Dog Days to Horse Days

Dogs played an important role in the social, cultural, and economic life of peoples inhabiting the Northwestern Plains of North America for thousands of years. Despite functioning as pack animals, guards, religious figures, and even companions, dogs were never as integral to Blackfoot culture as the horse became. To date, researchers have most often characterized the relationship of Blackfoot people and their horses by framing the horse as an “upgraded model”—a “new and improved” dog. While prior experience with domesticated dogs did help facilitate the incorporation of horses into the daily lives of the Blackfoot people, this chapter argues that it is the fundamental differences between dogs and horses that prove to be one of the greatest sources of cultural change between the pre- and postcontact periods. Through a framework that integrates archaeology, history, and contemporary ethnography this chapter identifies these key differences in order to better understand how the horse fostered new and dramatically different conceptions of domesticated animals that in turn had significant effects on the use and value of dogs within equestrian Blackfoot culture.