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Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for

Spring 1981

The White Mustang Of The Prairies

Elizabeth Atwood-Lawrence Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine

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Atwood-Lawrence, Elizabeth, "The White Mustang Of The Prairies" (1981). Great Plains Quarterly. 1889. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/1889

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THE WHITE MUSTANG OF THE PRAIRIES

ELIZABETH ATWOOD LAWRENCE

One of the most vivid and symbolically ex­ about him one evening around the campfire. pressive legends in the annals of the American In his journal entry for that day, Irving related West is that of the White Mustang. Inhabiting the that his party had been eagerly anticipating a vast reaches of the western plains, the Stallion buffalo hunt. There had been keen excitement was said to have "paced from the mesas of among the hunters when a faraway object was Mexico to the Badlands of the Dakotas and sighted and believed to be a buffalo. At closer even beyond, from the Brazos bottoms of east­ range, however, the animal was found to be a ern Texas to parks in the Rocky Mountains," wild horse.2 The manner in which this event is during an interval extending from about 1825 described gives the reader the sensation of first to 1889.1 Alternately known as the "White visualizing the unidentified object off in the Steed of the Prairies," the "Pacing White Stal­ distance and makes one aware of the over­ lion," the "Phantom White Horse," and "Ghost whelming vistas of the western plains as they Horse of the Plains," his story occurs again and appeared to an easterner. As the narrative again in sources dealing with the frontier. reveals the object to be a horse, there is the In A Tour of the Prairies, a record of his sensation of a telescope suddenly bringing the 1832 excursion into the plains of what is now image into close range and sharp focus. In the state of Oklahoma, Washington Irving describing how the horse was initially mistaken described the White Steed as he had heard for something else, the narrator adds a sense of mystery, a feeling of remoteness from his sub­ ject, making it seem unapproachable, a thing Elizabeth Atwood Lawrence is assistant profes­ apart. This sighting of an ordinary wild mustang sor at Tufts University School of Veterinary during the day, Irving wrote, prompted evening Medicine. She holds doctorates in both anthro­ campfIre stories of the superb White Steed who pology and veterinary medicine. Her book, The wild and the Tame: Nature and Culture in had been frequenting the area for six or seven American Rodeo, winner of the 1980 James years. The basic characteristics of the White Mooney A ward in anthropology, will be pub­ Mustang are then set forth: his sex, color, lished by the University of Tennessee Press in bodily proportions, beauty and grace, his wild­ 1981. ness and solitariness, and the pacing gait which

