Horse Paraphernalia: A Material Culture Study of the Reintroduction of Horses in the Americas and Their Integration into Native Cultures
Author(s): Stephen Uzzle
Year: 2025
Summary
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
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Horses were reintroduced in the Americas in the early 16<sup>th</sup> century by Spanish colonizers and adopted to varying extents by Native people over the following century. Evidence for Indigenous uses of horses in what is now the United States comes from written and oral histories, illustrations and depictions in rock imagery and other media, zooarchaeology, and equestrian related artifacts. Horses were initially used to carry riders for hunting, warfare, travel, as beasts of burden, and as a food source. Only later were horses used as draft animals in agriculture. This research examines how Native peoples’ use of horse tack varies across time and space based on evidence from three regions: the Plains, Southeast, and the Southwest. Examining evidence for different types and items of horse tack provides information on whether and how Indigenous people chose to adopt or adapt equestrian paraphernalia introduced by colonizers or neighboring Indigenous groups.
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Cite this Record
Horse Paraphernalia: A Material Culture Study of the Reintroduction of Horses in the Americas and Their Integration into Native Cultures. Stephen Uzzle. Presented at The 90th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. 2025 ( tDAR id: 510774)
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Record Identifiers
Abstract Id(s): 52495