Startling Utahns: Navajo Teacher says Horses Here Before Spaniards

Pre-Columbian Horses in North America 

Wally Brown of Navajo Traditional Teachings says in a recent video that his people have songs and traditions of horses in the distant past. He says when the Spaniards came to the southwest with horses, the Dine', their name for themselves, already had a word for it.  

It was a word that sounds like the neigh of a horse. Brown says his people taught that they had horses long before. “The teaching is that we had horses long ago,” said Brown. “They say that all of the sudden they were no more.” 

He said the horse was a luxury and there weren’t many of them. He speculates that some type of disease wiped them out. When the Spaniards arrived with horses, the native people knew what they were. 

Native Americans Quickly Adapted to Horse Culture 

Brown goes on to describe how the native people would capture the horses of the Spaniards hoping to stop them from advancing on their land. They adapted these animals and learned to care for them. 

Over the years the Navajo found the donkey and mule useful for the trails and passes that go through the cliffs and mountains of the west. Those who lived on the plains found the horse more helpful. 

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It was first believed that horses were introduced to America in the 16th Century, but further research has shown horses existed before that and later died out. This fits well with what Brown is describing.