Indigenous Tribes & Culture: How Colonialism and Borderlands Affected Tribal Nations

The Cheyenne Tribe

Horses have served many purposes throughout our lifetimes. From transportation to companionship, horses have provided us years of support- seems harmless right? Horses today don’t evoke emotions of great change or concern like they once used to, but at one point, horses changed how Native American tribes survived and existed. Horses, originally introduced by Spanish explorers like Hernan Cortes, were introduced on the United States in the 15th century. Horses made exploration easy, faster and more efficient. In turn, this would provide an edge for these conquistadors, and soon enough, Native American tribes began to utilize horses to survive a quickly changing world around them. Maheo, All-Father Creator, Warns the Cheyenne about Life with Horses, helps us understand how tribes like the Cheyenne perceived the introduction of horses. In the story, it describes an interaction between the Comanches coming to meet the Cheyenne on horseback. Amazed with these curious new animals the Comanche were riding, the Cheyenne wanted to know where they got them. “From the Pueblos” the Comanches said, “they have lots of horses”. The story then moves into the Comanche telling the Cheyenne about how they stole them from the Pueblos, which according to this story, was not far off from how the Comanche interacted, as they were considered to be gamblers and risk takers. The Cheyenne then begin to decide whether or not they should too utilize horses, and go to Maheo, their god, to pray and fast for 4 days. At first Maheo warns the Cheyenne of horses and how it will change their lives forever. Maheo says to the priests “you will have to move around a lot to find pasture for your horses. You will have to give up gardening and live by hunting and gathering, like the Comanches...You will have to fight with other tribes who will want your pasture land or the places where you hunt. You will have to have real soldiers who can protect the people”. The priests fasted and prayed another four days before making the decision to ask Maheo to teach them the new ways of life with horses, and so, horses are utilized by the Cheyenne tribe.

Maheo was not far off when describing how life would change. Although horses remain a normal farm animal in the United States, horses were not indigenous to North America until European expansion. Horses, in this example, are a way of seeing how colonialism and expansion can affect a tribe. Introducing horses changed the culture and lives of the tribes that used them, the Cheyenne here, much like most of colonialism and expansion. In this section, you will learn how expansion in the northwest region, now known as Wyoming affected the Cheyenne culture. When we talk about culture throughout this Scalar, we are referring to their ways of life that changed, their survival methods, population, and relationships with surrounding tribes and European explorers and merchants. 

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