The return of Canada's only indigenous horse breed

The breed, also known as the Lac la Croix Indian Pony, is the only known indigenous horse breed in Canada

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Photo: Karen Gardiner
Photo: Karen Gardiner
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

It was a clear day in December 2021 and snow was falling gently over Madaoki Farm, an Indigenous visitor attraction and event space just outside of Ottawa, Canada.

I was at the Pibon (Winter) Festival, and Anishinaabe artist Rhonda Snow stepped onto a small stage that looked like it was still shaking from the exuberant steps of the pow-wow dancers who had just stepped off it.

She is nationally known for her vivid Woodlands-style paintings,

Snow was here to talk about her lifelong work to preserve the endangered Ojibwe spirit horse.

The breed, also known as the Lac la Croix Indian Pony, is the only known indigenous horse breed in Canada.

Snow explained that she was still a young girl living in northwestern Ontario when she heard some elders talking about these small, hardy horses living freely in the boreal forest.

She was enchanted.

"I thought - one day I'll find them," she said.

She visited indigenous communities and heard many stories about the mutual relationship of indigenous peoples with the spirit horse of the Ojibwe, seeing the animals as guides and teachers.

Just as Metis fishermen teamed up with horses every winter to retrieve fish from frozen lakes.

Although horses were not domesticated back then, fishermen used them to use their hooves to make fishing holes in the ice, and they would reward them with food and shelter.

But since the European settlers almost exterminated them, because wild animals were considered a nuisance, these horses were few in number.

The race survived thanks to the event that Snow depicts in the painting "Robbery Across the Ice by Moonlight".

It's a story that could have been written in Hollywood.

In 1977, only four mares remained on the island in Lac la Croix, northwestern Ontario.

Because wild animals were considered a health risk, Canadian health officials planned to slaughter them.

But before they could do that, four Ojibwe men pulled off a daring rescue.

They rounded up the mares, put them in a trailer and drove them across a frozen lake and across the border to Minnesota, where they were raised with a Spanish mustang.

Careful care and selective breeding have since revived the spirit of the Ojibwa horse, which now numbers about 180 and has returned to Canada.

The stories Snow has heard about the Ojibwe spirit horse's long and close connection to the native people run counter to the generally accepted history of the horse in North America.

That story says that horses once galloped freely across the continent before they died out during the last ice age thousands of years ago, and were gone until Europeans arrived.

However, according to native stories and beliefs, horses have always been on the continent they know as Turtle Island, and recent research - although disputed by mainstream science - supports this.

Karen Gardiner

The Spanish brought horses to present-day Mexico in 1519, but research by Dr. Yvette Running Horse Collin cites written Spanish accounts that place herds in present-day Georgia and the Carolinas in 1521.

She claims that the evidence is that horses were here before the Europeans: as Colin notes, it would have been impossible for those Spanish horses to have multiplied and traveled so far in just two years.

When it comes to the Ojibwe Spirit Horse, according to the Ojibwe Horse Society, DNA testing shows that they are a separate breed from the horses that Europeans introduced to North America.

When I returned to Madaoki Farm in November 2022, I saw more evidence that Ojibwe spirit horses may have walked this land for a long time.

Cultural ambassador Maggie Downer, who is Mohawk, introduced me to the farm's herd—no more wild herds—that were shaggy in winter fur and clearly built for the harsh, northern environment.

They had compact, strong bodies, thick manes, small, hairy ears and extra flaps on the nose that protected them from the cold.

The horses Mukadaj-Wagush (Black Fox in Ojibwe), Gwingwishi (Grey Jay) and Migzi (Eagle) came rushing up and stuck their muzzles through the fence to pet each other.

Downer pointed to two-year-old Migzy's distinctive Ojibwe markings — tiger stripes on his legs and a well-defined dorsal stripe running down his spine — that the farm hopes will make him a prized stallion.

As an ambassador, Downer says her job is to connect with the Indigenous community and the non-Indigenous community, "to (promote) awareness of Indigenous cultures and that we're still here."

Horses are "four-legged ambassadors," she said.

"This race has faced many of the (same) challenges as us natives. They faced eradication. But horses are very resilient and can teach us a lot."

