The New World in 1800 B 177
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Horses transformed American Indian life after their introduction. In this 1905
photograph by Edward S. Curtis, three Plains Indians (probably Dakota, Lakota,
or Nakota Sioux) sit astride horses somewhere on the Great Plains.(Library of
Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-105381])(continues)Horses Return to the New World=
The ancestors of the modern horse had roamed the Americas millions of years
ago but horses had been extinct there for many thousands of years when Colum-
bus’s second fleet arrived at Hispaniola in 1493. “The Spaniards brought along a
great many of their best horses, fleet of foot and capable of bearing armor,” one
of Columbus’s party wrote to Nicoló Syllacio, a Sicilian philosopher. “Their formi-
dable appearance did not fail to terrify the Indians. For they suspected that the
horses fed on human flesh.” Such confusion reoccurred throughout the Americas.
Remembering Pedro de Tovar’s 1540 foray into Arizona, Pedro de Casteñeda wrote
that “the people do not leave the villages except to go to their farms, especially
at this time, when they had heard that Cibola had been captured by very fierce
people, who traveled on animals which ate people. This information was gener-
ally believed by those who had never seen horses.”
In the 1600s a profound change began. Horses accompanied the first Spanish
explorers, but did not reproduce in any great numbers. As colonizers later pushed
northward into Mexico and what is now the southwestern United States, however,
settlers developed herds, allowing horses to range freely rather than corralling
them. A similar system was used during the slower movement of Europeans into
South America. Both wild and domestic horse populations increased rapidly over