Horses in the Southwest
Navajo and Apache rock paintings and petroglyphs of horses. Photo courtesy of Evelyn Billo and Robert Mark, Rupestrian CyberServices.
Archaeology Southwest Magazine Vol. 18, No. 3
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Issue editor: Tobi Lopez Taylor, Center for Desert Archaeology
Catalysts for change: horses have affected almost every aspect of life in the Southwest since their reintroduction in the sixteenth century. They were integral to the investigation of the area first by Spaniards, and later by American explorers, immigrants, and soldiers. Native Americans, too, found horses useful and, eventually, indispensable. Nearly 500 years after Coronado’s entrada, the Southwest remains horse country, with thriving ranches, rodeo circuits, racing, and horse shows. And because of the area’s long identification as a land of cowboys, ranching, and mustangs, movies and tourism brochures continue to emphasize this aspect of the Southwest.
What is it about the horse that has made it such a symbol of the Southwest for nearly half a millennium? Elizabeth Atwood Lawrence, an anthropologist who looks at horse-human interactions, writes that, “It is not difficult to understand why the figure of a man on a horse has throughout history been a sign of conquest… Of all animals the horse is uniquely suited to represent, and demonstrate through constant recapitulation, the conquest of the wild – the extension of culture into nature.”
Articles include:
Horses in the Southwest — Tobi Taylor and William H. Doelle, Center for Desert Archaeology
Ice Age Horses of Arizona and Sonora — Jim I. Mead, Northern Arizona University
The Indian Adoption of Spanish Horses — Diana Hadley, Office of Ethnohistorical Research, Arizona State Museum
The Spanish Barb
The Coronado Project
San Martin Caballero: Patron Saint of Horsemen — Tobi Taylor, Center for Desert Archaeology
Horses in Navajo and Apache Rock Art — Lawrence Loendorf, New Mexico State University
Horses in Chiricahua and Western Apache Culture — Alan Ferg, Arizona State Museum
Horses in Archaeological Sites — Tobi Taylor, Center for Desert Archaeology
Roads and Tracks: Horse Trails in the Southwest — Tobi Taylor, Center for Desert Archaeology
The Fort Huachuca Cavalry — J. Homer Thiel, Desert Archaeology, Inc.
Heritage and Homesteads: Pima County’s Commitment to Ranch Conservation — Linda Mayro, Pima County Cultural Resources Office
Barns in the Desert — Tobi Taylor, Center for Desert Archaeology
The Roots of Rodeo — Tobi Taylor, Center for Desert Archaeology
The Navajo Saddle Cinch Revival — Tobi Taylor, Center for Desert Archaeology
Ruidoso and Rillito: Storied Racetracks of the Southwest — Sandra McCoy Larson, Office of the Arizona State Auditor General and Tobi Taylor
Back Sight — William H. Doelle, Center for Desert Archaeology
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