Medicine Trails

The big medicine trail is a series of trails made by the act of migrating animal herds for thousands of years. Bison, elk, horses, and deer led early people out of the harsh full regions of the Ice Age and centuries later, they made the way for most of influential explorers during the exploration of the west. "Horses were significant in this time because they minimized travel time, and lived longer than buffalos/bison."[1] Some of these trails survive as modern highways.

Horse migration conquered the hardship reservations and established long-term determinations. To demonstrate, the early winter storms, bandits, and long transit routes comprised some of the major constraints of operations in the traditional world. [2]People could not adequately meet the set schedules and sometimes were trapped within mountains due to worse conditions. [3]The significant archaeological and anthropological impact of horse migration to the medicine trails of the Pacific North west trails pans out through different platforms.

Besides, they account for some of the indigenous trails stretching through different territories. In the same fashion, horse migration opened up new opportunities for exploitation. They increased the transit speed and efficiency of services thereby being a favorite among many merchants. The eventual reclamation of the medicine trails marked the discovery of faster but safe transition points used by the Native Americans to various destinations. [4] The increasing attention to trade through Pacific North routes gave horses the important prevalence despite complexity in trading arrangements.

Similarly, the comparative advantage offered by horses even in the modernized infrastructural environment cannot be overemphasized. However, their migration greatly contributed to social and economic reorganization. The medicine trails created by the same offered potential chances important for ultimate understanding of related functions. Their hunting propensity and remarkable navigation tactics enhanced greater demand. [5]

The medicine trails were not geographically confined. At the same time, the interconnected trading blocks within the pacific created breaking points for consistency. Nonetheless, the sentimental value of horses migration within the Pacific formulated historical trails, which had greater impacts to different economic and social components of the community.


Native Americans

Bison have migrated over the northern land bridge for many years. Not only until the later into the Ice Age had humans followed these creatures. Humans followed them and settled in modern New Mexico. Once the Ice Age finished, those humans found their settlement turning drier and hotter so the followed a herd of bison to the east and settled in, today referred as, the Great Plains. Once the land bridge melted, it forced the bison to stop their migration, therefore they also settled in the Great Plains. Tribes also settled on bison migration routes; for instance these tribes can hunt buffalo on an annual basis. Horses were introduced to North America by Spanish explorers in the 16th century. As the horses bred and became wild, they formed herds which migrated on a limited scale (compared to buffalo). Herds of wild horses supplied Native American tribes with the means to create the horse culture of the great plains.

Daniel Boone

Daniel Boone

Daniel Boone led exploration into the mid-west, yet migrating animals led Boone there in his expedition. From Virginia to Kentucky, many Indian tribes gave their trails, which were carved out by buffalo migration, and linked them together to make one trail called The Wilderness Trail, or Daniel Boones Trail. After the trail was opened, Daniel Boone decided to extend the trail to Ohio, following masses of bison estimated as high as sixty million.

Lewis and Clark

Lewis and Clark followed bison and horses in their expedition. "The whol face of the country was covered with herds of Buffaloe…" explains Meriwether Lewis as written in his journal while crossing the Great Plains along the Missouri River. Lewis and Clark followed horses through impassable rapids since migrating horses are known to follow along rivers. The Rocky Mountains seemed as almost an impossible to climb, but as they followed migrating bison, they found passages and gaps that they would have never have found if it weren’t for migrating bison.

The Santa Fe Trail

The buffalo migration impacted the smooth and mild Santa Fe Trail. On September 1, 1821, Captain William Becknell left Arrow Rock, Missouri to explore the southwest. Most people doubted that he would find the trail to Santa Fe including his arrival back to Arrow Rock. He came back four months later with a map of the trail. Mapping the trail would have not been successful without the guidance of migrating buffalo. These buffaloes led him to water sources; a constant guarantee of survival in the desert. Although this trail was easy to follow, it was between the United States and French territories. The area was called ‘neutral zone’ and was unprotected since no one claimed it. Hence, travelers on the trail encountered many robberies. By 1880 a railroad, now referred as the Santa Fe Railroad, was built on the trail which increased trade between Missouri and the Western United States.

El Camino Real

Before El Camino Real was established, it was a medicine trail that Indians walked on. Father Junípero Serra explored and found these medicine trails and claimed that it was his discovery. El Camino Real opened trade for the Spaniards and the French. This trail made trade less hazardous and cheaper compared to sailing the Pacific.

The Gila Trail

The Gila Trail is probably the oldest major trail of the United States. It is estimated to be at least 15,000 years old. As with most trails, the Gila follows rivers. The trail follows from Mexico to Zuni, New Mexico. The first non-Native American to explore the Gila was a slave named Esteban. Esteban was granted freedom from Charles V of Spain if he completely mapped the Gila Trail. Once Esteban reached the town of Zuni, the natives there thought he was a god and was immortal. These natives tested his immortality by shooting arrows at him, and killed him. Two centuries later, Father Eusibio Francisco Kino established missions along the trail which brought many people using the trail. The missions guaranteed a safe trip on the trail. During the Gold Rush,prospecting Forty-Niners primarily used the Gila Trail to get to California.

References

  1. ↑ Lynghaug, F. The Official Horse Breeds Standards Book: The Complete Guide to the Standards of All North American Equine Breed Associations. Minneapolis: Voyageur Press, 2009
  2. ↑ Bagley, Will, and Richard Rieck. The Great Medicine Road, Part 1: Narratives of the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails, 1840–1848. Vol. 24. University of Oklahoma Press, 2014. 57
  3. ↑ Azaryahu, Maoz, and Kenneth E. Foote. "Historical space as narrative medium: on the configuration of spatial narratives of time at historical sites." GeoJournal 73, no. 3 (2008): 181
  4. ↑ Jepsen, David J., and David J. Norberg. Contested Boundaries: A New Pacific Northwest History. John Wiley & Sons, 2017. 71
  5. ↑ Harrod, Ryan P., and Donald E. Tyler. "Skeletal Evidence Of Pre-Contact Conflict Among Native Groups In The Columbia Plateau Of The Pacific Northwest." Journal of Northwest Anthropology 50, no. 2 (2016). 112
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