New museum exhibits tell the history of horses in Montana
Daily Inter-Lake | UPDATED 6 hours, 3 minutes AGO
In the area that was to become Northwest Montana, Indigenous people had used dogs to pull travoises. Horses were a gamechanger and led to the rapid rise of horse nations in the West. (Courtesy photo)
Equine expert and author Brenda Wahler and her horse Indy. Wahler is scheduled to speak at the Northwest Montana History Museum June 18. (Courtesy photo)
As leaders of the nascent United States signed the Declaration of Independence, in this region 250 years ago — then a claim of Spain — another revolution was afoot, on four feet.
The Northwest Montana History Museum opens new horse-focused exhibits, 250 Years Ago: This Revolution Came at a Gallop and A Western Revolution Came First, with a June 18 presentation by equine expert and author Brenda Wahler.
Although present in this area thousands of years ago, according to fossil evidence, the horse had disappeared from western North America until Hernan Cortes made landfall much farther south, unloading more than a dozen horses in the Yucatan in 1519 from the holds of his ships.
Indigenous peoples didn't have to have horse technology explained to them. They ran with it and the horse population spread like wildfire along the mountainous spine of the American West so quickly that the area that became Northwest Montana saw horses decades before California.
Some Indigenous people called horses "elk-dogs" on first encounter. Horses were a dream come true: collapsing distances to hunting grounds and enabling easier travel across the rugged landscape. They were integral to increasing trade, protection, and conquest. In little more than a lifetime, the Ksanka (Kootenai), Selis (Salish), Qlispe (Pend d’Oreille), and Niitsitapi (Blackfeet) watched horses transform life in the northern Rockies.
Wahler is a Helena author and lawyer who has consulted widely on equine matters and written several books, including “Montana Horse Racing” and, most recently, “Marcus Daly’s Montana Empires." Copies of books will be available for sale and signing.
The presentation will start at 6 p.m. Doors open at 5 p.m. Admission is free.
The museum is located at 124 Second Ave. E., Kalispell. For more information, call 406-756-8381 or visit nwmthistory.org. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. most Saturdays June through August.
Equine expert and author Brenda Wahler and her horse Indy. Wahler is scheduled to speak at the Northwest Montana History Museum June 18. (Courtesy photo)