81 82 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1981 gives him such great swiftness that he has never fleet, it has been said, as to leave far behind been caught. every horse that had been tried in pursuit of George Wilkins Kendall's Narrative of the him, without breaking his 'pace.''' Gregg goes Texan Santa Fe Expedition, resulting from his on to relate that "the trapper celebrates him in 1841 journey into the Staked Plains of Texas, the vicinity of the northern Rocky Mountains; also contains a description of observing "one the hunter, on the Arkansas, or in the midst day at sundown a drove of mustangs." Again, of the Plains.',4 seeing them dimly at twilight imparts an aura Many times during the period of his fame on of romance and mystery; they are not seen the frontier in the nineteenth century the story sharply, clearly, or close at hand. Once more of the White Steed of the Prairies was repeated. the horses are first mistaken for other objects­ Robert M. Denhardt asserts that all the early in this case, mounted Indians. Thus suspense travelers on the plains heard of this fabulous is introduced, a moment of wonder and a sense horse, and news of his whereabouts was avidly of the unexpected. Kendall, like Irving, de­ sought. "For fifty years it was every youth's scribes the campfire setting as the backdrop for dream to capture and tame the 'White Steed' the stories told "by some of the old hunters, of for his own." The mustangers, wild horse trad­ a large white horse that had often been seen in ers, he writes, tried every way they knew to the vicinity of Cross Timbers and near the Red catch him, including snaring him, creasing him, River." Although he expresses the opinion that roping him, running him down, penning him, some of the stories "told by gossiping cam­ cornering him in a canyon, and keeping him paigners were either apocryphal or marvelously from water, but all in vain.S One particularly garnished," still he finds "no reason to dis­ impressive story tells of one hundred men on believe." Kendall notes that the "White Steed their best mounts trapping him in a circular of the Prairies" is "well known to trappers and arroyo. They chased him around the circle by hunters by that name"-a rather poetic title, I turns until each of the hundred horses was think, for such men to have used in common exhausted; then the White Mustang paced up an speech, and thus an indication of his evocative unscalable cliff and went his way.6 power over their imaginations.3 But even in legend the magnificent Stallion A significant aspect of the White Mustang could not live forever; in tales dating from tale is this element of its circulation by moun­ about 1881 to 1889, and in areas ranging from tain men, hunters, and trappers. Of course, the Rio Grande in Texas to Phoenix, Arizona, these were the men whose occupations took the heroic horse meets death at last. J. Frank them to the wild country where the horse Dobie, in Mustangs and Cow Horses, gives a might be seen. A deeper meaning, however, vivid and detailed account of the death of the seems to lie in the fact that such men lived White Steed, which was purported to have intimately with nature and were often imputed taken place around 1881. Since it was every to have a particularly keen understanding of frontiersman's dream to subdue him, and be­ the natural world not possessed by people cause "a small fortune" had been offered for more removed from wilderness. Such men his capture, the Stallion was tracked relent­ might have a special feeling of kinship with lessly. Still he eluded his pursuers, pacing all the White Mustang, making his story peculiarly the while and heading toward the Rio Grande expressive of their ethos and way of life. River. When he reached the sparsely watered The White Steed is again described in Josiah country of Texas, between the Nueces and the Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies, published Rio Grande, he was gaunt from thirst, "evi­ in 1844. The author states that he has heard dently jaded," and yet he still maintained "an "marvelous tales" of a "medium-sized stal­ alertness in ears, eyes, and nostrils." There he lion of perfect symmetry, milk-white, save was trapped by a vaquero at a "boxed water­ a pair of black ears-a natural 'pacer', and so hole"-the only source of water for many miles THE WHITE MUSTANG OF THE PRAIRIES 83 around. Although the still superb Steed put up various levels simultaneously; thus no single a noble struggle, his endurance was worn down, explanation has to stand as the one final and he was finally subdued by a trio of vaque­ answer. Different and even contradictory mean­ ros, each roping him at the same time. They ings may be evoked by the same image, and staked him out on the grassland with a sawed­ these are not necessarily reconcilable on a off barrel of water within reach, but he never logically consistent level. Certainly symbolic once ate a mouthful of grass or drank a swallow connotations, because they are products of of water, and after ten days the magnificent human thought, may reflect the ambivalence creature lay down and died, unwilling to live that is so often characteristic of that thought. without his freedom. 7 It is evident that a pattern of repetition of THE MUSTANG AS HERO the main thematic details concerning the White AND THE HORSE AS SYMBOL Steed of the Prairies has emerged, with remark­ able similarities in all versions of the tale. The At the outset it is most appropriate for a figure of the Mustang that has been handed horse to be a heroic figure within the context down represents the crystallization of certain of the frontier West, as it can be said that the key traits which have come to distinguish him. prairies once truly belonged to the horseman. He is always a fine Stallion whose color is white The horse was the essential instrument by or, rarely, some variant of white, such as which penetration into the wilderness and set­ gray in Irving's description, or white with black tlement there were made possible. The fron­ ears in Gregg's account.8 The Steed invariably tiersman's livelihood, as well as his very life paces, and his gait makes him the epitome of and safety, depended upon his mount. And swiftness. His endurance is legendary; no horse beyond the utilitarian ends that it served, the has ever been able to outdistance him. He is horse was a responsive living creature. Particu­ intelligent and wary, his ingenuity often being a larly under the often solitary conditions of factor in eluding his pursuers. He is noble in frontier life, it was natural that the horse would spirit and a paragon of equine beauty and grace, become more than a man's servant. Often it with a long and flowing mane and tail. The was a trusted partner and friend, his closest Stallion is often seen in lonely splendor without companion. Horses possessed beauty and power, the company of other horses. Above all, he but to make them useful for human purposes is wild and free, never having been caught and they had to be tamed-first subdued and then subdued by man until his capture in the final trained to do man's bidding. This meant that cycle of tales. In all versions of those stories he they had to leave the realm of the wild and dies of his own volition, preferring death to a enter the sphere of the domesticated. Although life of subjugation. the process was necessary, it could be tinged These striking characteristics have created a with empathetic regret. powerful image of the Steed which is an appro­ A well-trained horse became a source of priate and compelling subject for the lore of the great pride to a rider, for by transference he American western plains, and one that is in could make the power of the animal his own. A many ways peculiarly expressive of the frontier man could take unto himself the strength and ethos. I would like to explore the dilemma swiftness that he harnessed with the mastery posed by the figure of the White Mustang as to of the horse. A process of identification with its underlying significance and timeless appeal. the animal often took place, making each By analyzing the symbolic messages con­ person yearn to own the strongest and fastest. veyed by each of his key characteristics I will The White Steed was the embodiment of all develop some of the meanings that are articu­ that was desirable in a mount; to use one lated through the Mustang's story. Within such writer's expression, the Stallion represented a an interpretive analysis several meanings exist at "cowboy's wishful thinking.,,9 84 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1981

