How the Horse Remade Native America

How did one animal, missing from North America for more than 10,000 years, come back and rebuild the balance of power across half a continent in a single century? Tonight, we follow the horse. From a fox-sized ancestor in the ancient forests of Wyoming, to sixteen horses stepping off Spanish ships in 1519, to the painted lodges and great herds of the Great Plains. This isn't the version you saw in the movies. The mounted Plains warrior is the most familiar image of Native America in the world, and it is far younger than most people think. We explore how Native nations took a returning animal and, in a few generations, built one of the most remarkable cultures the world has ever seen. You'll discover: Why the horse is actually a North American animal, and how it vanished from the continent What life was like in the "dog days," when every camp moved at the speed of a dog How Spain tried to keep horses away from Native people, and why it failed The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 and the day the Spanish corrals were emptied How the horse transformed the buffalo hunt, warfare and wealth on the plains The rise and fall of the Shoshone, told by an old man who remembered the first horse How nations like the Lakota, Cheyenne and Comanche remade the map of the plains Why the U.S. Army targeted the horse herds, and what survives today This documentary covers the Blackfoot, Shoshone, Comanche, Lakota, Cheyenne, Apache, Pueblo peoples, Crow, Kiowa, Nez Perce and more. It is told without romanticizing or demonizing, based on archaeology, eyewitness accounts and recent scientific research. #NativeAmericanHistory #HorseHistory #NativeAmericans #PlainsIndians #Comanche #Lakota #Blackfoot #HistoryDocumentary