Before and after the horse
Horses were brought to North America by the Spanish, and by the 1600s they were spreading north from the colonial settlements of New Mexico through trade, exchange and raiding between many peoples. The details of exactly when and how particular Apache groups first obtained horses are uncertain, and historians describe a gradual process rather than a single moment. By the 1700s horses were important to Apache groups on and near the Southern Plains.
Before horses, Apachean peoples on the Plains edge hunted bison on foot and used dogs to carry loads. Spanish accounts of the 1500s describe Plains people who lived in portable hide tents and followed the herds. Some scholars link those descriptions to Apachean ancestors, but the identification is debated.
What horses changed
For the groups that adopted them, horses made it possible to travel farther, carry heavier loads and hunt bison more efficiently. Hide tents could be larger and camps could move faster. Horses also became a measure of wealth and a valuable trade item, which affected how families exchanged goods and gifts.
The change was not uniform. The Lipan, who ranged across the Plains and into Texas, and the Plains Apache, who lived alongside the Kiowa, relied heavily on bison hunting. The Jicarilla, in northern New Mexico, combined hunting on the Plains with life in the mountain valleys, and they traded with their Pueblo neighbours. The Mescalero, further southwest, kept mountain and desert ways of life while also hunting on the Plains edge.
Horses also brought new burdens. They need grass and water, they can be taken in raids, and herds can attract enemies. The same animals that increased mobility increased exposure to conflict.
The Comanche and a changing balance
In the early 1700s the Comanche, a Numic-speaking people who had moved south from the northern Plains and the Rocky Mountain region, became a dominant power on the Southern Plains. Their skill with horses and their numbers shifted the balance against many of their neighbours. Over the 1700s the Comanche and their allies pushed Apache groups away from parts of the open Plains.
For the Lipan, this meant movement southward and eastward into Texas, where they sought a refuge in the hills and river valleys, and at times drew closer to the Spanish. The Jicarilla also lost ground on the Plains side of their range and increasingly focused on the mountains and the villages of northern New Mexico. The Plains Apache found a different path: they allied with the Kiowa, who were themselves moving onto the Southern Plains, and this partnership lasted into the reservation period.
It would be a mistake to see all of this as simple hostility. Relations between Apache groups and the Comanche included warfare, but also periods of trade and truce, and the pattern varied by group and decade. The wider topic of Apache relations with Comanche is more complicated than any short summary can capture.
Spanish colonies and the Plains economy
The Spanish and later Mexican authorities were involved in these changes. The settlements of New Mexico and the garrisons of Texas and Coahuila were markets for hides, meat and captives, and sources of metal goods and sometimes horses. Spanish officials at different times sought alliances with Apache groups against the Comanche, and at other times fought Apache groups themselves. The San Saba mission in Texas, founded in the 1750s partly with Lipan people in mind, was attacked by Comanche and allied forces within a year of its founding, an event that shows how dangerous the region had become.
Taos Pueblo and other New Mexico towns also held trading gatherings where Plains peoples exchanged hides, meat and horses for crops and other goods. Those meeting places are part of the longer story of Jicarilla and Pueblo trade.
Daily life on horseback
Historians draw on Spanish records, later American accounts and Native oral history for this period, and each source has limits. Spanish officials often wrote about conflict and diplomacy, and outside observers frequently misunderstood Apache social life. What can be said with confidence is that bison provided meat and hides, that horses became part of nearly every aspect of work and travel, and that families remained the centre of social life.
Women’s work was essential: preparing hides, setting up and moving camps, and processing food. The picture of mounted warfare as the whole of Plains life is a stereotype; hunting, gathering, trading, family and ceremony filled most of people’s time.
Decline of the buffalo and the end of the era
The Southern Plains horse era did not end because Apache or Comanche peoples abandoned it. In the 1800s, the arrival of American settlers, military campaigns and the commercial slaughter of the bison herds undermined the economy that horses had supported. By the 1870s and 1880s, the herds had been reduced drastically, and the federal government was settling the Plains nations on reservations.
The Plains Apache were placed on a shared reservation in Indian Territory with the Kiowa and Comanche. The Lipan were scattered. The Jicarilla and Mescalero faced their own struggles for land in New Mexico. Horses remained part of many families’ lives and cultures, and they are still valued today in rodeo, ranching and community events, but the horse economy of the 1700s and early 1800s belongs to a specific historical period.
A note on sources
Much of what is written about Apache horse use comes from outsiders. For present-day views and cultural information, readers should look to the nations’ own official websites and publications.