Review: Columbian Exchange

• What is exchanged?• What effect do these exchanges have on

Native American groups?

The Rise (and fall) of Native American Equestrians

HIST/CS 136: 10.6.2011

The old way…

The New Way: An 18th Century Transportation Revolution

The Rise of Native American Equestrians in the Southwest

• 17th Century: Jumanos and Apaches– Receive horses from Pueblo Indians– Maintain mixed farming/hunting economy– Displace or incorporate many smaller groups

The spread of the horse…

The Rise of Native American Equestrians in the Southwest

• 17th Century: Jumanos and Apaches– Receive horses from Pueblo Indians– Maintain mixed farming/hunting economy– Displace or incorporate many smaller groups

• 18th-19th Century: Comanches– Shoshonean group that comes from the North, learning

equestrianism from the Utes– Turn towards livestock-centered economy of hunting, warfare, and

trade– Displace Apaches from their former homes on the plains– Increase in number to 40,000 by 1780

How do the Comanche come to dominate the South Plains?

• Trade– Relative equality of technology– Access to diversity of food products– Control over large livestock herds needed by

neighbors

How do the Comanche come to dominate the South Plains?

• Trade– Relative equality of technology– Access to diversity of food products– Control over large livestock herds needed by

neighbors• War– Conquest of Native competitors– Strategic raiding of Spanish settlements– Captive labor force

How do the Comanche come to dominate the South Plains?

• Trade– Relative equality of technology– Access to diversity of food products– Control over large livestock herds needed by neighbors

• War– Conquest of Native competitors– Strategic raiding of Spanish settlements– Captive labor force

• Diplomacy– Tribute– Peace Agreements

Comanche Empire, c. 1840

The Fall of Native American Equestrians

The Fall of Native American Equestrians

• Ecological and Biological Crisis– Horses and buffalo compete with each other

The Fall of Native American Equestrians

• Ecological and Biological Crisis– Horses and buffalo compete with each other– Disease catches up with them in the midst of

increase migration to the Southwest

The Fall of Native American Equestrians

• Ecological and Biological Crisis– Horses and buffalo compete with each other– Disease catches up with them in the midst of

increase migration to the Southwest– Attempts to shift resource demands elsewhere

fuel violence

The Fall of Native American Equestrians

• Ecological and Biological Crisis– Horses and buffalo compete with each other– Disease catches up with them in the midst of increase

migration to the Southwest– Attempts to shift resource demands elsewhere fuel violence– One observer of Northern Mexico in 1846: “scarcely has a

hacienda or rancho on the frontier been unvisited, and every where the people have been killed or captured. The roads are impassable, all traffick is stopped, the ranchos barricaded, and the inhabitants afraid to venture out of their doors.”

Summary

• The impact of European trade goods, technologies, and diseases varied among Native Americans, but did not lead inevitably to defeat or decline. Some Native Americans—like the Comanche—were able to adapt to European colonization and draw upon Columbian Exchange goods to their advantage. The built a long-lasting trading empire in the Southwest, that like many empires before, ultimately proved vulnerable to ecological constraints.