Song for the Horse Nation: Horses in Native American Cultures

Product Description

The tradition of horses in Native American culture, depicted through images, essays, and quotes. For many Native Americans, each animal and bird that surrounded them was part of a nation of its own, and none was more vital to both survival and culture than the horse.

From Publishers Weekly

This slender, informative volume gathers poems, photographs and brief contemporary essays alongside pieces from the National Museum of the American Indian to memorialize the relationship between Native Americans and their horses. In a somewhat disjointed introduction, historian Herman J. Viola observes that Native Americans had “little for which to thank Christopher Columbus except the horse” and that while “the marriage of horse and Indian” was brief (it lasted little more than a century), it was “a thing of beauty.” Said marriage certainly produced beautiful artifacts: images of horses were painted onto wooden
qeros (cups made for the ritual consumption of maize beer), drawn on muslin, woven into bags and blankets and beaded onto coats and leggings. Horses were given away at naming celebrations and memorial ceremonies (“Generosity is more important than possession,” writes Her Many Horses); they were stolen from enemy tribes as proof of a warrior’s bravery; they were ridden in battles both real and staged (one 1906 photograph shows the Assiniboine and A’aninin tribes, who were once enemies, sitting down to feast after a mock battle to “relive the old days”). With its numerous photographs and succinct, workmanlike text, this small work is like a minimuseum exhibit between two covers—it intrigues, but it also leaves readers wishing for more.
(Apr.)
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Review

“This nifty little gift book celebrates the treasured relationship between horses and Native Americans…” —
Georgia Jones-Davis, New Mexico Magazine, November, 2006

…gives powerful and passionate voice to the emotional dimension of the relationship between horse and mankind. —
Winds of Change, Summer 2007

About the Author

The
National Museum of the American Indian is part of the Smithsonian Institution and speaks on diverse subjects, including native artistic traditions.
Emil Her Many Horses (Oglala Lakota) is an associate curator at the National Museum of the American Indian and the lead curator for
Our Universes, one of the museum’s four inaugural exhibitions. Her Many Horses lives in Washington, D.C.
George Horse Capture (A’aninin) grew up on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in north-central Montana. He worked for the National Museum of the American Indian for 11 years, most recently as the senior counselor to the director. He retired in 2005, returning to Fort Belknap with his wife, Kay-Karol Horse Capture.