that horses originally evolved in the United States.”

I hadn’t known that either.  In fact I was surprised to hear it. 

“I was raised in Nevada myself,” he told me.  “Lovelock.  I saw some things happen there that made me sick.  Things hardly anyone has ever heard about.”

It was then he told me his story – after I had assured him that I have seen some strange things myself, and so am not quick to scoff or disbelieve.  But before I relate what he told me, I must provide some other information.  Without this additional background, I fear the Reader will think our story ridiculous, and be quick to dismiss it.  I can’t swear the story is true, but after some research I found it at least possible.

Now, at the time, I knew practically nothing about horses.  I have been on the back of a horse exactly twice in my life.   The first time was when I was six years old, to have my picture taken.  The horse reared and tried to throw me off.  The second time was when I was nineteen.  Suffice it to say, I concluded I would be safer riding motorcycles.  Horses have minds of their own. 

Having grown up in the City, I knew nothing about these animals.  But this story was too interesting to forget, so I did some research.  I learned things about horses that even most horse owners don’t know.

I wondered about the claim that horses evolved in North America.  I had always assumed most animals evolved either in Africa or Asia.  That was the first item I had to look up.  As it turns out, equines did come from here.  Horses have one of the most complete fossil records, so there’s not much dispute about that.  The earliest known horse was Eohippus, the Dawn Horse, which lived and played in the Eocene.  It was about the size of a dog. 

After that, the history of horses becomes complicated.  In fact, not only did horses evolve in North America, several different kinds evolved.  Some were tiny, some were big.  The direct ancestor of the modern horse was called “Hipparion.”  Around 10 to 15K years ago, they all supposedly became extinct.  This was about the same time people appeared on the continent, according to most archeological theories.  Meanwhile, horses had wandered across the land bridge into Asia and Europe.  About the time they were becoming extinct in America, highly talented artists were painting them in caves in Southern France.  Apparently they were being hunted for food in both places.  Most likely, humans never had much success in catching them, until throwing spears and atlatls were invented.  But Homo Sapiens nearly wiped them out.

Around 7K years ago, the only horses left in the world were in central Asia, around what is now Ukraine.  About a thousand years after that, a few people in Asia began keeping horses domestically, both for food and riding.  Horses began to make a comeback. [1]

So far, there’s not much controversy, at least not among most authorities.  But there are two questions which continue to nag at the minds of a few skeptics: 

1.      Did horses really become totally extinct in America?

 2.      When, precisely, did the Indians start riding horses?

Nearly all text books claim that the answer to the first question is “Yes.”  The same books say the answer to the second is “some time after 1500, when the first European explorers arrived.”

Here is where we begin to question authority.  The Indians themselves claim they had horses long before the Spaniards got here.  Not, of course, all  Indians.  Cortez saw no Indian horses in Cuba or Mexico.  In fact, Cortez brought the first Spanish horses to America in 1519.  (He was careful not to let the natives get hold of any.)  The Quechua (Inca) were dismounted when Pizarro arrived.  Cabeza de Vaca walked from Florida to Mexico in 1535 and saw no horses among the Zuni or other Southwestern tribes. 

But what of the so-called Plains tribes, the Lakota, Blackfoot, and others?  One clear fact was that Indians did not  have horses, say two thousand years ago.  If they had them, they would have left records.  There would be pictures of them on rocks.  The only pictographs depicting horses date from much later.  I wondered when the first Europeans had contacted the Plains tribes, and if they had seen horses.  So I looked it up.  Here’s what one researcher (Roe) reports:

We should in any event be compelled to date the Snake [Shoshoni]  horses not later, and very probably much earlier, than 1700. (p. 128) [2]

As it turns out, the earliest French fur trappers reached the Western Plains around 1660.  Not only were the Plains tribes already using horses, they had a highly developed horse technology and were riding horse breeds, such as the Apaloosa, not known anywhere else on Earth.

The more I learned about this subject, the more amazed I became.  Amazed, that is, that all the text books still claim that Indians got horses from the Spanish.  This is impossible, unless they were somehow able to breed an entirely new and unique horse strain in less than two hundred years, as well as developing an entire equestrian cultural tradition. 

There are three or four other possibilities for derivation of the American horse.  One option, highly plausible, is that they got horses from the Vikings.  After all, Columbus was not  the first European to discover America.  It’s more accurate to say he was the last.  There is ample evidence that the Norse penetrated as far as the Midwest by the Thirteenth Century.  The early Norse sagas mention their transport of cattle to Vinland.  If they brought cows, why not horses?  Horses would have made excellent trade items, as well enabling scouting expeditions.  Vikings used a small horse known as the Iceland Pony. 

 

The typical “Indian pony” was smaller than Spanish horses.  In fact, the Spanish despised horses with more than one color in their coat.  A Spaniard would never have ridden a dapple or paint.  Indian mounts were nearly always multicolored.  Contemporary paintings from the early Nineteenth Century showing Indians riding horses make it clear that these were small animals – one can tell by comparing the size of the riders with their mounts. [3]  

Therefore, the Iceland Pony would be one good candidate for an ancestor to Native American horses.  It matches the same general description.  Also, the time frame for its introduction to North America would be about right.  However, it’s not the only candidate.  Another possible is an Asian horse. 

The Chinese have historical records of expeditions to America; there’s plenty of evidence of pre-Columbian contact with Asia, starting with Jomon pottery found in Peru, New World plants such as corn and peanuts found in India, etc, etc.  Przewalski’s horse is another possible match for Indian Ponies.  Not that it’s identical, but the physical description is much closer than the typical Spanish horse. 

