Apaches and their Horses

It has been thought that the Apache do not become Apache until the adoption of the horse, which triggered the raiding adaptation. While horses played a central role in the Apachean world, the horse divide is not as pronounced as thought. Horses changed the ancestral Apache lifeway and horses survived and thrived without European horse culture. Horses shaped warfare and intercultural relations, were intertwined with family and inter-band relations, and were integrated into Apachean lives through use of horse power and in ceremonies. The horse is maintained in contemporary culture and archaeological traces document the historical role of horses in rock art, bones, landscape use, and artifacts.

Dr. Seymour is an internationally recognized authority on protohistoric, Native American, and Spanish colonial archaeology and ethno-history. For 30 years, she has studied the Apache, Sobaipuri O’odham, and lesser-known mobile groups. She has excavated Spanish presidios, numerous Kino-period missions, and several indigenous sites. She works with indigenous groups, tackles the Coronado and Niza expeditions, and is reworking the history of the pre-Spanish and colonial period of the Southwest.