Another apparent impetus for the creation and perpetuation of the stories about the White Mustang is related to the idea of the horse as a powerful symbol for man's conquering force. Conquering was a central theme in the Ameri­ can westward movement: overcoming all types of hardships and obstacles-the harsh climate, the Indians, the vast distances-and above all, conquering the land, coming to grips with na­ ture itself and forcing it to yield, transforming the wilderness into civilization by the imposi­ tion of human will. I propose that this may be conceptualized as an embodiment of the culturecnature dichotomy, a pervasive theme in the ordering of human thought that may also be expressed as the oppositions of tame-wild or human-animal.10 The frontier is often de­ fined as the place where civilization (culture) confronts savagery (nature); "taming the raw land" is a phrase frequently quoted to describe the winning of the West. What better way to symbolize this process and the ambivalence and conflicting images it evokes than by a beautiful wild horse who is so resistant to taming? The White Steed is a particularly appropriate repre­ sentation of nature in this context, for, rider­ less, he is the product of the free, open range­ land, a creature far superior in every way to the domesticated horses that have been produced by selective breeding. He is of the land, he belongs to it, and no man is his master. Two of the earliest writers who gave accounts of the White Steed of the Prairies included in their journals some perceptive observations about the transformations of the taming process. Gregg noted that

The wild horses are generally well formed, with trim and clean limbs; still their elegance has been much exaggerated by travellers, because they have seen them at large, aban­ doned to their wild and natural gaiety. Then, it is true, they appear superb indeed; horse (even though quite fagged with travel), but when caught and tamed, they generally once among a drove of mustangs, will often dwindle down to ordinary ponies.ll acquire in a few hours all the intractable wild­ ness of his untamed companions.,,12 Anthony The author then goes on to describe the reverse Amaral, writing on the natural history of the process-that is, the change from tame to wild: wild stallion, agrees, stating that "animals "It is a singular fact, that the gentlest wagon capable of domestication are known to be THE WHITE MUSTANG OF THE PRAIRIES 85

