Essay Topic: The importance of impact of horse acquisition by Native Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes in the 19th Century’s Colorado
Introduction
Cheyenne and Arapaho
tribes happened to choose the “horse” to support their equestrian lifestyle at
the dawn of the 19th century in the Colorado region. The most interesting element for these
nomadic equestrian people was the ‘horse’ that was tagged with offering a broad-based
system of economic production. However, the acquisition of horse by these
tribes was easier said than done because this acquisition acted as a catalyst
for bringing the levels of violence and noticeable stress between the two
tribes. Both of these tribes could not afford to lose their grip on the acquisition
of horse because not only horse supports their nomadic equestrian lifestyle,
but it was also a great source of a path to acquire wealth and a source to
maintain an ecological relationship with the prevailing environment during
those times. The benefits of the
acquisition of horse were almost unlimited. Not only horse was being used as a
carrying capacity coupled with rifle and goods, but it was also being utilized
for fueling their nomadic lifestyle through the grasslands of the Great Plains.
Furthermore, these tribes were able to kill adult bison thereby accumulating
lots of venison through this mode of transport. There are lots of other
lifestyle factors that were associated with horse acquisition.
Furthermore, the new
American expansion in the 19th century brought a stressful situation
where both tribes had to negotiate with the new influx of American settlers and
to compete with them by acquiring the most critical material good i.e. horse.
The acquisition of horse was also vital for fighting with the American settlers
if an instance of violence occurs. Horse acquisition became so much important
that both tribes used to fall prey to high levels of violence with the American
influx previously unknown by them. Having said that, this essay states a thesis
statement i.e. “The acquisition of horse by native Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes
was inevitable thanks to the nineteenth century’s economic advantages in a
nomadic lifestyle, domestic and foreign affairs, and the challenges brought by
American expansion.”
Essay Body
The nomadic
equestrian cultures of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes
When
Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes started moving to the Great Plains, they had a
choice to select the best option for them i.e. to grab the opportunities
offered by a culture of equestrian horse wherein the benefits were more than
the anticipated risks. The impacts of horse acquisition were genuinely
revolutionary[1].
Horse gave them a burst of affluence and power, a kind of re-alignment with the
then environment, and horse altered their material lives in every sense of the
word. The culture of horse flourished at a breathtaking pace, thereby allowing
them to maintain their equestrian lifestyle on the banks of Red Rivers,
Sheyenne, and Missouri. Despite the built-in advantages of farming and the
related benefits, their life without horse would have been a great destruction
thanks to their susceptibility to intermittent violence, warfare, and raiding.
Therefore, the acquisition of horse was essential for their survival as a whole.
The perfect
combination of rifle and horse
The
nomadic equestrian cultures of Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes forced them to fully
embrace two things that are referred to as “rifle” and “horse”. The reason
being, these native tribes had to depend on horse for their mobility so as to
cut their time of travel, and when horse was combined with a rifle, it offers
them to facilitate their mobility with a proper defense. As stated by Hilger “The
horse offered native communities a life of mobility and cut their traveling
time in half. Combined with the rifle, the animal granted Native peoples the
possibility of transforming into mobile fighting forces.”[2] It
was the combination of horse acquisition, as well as the rifle which made their
hunting wild scenarios more efficient and effective. It also helped them in the
case of warfare or fighting with the other tribes or with other native American
settlers during the 19th century.
The impact of horse
acquisition from economic standpoint
The
acquisition of horse was also feasible from economic standpoint because the
efficiency and increase in their carrying capacity were also dependent on
horse. In the past, these native tribes were familiar with dogs’ acquisition
but dogs with a travois could not carry their luggage more than 80 pounds. On
the other hand, a single horse was capable of carrying 200 pounds of luggage,
and if accompanied with a travois, it could carry 300 pounds in addition to
that 200.
Secondly,
horse remained a pivotal but cost-effective source for the reason that it only
needed the widely available and free energy in the shape of grass on the Great
Plains. By directly consuming the grassland energy, both tribes were able to
fuel their equestrian lifestyle in the best possible way.[3] It
was again horse that used to help these tribes to follow and kill herds of
bison, thereby helping them to procure the greatest wealth in those days. Bison
was extremely important prey for the survival of these tribes thanks to its
sheer mass with calories/kg equals to 2,100 when compared with the other prey
such as bighorn and deer for only 200 calories/kg; it was surely a good
resource worthy of investing energy and time.[4]
The political influx
of Americans and the importance of horse
When
it comes to fighting with the American influx in the event of any violence,
horse acquisition becomes extremely important in every sense of the word.
According to Karr, … “American foreign policy authoritatively deemed all
Indians of a particular tribe "hostile" when an instance of violence
was incurred against an American settler, justifying brutal assaults against an
entire tribe of Plains Indians rather than only the individuals responsible.[5] In
the early 19th century, a gradual influx of Americans forced the
Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes to collectively join hands on the Great Plains so
that they could fight back the imminent challenges of the new American
settlers. Their first objective was to cover the Arkansas River Valley related
verdant prairie for the reason that their horses and bison were both dependent
on these grasslands, which in turn, vital for maintaining their nomadic equestrian
culture. These two tribes also joined hands with military clout, the Lakota
Sioux in a bid to strengthen their defense to the south and north, and to
secure their prominent sources of firearm trade and horse. History reveals that
their alliance with Lakotas made them one of the powerful tribes on the Great
Plains.[6]
While fighting the influx of new American settlers, horse acquisition remained
the top-most priority because acquiring a horse means an extension of the
person. That is to say, owning a horse reflects owning everything for these
tribesmen. For instance, if any economic profit was secured due to the horse,
then that economic profit would be given to the owner of the horse, and not to
the person who used that horse to earn the profit. If an owner gives his horse
to some rider to use in the battlefield, then whatever that rider captures
during the battle will be considered the property of the owner of the horse.
