The conventional narrative is that Plains Indians acquired horses when European colonists pushed westward.
But Native American oral traditions, and DNA analysis of old horse bones in museums and tribal custody, establishes that horses were present on the Great Plains by the late 1500s, the Plains horse cultures existed before European settler contact, and Indian ponies’ ancestry traces back to the horses of Spanish conquistadors. These conclusions are based on a study (read it here) published in Science on March 30, 2023.
How did historians and scholars get it wrong? Mainly, by relying on inaccurate accounts written by European colonialists and disregarding indigenous oral traditions. Read story here.