LAST OF THE BUFFALO (1888) by Albert Bierstadt. In this spectacular scene an Indian riding a magnificent white horse is the momentary conqueror of an animal of a species soon to be doomed by civilization. The rearing white horse appears to endow the hunter with special power that enables him to be triumphant. In the collection of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, gift of Mrs. Albert Bierstadt. wilder . . . when they have gone wild." He adding the man-horse identification theme to quotes a stockman who observed that in a his colorful comment on the range-born mus­ roundup "the hardest one to 'cut out', the tang that reverts to the wild after a period of leader of them all in a mad race across the captivity: prairie, is the old, gentle, well-broken saddle or work horse, once he gets a taste of freedom." 13 You can talk about your Patrick Henrys and Rufus Steele expressed the same concept, your George Washingtons; you can warble 86 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1981

about your country '''tis of thee," the Star Here the free mustang is depicted as a PrIVI­ Spangled Banner and our own red, white leged dweller in the western wilds, untainted by and blue; but the upright tail of a mustang the ills of civilization, which include industriali­ that wore cinches for years and then got zation. The writer is giving voice to a view that back to the great unfenced will continue to would become a persistent and romantic con­ fan the atmosphere as the true banner of ception of the American West as a primeval freedom that never does come down.14 paradise-a notion later referred to as "the Myth of the Garden.,,16 According to such evidence, then, a feral ani­ . The story of the White Mustang expresses mal (a formerly domesticated species now gone the freedom-captivity or savagery-civilization wild, such as a mustang like the White Steed) dichotomy that is intimately tied to the west­ would appear to be a more precise symbol of ern frontier mystique and seems to take on the freedom and intractability than a true native universality of the nature-culture dilemma in wild animal of the plains. Although the horse a wider sense. For at the same time that the had once evolved in the American grasslands, White Steed was greatly admired, and no doubt the native species became extinct here some­ envied, for his freedom and wild spirit, the time after the last Ice Age. The mustangs are very people who extolled these traits wished to considered to be the descendants of domesti­ deprive him of them. Countless attempts were cated stock, reintroduced by the Spanish, made, time after time, to capture him, and in which had escaped and reverted to the wild. the several versions of the tale in which he pre­ Thus the Steed, though he himself has never fers death by starvation to loss of liberty, there been vanquished, is descended from those who is no record of any thought of setting him free haye been and bears within him the inherent to save his life. His captors, like the one in the capacity of his kind for both extremes in the will James version, simply let him die "of a duality of wild and tame. The paradox of his broken heart"; it is clear they wanted him to belonging to the species most typically in live only under their conditions.17 They are bondage to man, yet being entirely free him­ never motivated by sheer aesthetic joy in the self, lends emphasis to these oppositions. Stallion's beauty and grace, but rather are Irving, like Gregg, also found himself drawn willing to destroy what they cannot subdue and into contemplation involving this wild-tame possess. The White Steed, as an object of duality, and gives evidence of the human beauty, a thing apart, unsuited to a pragmatic tendency toward identification with a mustang world, must inevitably be sacrificed, and in this just captured: attains universal significance. I could not but look with compassion Thus the Mustang seems to embody the upon this fine young animal, whose whole duality intrinsic to the westward movement. course of existence had been so suddenly Emigrants were attracted to the new land's reversed. From being a denizen of these vast wild splendor and vastness, yet at the same pastures, ranging at will from plain to plain 'time these qualities frightened and repelled and mead to mead, cropping of every herb them. They wanted to settle it, tame it, and and flower, and drinking of every stream, he civilize it. Often they strived to create some­ was suddenly reduced to perpetual and thing that resembled their place of origin, even painful servitude, to pass his life under the though they were destroying in the process harness and the curb, amid, perhaps, the those very qualities that had appealed to them din and dust and drudgery of cities. The transition in his lot was such as sometimes in the new land. takes place in human affairs, and in the The sense of mastery that was paramount fortunes of towering individuals;-one day, a in the conquering of the West found expres­ prince of the prairies-the next day, a pack sion in the tale of the