Page 39 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol Two

388 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

Sacrifice of Horses after the Death of Their Owners

The introduction of the horse to the Americas by the Green Grass Bull explained that the horse was then
Spanish in the sixteenth century produced widespread considered to be in mourning for its owner in much
and permanent change across the entire hemisphere. the same way as was the mourning wife who cut the
No where was that change more dramatic than among hair of her head. Sometimes the mane and tail of a
the Native American peoples of the Plains, many woman’s favorite pack or travois horse were cut after
groups of whom were transformed from sedentary her death. Horses so treated could be used without
farmers into nomadic horse-borne hunters.The follow- any period of delay after the owner’s death.
ing description of the use of horses as funerary goods Maximilian was told of instances when “twelve or
by the Blackfoot of the northern Plains points to the fifteen horses were killed...at the funeral of a cele-
centrality of the horse in Plains culture. brated chief.” However, his mention of 150 horses
killed following the death of “Sacomapoh” probably
A Blackfoot Indian felt a strong attachment for his
is an exaggeration.WeaselTail said the greatest num-
favorite horse, his trusted companion on the buffalo
ber of horses he had seen killed at one burial was 10.
hunt and scalp raid. If this animal died it was not
The Piegan continued the custom of killing horses as
unusual for his proud owner to weep publicly. The
grave escorts until about the year 1895. Among the
owner might request his family to have his favorite
Canadian Blackfoot the custom was followed spo-
horse killed beside his own burial place, if that horse
radically for several years after that date.
survived him.Thus the close companionship between
Upon the death of an important leader the sacrifice
man and horse might continue in the spirit world.
of horses was coupled with an elaborate ceremony of
However, poor families, who could not afford to sac-
burial in a death lodge. Among the great chiefs hon-
rifice a horse, more commonly cut short the mane
ored with death-lodge burial were Lame Bull, first
and tail of the deceased owner’s favorite mount.
signer of the 1855 treaty with the United States Gov-

approximately 1750 to 1800, the native peoples of of a quasi-addictive substance: sugar. The market for
North America’s Great Plains (Blackfoot, Sioux, sugar in Europe seemed endlessly expansive for centuries,
Cheyenne, Comanche, Pawnee, and others) and of South and therefore sugarcane became the single most impor-
America’s pampas (Pehuenches, Puelches, Tehuelches, tant crop in the West Indies, Brazil, and other hot, wet
Ranqueles, and others), all took to the horse. regions in or contiguous to the American tropics. The
Old World crops did not at first advance in the New planting, cultivation, harvesting, and processing of the
World as rapidly as Old World livestock—they were, after cane required millions of laborers.The Amerindian pop-
all, not mobile—but also because most of them were ulations were plummeting, and European immigrants
temperate-zone plants not suited to Europe’s earliest were in short supply. The workers had to come from
American colonies, which were all in the tropics. But some untapped source. The single most powerful force
European colonists adjusted, imported suitable species driving the Atlantic slave trade was the sugar plantations’
such as sugarcane, for instance, and suitable varieties of need for laborers. An estimated 12.5 million Africans
homeland crops, and sowed them where the soils and cli- were commandeered to work American soils, a majority
mates were similar to those at home.They discovered that of them, certainly a plurality, to raise an Old World sweet
wheat prospered in the Mexican high country, for exam- in the New World for Old World consumption.
ple. Olive trees and grapes for wine did well in Peru.
Within a century of Columbus most of the Old World’s 1492 and the Old World
important crops were growing in America. Amerindian livestock did not revolutionize life in the Old
Among the most profitable was sugarcane, the source World. Guinea pigs and turkeys have never figured sig-