New Study by 84-Scientists Says That Wild Horses Were in North America Long Before Europeans
As discussed below, “Taylor et al. looked at the genetics of horses across the Old and New Worlds and studied archaeological samples. They found no evidence for direct Pleistocene ancestry of North American horses, but they did find that horses of European descent had been integrated into indigenous cultures across western North America long before the arrival of Europeans in that region.”
NOTE: this article was sent to us by the Wild Horse Brigade and is being published with permission of Capt. William E. Simpson II – USMM Ret.
An Open Letter to Legislators and Elected State and County Officials
Greetings:
A New Study conducted by 84-researchers and published in Science Magazine (March 2023) dispels the myth that horses didn’t exist in America until the Spanish arrived, and proves that horses were already living in North America at the time of the Spanish arrival. And we know that wild horses were documented by Sir Francis Drake in 1580 as living among the local indigenous peoples in the area along what is today the Oregon-California border.
This revelation means that Oregon and California (and other states) land and wildlife managers must change the current paradigm of mismanaging wild horses as a non-native species.
As a true native species in North America, they rightfully belong in our wilderness ecosystems, where they provide an extremely valuable service to taxpayers by mitigating wildfire fuels year-round in areas not suited to other methods.
Leading analysts in the insurance industry are already endorsing the use of wild horses for wildfire fuels reduction, as we see in this AM BEST TV program: https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/626048446/am-best-tv-news-report-calls-plan-to-use-wild-horses-for-wildfire-fuel-mitigation-an-innovative-approach
Link to Science article:
Link to PDF of the Study conducted by 84 scientists: https://www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/science.adc9691
Time for everyone to move forward and drop the nonsense that wild horses are not native to North America, so we can begin managing them appropriately.
Wild Horses offer a huge value proposition to taxpayers and our ecosystems. They are understudied due to scant government and industry funding. Our Org. Wild Horse Fire Brigade has made and published numerous discoveries about the benefits of managing wild horses in wilderness areas that are appropriate.
This press release discusses that topic: https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/620446849/american-wild-horses-are-understudied-that-results-in-grossly-overlooked-ecological-benefits
Making a horse culture
Horses evolved in North America and dispersed to Eurasia across the Bering Land Bridge. They continued to evolve and were domesticated in Eurasia, but, as far as we know, they became extinct in North America by the late Pleistocene and were then reintroduced by European colonizers. Taylor et al. looked at the genetics of horses across the Old and New Worlds and studied archaeological samples. They found no evidence for direct Pleistocene ancestry of North American horses, but they did find that horses of European descent had been integrated into indigenous cultures across western North America long before the arrival of Europeans in that region. —SNV
Abstract
The horse is central to many Indigenous cultures across the American Southwest and the Great Plains. However, when and how horses were first integrated into Indigenous lifeways remain contentious, with extant models derived largely from colonial records. We conducted an interdisciplinary study of an assemblage of historic archaeological horse remains, integrating genomic, isotopic, radiocarbon, and paleopathological evidence. Archaeological and modern North American horses show strong Iberian genetic affinities, with later influx from British sources, but no Viking proximity. Horses rapidly spread from the south into the northern Rockies and central plains by the first half of the 17th century CE, likely through Indigenous exchange networks. They were deeply integrated into Indigenous societies before the arrival of 18th-century European observers, as reflected in herd management, ceremonial practices, and culture.
Capt. William E. Simpson II – USMM Ret.
Founder – Exec. Director – Wild Horse Fire Brigade
Ethologist – Author – Conservationist
Wild Horse Ranch
P.O. Bx. 202 – Yreka, CA 96097
Creator: Wild Horse Fire Brigade (https://www.wildhorsefirebrigade.org/)
Author @ HorseTalk
Member: IMDb
Muck Rack: https://muckrack.com/william-e-simpson-ii
William E. Simpson II is an ethologist living among and studying free-roaming native species American wild horses. William is the award-winning producer of the micro-documentary film ‘Wild Horses‘. He is the author of a new Study about the behavioral ecology of wild horses, two published books and more than 150 published articles on subjects related to wild horses, wildlife, wildfire, and public land (forest) management. He has appeared on NBC NEWS, ABC NEWS, CBS NEWS, theDoveTV and has been a guest on numerous talk radio shows including the Lars Larson Show, the Bill Meyer Show, NPR Jefferson Public Radio and NPR National Radio.
—
For more posts like this, in your inbox weekly – sign up for the Restoring Diversity Newsletter