# Did Native Americans have horses when the Europeans came to the New World? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 13, 2002, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-native-americans-have-horses-when-the-europeans-came-to-the-new-world/113937 "2002-06-13T21:57:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![loni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/838e76/32.png) [@loni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/loni)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2002, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-native-americans-have-horses-when-the-europeans-came-to-the-new-world/113937/21 "2002-06-15T13:53:54Z")
This is a natural question since some tribes were “given” horses and some “discovered” them. Given, as in “learned from Europeans” and discovered, as in “found this really neat creature wandering around in the wilderness”. The Spaniards went out of their way to “seed” the new world with creatures they wanted to see there. They would put horses and cattle on ships and stop along the coast of the new world somewhere and simply release a few here and a few there. Inside of 100 years there were horses and cattle everywhere. Those tribes that saw Europeans riding horses simply did the same, but some tribes found these creatures and put them to use on their own. So, yes and no. ---
**Author:** ![Squish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8797f3/32.png) [@Squish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squish)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2002, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-native-americans-have-horses-when-the-europeans-came-to-the-new-world/113937/22 "2002-06-15T14:11:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Libertarian \* > \*\*Right. “Native American”, despite its PC intentions, does nothing but remind us of our conquerors. For references to our ethnicity (we are Americans, even those who live on reservations), if people won’t say Cherokee, Creek, or what have you, everyone I know prefers Indian to Native American, because that reminds us of how stupid our conquerors were! 😉 \*\* Um… _If_ you are referring to a specific tribe or nation, definitely it’s proper to say Lakotah, Tohono O’odham, Leni Lenape, etc. If, however, you are speaking of the general aboriginal population, then I think either Native American or Indian is correct and expedient. Some Indians I know prefer Indian, some prefer Native American, some prefer Native Peoples. In this case, even political correct terms can’t be decided upon. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2002, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-native-americans-have-horses-when-the-europeans-came-to-the-new-world/113937/23 "2002-06-15T14:13:25Z")
Damn, I wish I could find that brilliant “Far Side” about this. Oh well. ---
**Author:** ![CBEscapee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@CBEscapee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBEscapee)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2002, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-native-americans-have-horses-when-the-europeans-came-to-the-new-world/113937/24 "2002-06-15T20:18:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by chula \* > \*\*That’s the story according to the Spanish, you couldn’t speak the Aztecs language. We’ll never know what the Montezuma was really thinking. \*\* Probably never know what **Moctezuma** was really thinking either! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![chula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a4c791/32.png) [@chula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chula)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2002, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-native-americans-have-horses-when-the-europeans-came-to-the-new-world/113937/25 "2002-06-15T21:24:31Z")
The Spanish didn’t know how to spell it either. It was really Motecuzoma. That is to say, that spelling is closer to the Nahuatl. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2002, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-native-americans-have-horses-when-the-europeans-came-to-the-new-world/113937/26 "2002-06-15T23:21:46Z")
> [@](#): > > The Spaniards went out of their way to “seed” the new world with creatures they wanted to see there. They would put horses and cattle on ships and stop along the coast of the new world somewhere and simply release a few here and a few there. Yeah, of course they did. They took animals that were worth a fortune in the old world and spent an even bigger fortune to ship them to the new world so they could just release them “a few here and a few there”. I am sure you have plenty of evidence to support this. ---
**Author:** ![CBEscapee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@CBEscapee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBEscapee)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2002, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-native-americans-have-horses-when-the-europeans-came-to-the-new-world/113937/27 "2002-06-16T00:48:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by chula \* > \*\*The Spanish didn’t know how to spell it either. It was really Motecuzoma. That is to say, that spelling is closer to the Nahuatl. \*\* Closer to the Nahuatl pronunciation perhaps. Both versions are Spanish transliterations. Nahuatl had no alphabet of its own, it was ideographic. The Spaniards devised their own spelling based on Latin and Spanish to put Nahuatl phonemes into alpabetic writing. So there wasn’t a Nahuatl spelling of his name in that sense. ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2002, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-native-americans-have-horses-when-the-europeans-came-to-the-new-world/113937/28 "2002-06-16T01:20:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by loni \* > \*\*…The Spaniards went out of their way to “seed” the new world with creatures they wanted to see there. They would put horses and cattle on ships and stop along the coast of the new world somewhere and simply release a few here and a few there. Inside of 100 years there were horses and cattle everywhere… \*\* Well, that certainly explains all of those feral cows near the coasts… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-native-americans-have-horses-when-the-europeans-came-to-the-new-world/113937.md?page=1)