Karen Gardiner

The horses are the attraction, but they represent the farm's wider work to reclaim and celebrate indigenous culture.

"Our histories are similar," Downer said.

As a young indigenous woman, she sees symmetry in reclaiming what has been lost.

"Because the Canadian government has outlawed it, our young people don't know their own history. It's the same with these horses. There's this bond between us."

In the farm's event space, set up to welcome a class participating in one of the school's indigenous culture programs, Trina Mater-Simard, founder Indigenous Experiences, who manages the farm, told me the idea to start the farm was sparked when she heard Rhonda Snow on the 2020 Ojibwe Spirit Horse Podcast.

"I was extremely inspired," she said.

"My daughters have been riders for many years. We have had horses for years. I'm Ojibwe myself and I just couldn't believe I'd never heard of (them)."

"I saw a lot of (similarities) to our own story," she continued, "in a way that we can easily share, about their connection to the land, displacement, and resilience: that they were down to just the four of them, and yet they're still here." "

Karen Gardiner

Mater-Simard and her daughters bought four horses from a farm in Alberta and looked for a place to keep them.

At the same time, Indigenous Experiences was looking for a permanent location as it operated out of a temporary space in front of the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec, just across the Ottawa River.

On a 164-hectare farm, the company found the perfect solution: with so much land, they could include horses in their cultural community and expand to offer education.

And horses have a lot to teach us, Mater-Simard said.

"Similar to (the traditional indigenous culture of giving) gratitude for the animals that gave their lives to provide food and what was needed for survival," she said, "our community viewed our relationship with horses as a reciprocal relationship: where our ancestors provided food and protection during harsh winters, and ponies helped the community survive, (helping with) ice fishing or helping to transport goods and people."

Because the Ojibwe consider horses to be kindred spirits — "like equals who reciprocate," she added — they refer to themselves as "keepers" of horses, not owners.

Since opening in late 2021, the farm's herd has grown to nine - the latest addition being a foal named Gižik (Kedar), who was delivered by Viškosivika (Sweetgrass) in an April snowstorm.

In addition to welcoming visitors to meet the horses and visit a market stocked with indigenous arts and crafts, the farm hosts a series of free festivals celebrating the seasons.

When I attended the winter festival, I watched Inuit throat singers feast on bison stew and bannock (a bread associated with Indigenous Canadians), then walked through the woods along the farm's heritage trail, which was lined with interpretive signs describing the traditional the medicinal use of the plants that grow there.

Other cultural offerings include Haudenosauni corn husk doll making, a painting class led by Snow, and dreamcatcher and moccasin workshops.

The farm is located on traditional Algonquin territory, but intentionally incorporates many different native cultures.

"Being in the nation's capital, we're able to, in a small way, represent that diversity," Mater-Simard said, referring to the fact that Canada is home to hundreds of First Nations, including the Inuit and Métis.

The farm also runs a culinary training program, which teaches young people about traditional food production.

It has an equine-assisted learning scheme, run by Downer, which involves spirit horses, and runs art and craft workshops as well as business development classes for indigenous artisans.

I asked Mater-Simard about future plans for the farm and she took a deep breath before listing ambitious projects, such as the arrival of bison to provide traditional food and new forest trails for spirit horses that more closely resemble their traditional wild habitats.

Karen Gardiner

I thought about how close these horses are to extinction and was moved by the thought of being able to watch them grow and thrive in the coming years.

Through sharing Indigenous perspectives, Mater-Simard hopes that Madaoki (which means "sharing the land" in Anishnabe) can serve as both a space where Indigenous communities can reconnect with the land and a place of reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.

Tourism has "really changed in the last few years as people seek their own path of reconciliation," she said.

"Our industry likes to say that indigenous tourism is really reconciliation in action because it gives you a tangible way to connect with a community and learn something."

At the center of it all are the Ojibwe spirit horses, which are themselves living representations of reconciliation.

Horses are teachers, says Downer.

“They instinctively have compassion for each other in their herd.

"We need to start translating (their teachings) into our society, as a mixed community of indigenous and non-indigenous people."


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