White Mustang, and in horse!15 this respect it conforms to a pattern in which THE WHITE MUSTANG OF THE PRAIRIES 87 horses are commonly associated with conquest. valued for its beauty and freedom, does man set The Steed of the Prairies, never vanquished in out to conquer and destroy it? The proposed spirit, can represent the frontiersman's ambiva­ answer is that a process of regeneration takes lence about conquering-he wants to dominate, place in the conquering through the absorption yet he admires indomitability, freedom, and of energy from the conquered. Thus one gains wildness. This dilemma is partly resolved in the more power and energy by taming the fiercest tale by the manner in which the Stallion ul­ spirit, through controlling something that was timately wills his own end rather than having once the epitome of freedom. The greater the death inflicted directly by man. struggle, the greater is the resultant invigoration Traditional stories of historical mounted from the process. This idea may be somewhat conquerors make explicit the close relation­ akin to the motivation underlying blood sacri­ ship that existed between their horses and their fice, possibly having the same conceptual roots. accomplishment of military feats. According Such a practice, as described by anthropologist to Plutarch, for example, the famed war-horse Marcel Griaule among the Dogon, for example, Bucephalus was completely intractable until is based upon the notion that in ritually killing tamed by Alexander the Great.18 Then horse the animal, an individual could share his victim's and rider agreed that "together we'll conquer "life force. ,,22 the world," and, true to their pact, they were Though he is sometimes called the Deathless partners in conquest until the horse's death.19 White Stallion, it is a paradox that in the tales This classic tale illustrates the point that the death is inevitable for the heroic horse. He figure of a horseman implies that a rider is becomes a kind of sacrifice to liberty itself, to already the conqueror of his mount, and his the values of individual freedom and mobility dominance symbolically sets the stage for that he personifies. It is his thirst, in the setting further conquest. Power and might have tradi­ of an arid land, that ultimately brings him tionally accrued to the mounted man, whether toward his doom, and even the wind is in his he be among the plundering hordes of Genghis captor's favor. 23 I find a striking parallel in Khan or the feared Comanche raiders of the New the recent western film Tom Horn, in which World plains. In the American western frontier the hero, who does not refute the charges culture, one's status and manhood came to against him at his trial, also symbolically dies depend upon being mounted; a common adage for his freedom. When Tom is hanged, no one declared that a man afoot was no man at all. is willing to take the responsibility of execu­ The eventual capture of the White Steed was tioner, so a special gallows is designed in which accompanied in the tales by explicit violence­ water is used to spring the trap. Thus, as with more than would be the case with an ordinary the White Mustang, it is apparent that the very wild mustang, because of his great power and forces of nature conspired with man in the endurance and his spirit of determined resis­ killing. It is clear that the Stallion wills his tance. After the first vaquero had roped him, own death by thirst and starvation in order to it required the strength and skill of not one, but avoid enslavement. His sacrificial act heightens three men, to subdue and throw him. Working the power of the opposition between the tame together, the trio tied ropes on him, "fixed a and the wild-or the new order and the old, clog on one of his forefeet, and staked him. ,,20 civilization versus savagery-and he is cast in Such details seem to be the expression of what the role of a victim who is trapped between the Richard Slotkin has termed "regeneration imcompatible forces of culture and nature as through violence," a concept he applies to they clashed on the frontier. events on the American frontier. 21 The explan­ ation offered by Slotkin's theory helps to THE MUSTANG'S MASCULINITY elucidate the central dilemma posed by the story of the White Steed: Why, if something is By choosing death over a life of captivity, 88 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1981 the legendary White Stallion has enacted the she had been tied for safety, became lost when "code of the West," which, reflecting the the mare strayed away from the wagon train chivalric ideal, places honor above life. This, in search of grass. The White Mustang sudden­ of course, is a masculine code, and the Mus­ ly appeared and led the old mare, with the girl, tang's identity is always male. His sexuality is back to his own band of mares. The Stallion, expressed in the muscular power of his body now as a tender and chivalrous patriarch, and symbolized by his long flowing mane and responded to Gretchen's cries by biting the tail, which are emphasized in every version