The Unlucky Horse

by Oliver LaMère

The Chief of the Bear Clan is telling this story to his grandsons.

Horse Isle 3 Wiki, CC BY-SA
An Appaloosa

(58) "Grandsons," said he, "did you notice the spotted horse at the last dance which Big Bear gave? It was running loose among the picketed ponies and seemed to belong to no one."

(59) "Oh, yes," cried the boys in unison. "And it is a fine horse, too." "I wish I owned it," said Green Crow.

"Well, that is the horse I mean, and you must let it alone," continued Bear Chief. "Not so many years ago the Omaha Indians went on a hunt with the Winnebagoes. Big Bear's son, whose name was 'Comes Traveling over the County,' was one of the party from the Winnebagoes. This Indian was a great warrior and knew no fear. As you know, the buffalo hunters generally go out in the spring of the year when the new grass is long enough to make good grazing, so that they may have plenty of food for their horses They take their fastest horses and go well armed, because they often meet Indians from unfriendly tribes with whom they must fight.

"So this hunting band of which I am speaking started west on the Platte River bottoms of Nebraska in the spring. In those days many herds of buffalo roamed there. The party went west as far as the (60) village of the Pawnee Indians who lived where Genoa, Nebraska, now is. There they all visited for a time, and there it was that this spotted horse was presented to an Omaha Indian. The horse had previously been owned by a Pawnee warrior who had been killed on its back while fighting with the Sioux.

"It was because of the tragic death of its owner that the Pawnees presented the horse to the Omaha while he was on this buffalo hunt. One day, while the Omahas and Winnebagoes were chasing the great buffalo heard, they suddenly came upon a band of Sioux warriors, and immediately a fierce battle took place. The Omaha on his spotted horse happened to get too far to one side and was chased by a small party of Sioux; While fleeing from them the horse stumbled, throwing his rider to the ground. He feigned death and was shot at by a Sioux Indian as he lay there. But the arrow went between his body and his arm. The Sioux, supposing him dead, (62) leaped from their horses and scalped him alive, for he lay perfectly still.

"Ever after that this Indian was known as the 'Scalped Omaha.' He lived for many years among his own people and among the Winnebagoes, but he had a Winnebago wife."

"Wasn't he lucky?" chirped Green Crow. "He didn't have any more hair to take care of, but he must have been a funny looking Indian."

"Yes, he was a queer looking Indian. He looked a whole lot like a bald-headed white man. After the battle in which the Omaha lost his scalp, the spotted horse was presented to Comes Traveling over the Country, Big Bear's son. Comes Traveling over the Country sent the horse back home with his father, who returned with the regular hunting party in the fall of the year.

"But Comes Traveling over the Country went on farther west with a hunting band of Pawnees who were going for more buffalo, for, as I have already said, he was (63) a great warrior and loved adventure. And from that day to this no one has ever seen him. Some say that the war party was overtaken by an epidemic and that he died of the sickness. Others say that he was captured by the Sioux and taken west as a captive, but no one knows what really became of him. He was the last owner of the beautiful spotted horse that you saw at the dance."

"I don't want anything to do with that unlucky horse," thought each one of the boys to himself. As they said good night to the old story teller they thanked him for telling them all the good stories about their people, and promised that they would not forget a word but would, when they were old men, tell the same stories to other boys at night about the log fire.¹

	Wikipedia
	Genoa, Nebraska

Commentary. "the spotted horse" — this is the famous Appaloosa breed. Spotted horses were introduced into the Americas by the Spanish, and generally diffused through North America. Spotted horses were found among the Shoshone before 1730, when the Nez Perce first obtained them and bred them to strict standards, creating the spotted variety known as the "Apalloosa." When they were attacked by the US Cavalry in the 1870s, "The Nez Perce escaped on the backs of their Appaloosa horses. Since they bred their horses for their strength, speed, and endurance, the Appaloosa horses were able to travel fast without tiring ..."² As a war horse, this breed was without parallel, and greatly preferred by warlike tribes throughout North America.

"Genoa, Nebraska" — originally founded by the Mormons, who were displaced when the town was incorporated into the Pawnee Reservation. However, after a terrible massacre in 1873 by the Sioux, the Pawnee removed to a new reservation in Oklahoma.³

Comparative Material. ...

Links: Horses.

Stories: mentioning horses: The Big Eater, Thunderbird and White Horse, The Orphan who was Blessed with a Horse, Sun and the Big Eater, Rich Man, Boy, and Horse, Hare Recruits Game Animals for Humans, The Horse Spirit of Eagle Heights, Trickster Takes Little Fox for a Ride, James’ Horse, The Boy who was Blessed by a Mountain Lion, The Boy who Flew, Pete Dupeé and the Ghosts, They Owe a Bullet, The Man Whose Wife was Captured (v. 2); about scalping: The Woman's Scalp Medicine Bundle, Hare Retrieves a Stolen Scalp, The Scalping Knife of Wakąšucka, The Blessings of the Buffalo Spirits, Moiety Origin Myth, Turtle's Warparty, White Fisher, Black Otter's Warpath, The Dog that became a Panther, Wazųka, Great Walker's Warpath, The Boy who was Blessed by a Mountain Lion, The Fox-Hocąk War; mentioning the Omaha: Quapah Origins, The Omahas who turned into Snakes, Ioway & Missouria Origins, Little Priest's Game, Introduction; mentioning the Sioux (Šąhą): The Sioux Warparty and the Waterspirit of Green Lake, Origin of the Name "Milwaukee," Little Priest's Game, Berdache Origin Myth, Great Walker's Warpath, Potato Magic, The Masaxe War, White Flower, The Man who Fought against Forty, First Contact (vv. 2-3), The Omahas who turned into Snakes, The Love Blessing, Run for Your Life, The Scalping Knife of Wakąšucka, Introduction; mentioning the Pawnee: First Contact (v. 2), They Owe a Bullet, Little Priest's Game, A Peyote Story, Gatschet's Hocank hit’e.

Themes: descriptions of human warfare: Black Otter's Warpath, Annihilation of the Hocągara II, The Warbundle Maker, The First Fox and Sauk War, Great Walker's Medicine, The Annihilation of the Hocągara I, How Little Priest went out as a Soldier, Little Priest's Game, Wazųka, The Blessings of the Buffalo Spirits, The Shawnee Prophet and His Ascension, The Four Slumbers Origin Myth, Big Thunder Teaches Cap’ósgaga the Warpath, The Fox-Hocąk War, Great Walker's Warpath, White Fisher, The Lame Friend, White Thunder's Warpath, The Osage Massacre, A Man's Revenge, The Boy who was Blessed by a Mountain Lion, They Owe a Bullet, The Spanish Fight, Origin of the Name "Milwaukee," The Man Whose Wife was Captured (v. 2), Tobacco Man and Married Man, The Scalping Knife of Wakąšucka, The War of Indian Tribes against White Soldiers.

Notes

¹ Oliver LaMère and Harold B. Shinn, Winnebago Stories (New York, Chicago: Rand, McNally and Co., 1928) 58-63. Informant: Oliver LaMère (Bear Clan).

² Horse Aisle 3 Wiki > "Appaloosa."