Return to the Great Plains

In 2023, Taylor et al published a ground breaking study looking into the discrepancies between the Lakota oral record and common historical teachings in regards to horses reaching the Great Plains and more importantly horses interacting with indigenous cultures on the Great Plains.  Researchers identified modern horses in existing specimen collections and carbon dated portions of the skeletal remains to develop and approximate age for the bones.

The researchers identified multiple specimens from the 17th Century, including two sites with specimens from the turn of the 17th century. 

American Falls is the historic lands of the Shoshone and Bannock people.  The region the sample came from was a traditional winter camp and served as a hunting and fishing grounds for the Bannok people.  Historic records do not place Europeans in the area until the 19th century (Taylor et al 2023).

The American Falls site is near modern day Pocatello, ID.  The site is extensive and yielded more than 17,000 specimens (Taylor et al, 2023).  In 2021, Vershina et al, identified a left metacarpal (canon or splint) bone that was radiocarbon dated as a modern (within the last 4200 years) horse.

Note that the  metacarpus corresponds to the human hand.

North Central New Mexico contains Paa'ko Pueblo.  The large village served as a home to the Pueblo People from 1200 to 1400 and again from 1525 through the later half of the 17th century (Taylor et al, 2023).

Gifford-Gonzalez and Sunseri (2007) identified 46 specimens representing at least 4 individual equids.

At the beginning of the 17th Century, Paa'ko was a Spanish visita which was a mission without a resident priest.  The horse analyzed in the Taylor et al (2023) study came from portions of the site that were likely indigenous workspaces (Thomas, 2008).
The specimens contained marks consistent with butchering for food (Gifford-Gonzalez and Sunseri, 2007) and the ceramics where consistent with indigenous usage (Marshal, 2021 and Jones et al, 2022).