Another theoretical possibility is that horses never actually became extinct in North America.  This, in fact, is what many Native Americans believe.  Perhaps a few enclaves of wild horses continued to exist in remote areas until some unidentified tribe began raising them. 

Which brings me back to the story I heard at the Rock Shop.

“When I was a teenager, up in Nevada,” the manager told me, ‘I saw some terrible things happen.  Things would make you sick. 

“There was this rancher, see.  Not far from Lovelock.  This would have been back in 1970, I think.  This rancher owned some good grazing land.  Maybe two hundred acres or so.  Now, you’re not supposed to slaughter wild horses in Nevada.  It’s against the law.  But this guy wanted to get rid of a certain small herd that he said was eating up his best hay and forage.  So he applied to the State for special permission. 

“He had to give a good reason, other than his losing hay.  So he said this herd was a degenerate strain, useless for anything except dog food.  He claimed they might cross breed with other mustangs and bring down the quality of the herds.  They were small and malformed, with strange looking hooves.  This rancher’s explanation for their being degenerate was that they were half-starved and badly nourished. 

“That was a clear contradiction, you see.  Those horses couldn’t be eating the guy’s best hay and be malnourished at the same time.   But the State bought it.  He got permission, went out there with two or three ranch hands, and shot every last horse in that herd. 

“Thing is, there were some other witnesses who saw those horses.  Someone must have been paid off, because this was a major crime.  You see, those horses were not malnourished or degenerate.  They were native horses.  That rancher killed the last remaining herd of native American horses.  Now they’re gone, and there’ll never be another.  It was a crime, and it made me sick.”

And that’s the extent of what I learned in the Rock Shop.  My informant could not remember names or exact dates, after all those years.  He assured me the story was never reported in any newspaper, but that everyone in his community had known about it at the time. 

When I got home, I immediately set about trying to check out his story.  If true, it was an amazing tale.  Of course I was aware that such atrocities are always possible.  The only question was one of fact.  Was there indeed a strain of native American horse which had survived until the Twentieth Century, contrary to what all text books said?  Could it be an ancestor of the famous Apaloosa and other Indian Ponies?  I wanted to find out. 

I wrote a letter to the Nevada Commission for the Preservation of Wild Horses, in Carson City.  I inquired about records of any legally permitted horse slaughters near Lovelock, around 1970.  Shortly thereafter I received a helpful letter personally written and signed by the Administrator herself, Catherine Barcomb.  I quote:

In the early years prior to the Wild Horse and Burro Act of 1971, wild horses were rounded up and slaughtered by the thousands.  Since the passage of the Act there have technically been no “legally permitted slaughters.”  What happens illegally is another question. 

It appeared, therefore, that the event could not have happened exactly as my informant described.  If the slaughter had occurred, there would be no record of a legal permit. 

In addition to her letter, Ms Barcomb also sent me a volume published by the State of Nevada, entitled “Nevada Commission for the Preservation of Wild Horses – Plan of Goals, Strategies and Recommendations for the Preservation & Protection of the Wild Horses for the State of Nevada.”  (January 1999) 

I found a lot of fascinating information in this volume.  It attempts to illuminate the history of horses in Nevada.  One claim I view with some skepticism is the statement that horses became extinct around 11,000 years ago, because the climate changed and became drier.  Other extinct species include sloths, elephants, camels and saber tooth tigers.  If horses became extinct because the climate became drier, then how do wild horses survive there today?  I find it more plausible that these beasts were hunted to death by humans. 

The first recorded sighting of a wild horse in modern times was by one John Bidwell, leader of an emigrant wagon train.  He reported a single horse in 1831.  Earlier, in 1826, Jedediah Smith had traded horses with Indians in northern Nevada.  Still, the Paiute and Shoshone were not using horses.  Other explorers between 1826 and 1841 were in the area.  They reported Indians stealing and killing horses for food, but did not see any wild herds.  It wasn’t till after 1860 that mustangs began to appear in any numbers, or that local Indians began using them as mounts.

After all, it’s not surprising that natives of southern Nevada were slow to become equestrians.  Tribes further north and east used horses for warfare and to hunt buffalo.  Horses were less useful in the desert, with its vast tracts of land which can not be crossed without bringing extra water and food.  

I find this fact significant, in that it contradicts the generally held theory that northern tribes got their first horses from the Spanish.  Spanish horses would have had to move from Mexico northward through the Great Basin in order to reach the Nez Perce in Oregon, or the Lakota and Blackfoot in the Midwest.  And yet there were no horses in southern Nevada, nor anywhere else in the Basin. 

Therefore, we have a couple of historical facts to consider:  (1.)  Wild horses can survive in Nevada’s climate.  (2.)  There were no wild horses in any numbers until people in the area ceased hunting them for food. 

I would thus conclude that native horses became extinct because of humans, not because of climate change.  On the other hand, is it conceivable that a small number of native horses survived into modern times, in remote areas?  The fact that no white man reported seeing them doesn’t mean they never existed. 

 

Horses that lived there 11K years ago were equipped with three toes.  They were about the size of ponies.  Today, the average rancher, not knowing any better, would take one look and conclude they were either a degenerate breed or somehow diseased.  Were some of these animals, or their descendants, still running the hills until the 20^th Century?  There have been other cases of animals previously believed extinct turning up unexpectedly.  What I believe about this story is that it’s not impossible.  Is it true?  I don’t know. 

I have decided, finally, to put this story out on the Internet in faint hope there may be some reader out there who might provide more facts, either to support or deny.  Perhaps someone remembers Lovelock, Nevada, around 1970.  Perhaps someone else has heard this tale and can testify to its truth or falsehood. 

In the meantime, I sometimes take out my fossilized horse tooth, study it, and continue to wonder. 

 

~~Bart