05/14/2026
Part 3: Reintroduction or revival?
Old Science -
Although horses evolved in North America, it is a widely adopted claim – primarily by western science - that they became extinct between 10,000 and 11,000 years ago, near the end of the Pleistocene era (the Last Ice Age). Some believe it was human hunting that was the main driver of their extinction and others believe it was rapid climate change.
This claim, or theory, means that horses would have been reintroduced in North America when the Spanish explorers, including Christopher Columbus (1492) and Hernán Cortés (1519), brought horses to the Americas on their ships in the late 1400s and early 1500s. First settlements were along Caribbean islands, followed by regions along the Gulf of Mexico. From Mexico and the southern United States, it makes sense – as the story goes - that horses would have spread northward with explorers and Indigenous Peoples, slowly re-establishing wild populations.
Yet, a growing body of interdisciplinary research is complicating and challenging this story.
New Science -
One such study by Taylor et al. (2023) presents archaeological evidence that shows horses were already an integral part of Indigenous lifeways across the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains by the first half of the 17th century (by about 1650), and this is long before the arrival of 18th century European settlers to these regions.
This study also contradicts the long-held belief that horses spread across the continent after the 1680 Pueblo Revolt.
The Pueblo Revolt was a major Indigenous uprising in 1680 against Spanish colonial rule. Taking place in what is now New Mexico, the revolt was highly successful. Pueblo nations fought back against Spanish control, forced labour, religious suppression, and restrictions on traditional practices. The Pueblo nations drove the Spanish out of the region for over a decade before Spain re-established control.
Horses are closely connected to the Pueblo Revolt because this is when many Spanish horses and other livestock came into Indigenous possession. Historians argue that this was the reason - or way that horses spread widely across the Great Plains. However, the 2023 Taylor et al. study concludes it was the Indigenous trade and social networks that played a central role in their spread across the plains and Rocky Mountain regions well before the Pueblo revolt. These findings align more closely with Indigenous oral histories, many of which claim that horses have always been here.
Limits of the Fossil Record -
Much of the pre-established timeline for extinction is based on megafossil evidence - bones, teeth, and other preserved remains. While invaluable, this record is incomplete. Fossils require very specific conditions to form and survive, meaning large gaps in time are common.
As a result, the apparent disappearance of horses from the fossil record may not reflect true extinction, but rather absence of evidence.
In Part 4, I will discuss newer genetic techniques and evidence suggesting wild horses may have survived in North America until about 5,000 years ago (much longer than previously believed), the concept of refugia, and the infamous Yukon Horse – all of which challenge the extinction paradigms!
1.Bourgeon & Burke, 2021. Lauriane Bourgeon, Ariane Burke, Horse exploitation by Beringian hunters during the Last Glacial Maximum, Quaternary Science Reviews, Volume 269, 2021, 107140, ISSN 0277-3791.
2.Taylor, W.T., et al. 2023. Early Dispersal of domestic horses into the Great Plains and norther Rockies. Science 379, 1316–1323.
3.Waters et al., 2015. Late Pleistocene horse and camel hunting at the southern margin of the ice-free corridor: Reassessing the age of Wally’s Beach, Canada. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 112 (14) 4263-4267.
