Indigenous scientists honored in France for horse research
Lyla June
Special to ICT
A recent scientific publication co-authored by both traditional Indigenous scientists and Western scientists confirms Indigenous narratives about the horse.
These findings disprove the accepted and dominant narrative that northern Native Nations acquired horses only after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.
For centuries, the dominant narrative has been that Spanish colonists reintroduced the horse to Native People after the species died out in the Americas during the Ice Age. This theory is not consistent with a multitude of Indigenous creation stories on how the horse came to be, nor does it explain complex horse cultures Native Nations had early on.
Additionally, Western scientists have stated for decades that Plains Nations acquired horses no sooner than 1680, when the Pueblo Revolt drove out the Spanish and, in theory, Native People retained their horses for the first time. Using high precision radiocarbon modeling, however, this study shows a series of horse specimens interacting with northern Native Nations by the late 1500s, a major finding.
“The narrative that all horses in North America come from Spaniards is a paradigm,” states Mario Gonzalez, Oglala Lakota tribal attorney and coathur of the study. He said the study intended to use genomics and Indigenous sciences to broaden that model. “We need to be innovative. Just because the Spanish brought horses, does not necessarily mean that we did not already have horses here.”
While the study does not state conclusively that Indigenous Peoples had the horse at the point of contact, it pushes the accepted date further back and opens a door for future research.
Comanche coauthor and elder Jimmy W. Arterberry shares Numunu oral history in the publication, which is honored as a valid source of data within the study.
“We know that the Numunu/Nuwunu who became known as Comanches had the horse early on,” Arterberry said. “When they [migrated south], they were already true horse men and women.”
Archaeologist William Taylor of University of Colorado Boulder said the research supported this narrative.
“In accordance with the Comanche take on horses, radiocarbon modeling affirms they had horses before they moved to the Southern Plains,” Taylor said at a press conference. “For some folks, the confirmation of that little piece of information means a lot.”
For the past two years, Lakota coauthors have partnered with the Centre for Anthropobiology and Genomics of Toulouse, the National Center of Scientific Research, and Paul Sabatier University, providing oversight and scientific exchange in the realm of horse genomics. This partnership was catalyzed when Yvette Running Horse-Collin (Oglala Lakota) received the Marie Skłodowska Curie Award—one of the most prestigious postdoctoral fellowships in the world.
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This genomic collaboration proved invaluable, in that it acknowledged that there are multiple scientific systems. For example, Lakota science focuses on genetic relationality across global horse samples, while Western science tends to focus on genetic variance. These divergent viewpoints were published side by side in an unprecedented manner. Perhaps most importantly, the team is now excited about and committed to future research together.
Ludovic Orlando, French geneticist and Director at the anthropobiology and genomics center, said in an interview with Indian Country Today: “It’s just 11 samples. What are the chances that we just do those 11 and we find this pre-Pueblo Revolt evidence? It’s not so many and it’s already a big discovery. What is coming next? If we were to do 200 samples, what other types of discoveries are we going to have? Things we could not have yet anticipated. It motivates me even more as a researcher.”
To facilitate future scientific work, the Lakota have founded a new Indigenous science center they call Taku Škaŋ Škaŋ Wasakliapi: Global Institute for Traditional Sciences, which will be headquartered in Lakota territory. This institute will leverage its network with Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers around the world. According to the institute’s website, its mission is to, “support the advancement of traditional Indigenous scientific systems for the sustainability and protection of all life.”
The scientific systems surrounding the horse will feature prominently in future research. Lakota Elder Knowledge Keeper and co-author of the study, Loretta Afraid of Bear-Cook stood at the podium on the Toulouse press conference stage speaking in Lakolyapi, her ancestral language.
Running Horse-Collin translated: “The Horse Nation was always a unifier for us. We put a call out now to all horse societies in the Americas and around the world: Join us in this work.”
The recent study helped to catalyze a new Indigenous sciences institute, new paradigms regarding horse migration, new possibilities for future research, and a model for how Western and Indigenous scientists can join together.
Orlando said that the inter-cultural nature of the research process is as exciting if not more than the findings themselves.
“It made me a better scientist who does not necessarily take for granted what Western science takes for granted based on one line of evidence,” Orlando said. “It opened my mind to new perspectives, new ways to frame problems, and I hope new ways to answer questions. It showed me the complexity of reality. How much all things are related. It was a two way street and I hope I did the same for them.”
The report is also notable because the multicultural research team merged Western and Indigenous scientific perspectives. Namely, Lakota, Chahiksichahiks (Pawnee), Numunu (Comanche), and Pueblo scientists provided their methods of investigation and interpretation within the final publication, which is featured on the cover of Science Journal this week.
“This was a multidisciplinary study. As an Oglala Lakota scientist, I was not asked to change my methods, methodology, or conclusions. We, the Lakota, as a result, are truly in this piece. Likewise, we did not ask our collaborators to change theirs—we respected each other’s constructs. This is new,” said co-author Dr. Yvette Running-Horse Collin at the team’s press conference in Toulouse, France earlier this week.
“We are going to engage in many difficult collaborations that challenge our respective ways of looking at the world. But the point is that we work together to find the truth. Stand by us and let us work this out and see if we can come to some resolve. That is the quest,” said Wendell Yellow Bull (Oglala Lakota), coauthor of the study.
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