Honouring the horse

Horse Imagery

Man wearing a beaded vest with horse imagery CMC I-B-79

The image of the horse appears on everything from beaded or rawhide effigies to footwear, pipe bags, war lodges, war shields, medicine shields, pipe bowls, clothing, rawhide containers and sacred bundles. Occasionally, horses are symbolically represented by hoofprints shaped like U. These symbols may also represent scouting exploits.

Spokane women with beaded bags, c. 1900 O'Keefe Ranch and Interior Heritage Society F30-18

Certain Plains tribes sometimes viewed mules as very special animals. Tracks that may appear as horse tracks are sometimes described as mule tracks.

Tse-Tsehése-stahase horse tipi Latter-Day Saints Archives p 1300/797

All Braves Society Niisitapiikwan, 1913. Note the beaded panel and the horse effigy on the riffle. Provincial Museum of Alberta P104

Introduction | Dress Proudly | Horse Imagery | Horse Ritual | Adapting to a new way of life

Introduction | Buffalo and Deer | Dog and Coyote | Honouring the Horse

SACRED BEINGS | RANCHING | ENTERTAINMENT | RODEO | ARTS AND INDUSTRIES