Regarding
the influx of American settlers, the Fort Laramie Treaty (1851) is worth
mentioning. Both tribes were called in to enter a peace treaty that was deemed
to be benefiting for all.[7]
After both tribes were endowed with gifts and feasts, they agreed to talk to
the intermediaries of Americans at Fort Laramie. That treaty resulted in an
agreement wherein the Cheyenne's and Arapaho tribes were given a claim of the
region of southern Wyoming and present-day Colorado. These two tribes dealt
well with the American settlers during those times as they claimed the Front
Range as their territory because the said territory was extremely important for
upholding their horse resources and the wild game so as to continue and
maintain their equestrian lifestyle. Americans attempted to inculcate an
executive control system on the tribes, and in response, Arapaho carefully
dealt with the situation to promote their own culture by choosing an
intermediary to deal with Americans.[8] [9]
Arapahos intelligently maintained their political relationship with the
American influx by using the Americans to frighten their enemy tribes regarding
their claims to the Front Range. At the same time, they also had problems with
American settlers. For example, the Plains Tribes were prevented to hunt
buffalo, and as result, they started hunting the trespassing Americans. This
raised many issues of these tribes with the American settlers as well.
As a consequence, history
recorded the famous “sand creek massacre” as well as many more fights wherein
the influx of new American settlers significantly damaged these two tribes. All
in all, horse acquisition remained the most important resource for these tribes
during those times, and the horse remained a proven fact and strategy they
utilized from time to time to strengthen and elongate their equestrian
lifestyle on the Great Plains.
Conclusion
This
essay acknowledges the very fact that the acquisition of horse for both
Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes at the start of the 19th century was an
unignorable and undeniable reality. It was the horse that used to fully support
their equestrian nomadic lives, and its combination with a gun/rifle used to
make them strong warriors on those Great Plains. Additionally, the horse
acquisition had dramatically increased their carrying capacity plus their
defense mechanism during their fights with the new American settlers. The essay
also acknowledges that horse remained the primary resource and motivation for
these tribes to deal with the new American expansion in the 19th century, as
well as for fighting against these Americans in the wake of any potential
violence. This research essay investigates the importance of horse acquisition
for both these tribes and reaches to a conclusion that the acquisition of horse
was vital to preserve and uphold their nomadic equestrian culture, to sustain
their wild hunting scenarios by combining horse acquisition with rifle, and to
have economic advantages by utilizing such an economically viable resource of horse
that only feeds on the free grass of the Great Plains. All in all, horse
acquisition remained their popular and viable choice to not only deal with the
new American influx during the 19th century, but also to fight back with Americans
and other adversarial tribes if any violence occurs.
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Bibliography
David, Lavender and
Sievert Lavender David. Fort Laramie and the Changing Frontier: Fort
Laramie National Historic Site, Wyoming. Vol. 118. United States Government
Printing, 1983.
Elliot, West. The
contested plains: Indians, gold seekers, & the rush to Colorado.
University Press of Kansas, 1998: 54-57.
John, H, Moore. John
H. The Cheyenne. Wiley-Blackwell, 1999.
Karr, Ronald Dale. "'Why Should You Be So Furious?': The Violence
of the Pequot War."
Kornfeld, Marcel. "Pull of the Hills,
Affluent Foragers of the Western Black Hills." PhD diss., Ph. D.
dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. University Microfilms, Ann
Arbor, 1994.
Loretta, Fowler. Arapahoe Politics,
1851-1978: Symbols in Crises of Authority. U of Nebraska Press, 1986.
Loretta, Fowler. Tribal sovereignty and
the historical imagination: Cheyenne-Arapaho politics. U of Nebraska Press,
2002.
Stephen, Hilger. "Strategies of the
Arapahos and Cheyenne’s for combating nineteenth century American
colonialism." PhD diss., Colorado State University. Libraries, 2009: 22.
The Journal of
American History 85.2 (Dec., 1998):
882-883.
[1]
West,
Elliott. The contested plains: Indians, goldseekers, & the rush to
Colorado. University Press of Kansas, 1998: 54-57.
[2]
Hilger,
Stephen. "Strategies of the Arapahos and Cheyennes for combating
nineteenth century American colonialism." PhD diss., Colorado State
University. Libraries, 2009: 22.
[3]
Ibid., 1.
[4]
Marcel, Kornfeld. "Pull of the Hills, Affluent Foragers
of the Western Black Hills." PhD diss., Ph. D. dissertation, University of
Massachusetts, Amherst. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, 1994.
[5]
Karr,
Ronald Dale. "" Why should you be so furious?": The violence of
the Pequot War." The Journal of American History 85, no.
3 (1998): 882-883.
[6]
Moore,
John H. The Cheyenne. Wiley-Blackwell, 1999.
[7]
Lavender,
David, and David Sievert Lavender. Fort Laramie and the Changing
Frontier: Fort Laramie National Historic Site, Wyoming. Vol. 118. United
States Government Printing, 1983.
[8]
Fowler,
Loretta. Arapahoe Politics, 1851-1978: Symbols in Crises of Authority.
U of Nebraska Press, 1986.
[9]
Fowler,
Loretta. Tribal sovereignty and the historical imagination:
Cheyenne-Arapaho politics. U of Nebraska Press, 2002.
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