of ropes that bound her and lifting her up by the the story. The Stallion is usually described as collar of her dress in the manner of a mother being alone, as befits a creature superior to his cat. The first time he picked her up and re­ own kind, or, less commonly, in the company moved her from her mare, and the second time, of the band of mares that he protects. His after she had rested, he put her back on her aloneness and aloofness may represent not mount and told the mare to take her back to only his status as the paragon of all horses but her family's camp. So the child was rescued by also the high valuation placed upon the quality the marvelous White Stallion, which she de­ of individualism that is so deeply entrenched as scribed as "arching his neck and pacing with all part of the western frontier complex. Ulti­ the fire of a mustang emperor" and as having mately, the lone White Steed must pit himself "something about him" that prevented her against a human force, and it is appropriate from being "in the least frightened.,,24 that as a classic animal antagonist he should Similar stories center on horses who perform be the strongest and fittest male of his species. heroic deeds on behalf of humans, and often Just as the westward experience was a mascu­ the horse, like the White Steed in the Gretchen lin~ conquering, so the Stallion will be van­ tale, assumes a protective role involving super­ quished by males. The human struggle against natural power. One such legend relates that nature is often symbolized by a man-stallion Saint Anthony, an Egyptian Christian who battle that becomes a test of manhood. The later became the patron saint of horses, was American West provides a fitting backdrop for saved from a martyr's death at the hands of such a contest, as illustrated, for example, by the Egyptian king by the actions of the mon­ Arthur Miller's film The Misfits. Here the hero arch's own mount. As the story goes, this noble is more than a cowboy roping a wild horse, for beast, who in the past had always been remark­ his defeat of the stallion takes on the wider ably quiet, suddenly threw his rider and then dimension of man's conquest of nature. fatally bit him, in order to prevent him from killing Anthony.25 This legend and the Gret­ chen story share the dramatic theme of nature's THE MUSTANG'S STRENGTH, intervention in human affairs through the INTELLIGENCE, AND NOBILITY agency of a horse. The impact of these two Until men can vanquish him, the White tales stems from a reversal of the usual order Mustang appears to reign unchallenged as lord of the human-dominant-over-the-animal or of the western plains. Admired for his un­ culture-dominant-over-nature theme. For here, surpassed endurance and extraordinary in­ by means of actions that produce tangible telligence, he is also depicted as generous results, an animal is able to extend itself into and gallant, the noble steed. His anthropo­ the human or cultural sphere through its own morphization reaches its epitome in the "Little special wisdom and power. Gretchen" story as recounted by J. Frank Dobie in On the Open Range. The event was THE MUSTANG'S GAIT said to have taken place around 1848, when some German colonists were settling Texas. The White Steed of the Prairies invariably A little girl, riding an old mare to whose back paces, and to me this is the most intriguing of THE WHITE MUSTANG OF THE PRAIRIES 89 his characteristics for symbolic analysis. This and nature, but with the inherent power of his gait is quite different from that of an ordinary pace to carry him beyond all worldly horses, wild mustang. With some exceptions, a pace he also seems to traverse a path that links the is an unnatural gait that a horse may acquire natural with the supernatural. through training. In a true pace the horse uses The only horse I have found to rival the the legs on the same side of his body in unison, White Steed for symbolic expressiveness with rather than those on opposite sides, as in the regard to its gait is the mount of Sitting Bull. normal trot. Though there are some natural Again, this horse's unusual pace is embued with pacers, most animals must be schooled for this meaning. It was a gray, a trained circus horse gait. It is relevant that Washington Irving wrote that had been presented to the celebrated of the White Steed: "They say he can pace and Sioux leader as a token of esteem by his friend rack (or amble) faster than the fleetest horse Buffalo Bill Cody at the conclusion of Sitting can run," thus mentioning two other unusual Bull's season of participation in Cody's wild gaits for a range horse. 26 Five-gaited American West Show. According to the tragically ironic Saddle Horses are trained to perform two un­ story, the rifle shots that killed his master were natural gaits that somewhat resemble the pace­ heard by the nearby horse and taken as cues, the slow-gait and the rack, in which only one causing him to go through his paces once more foot is said to touch the ground at a time. Both as he had in the show.27 The same theme are exceedingly smooth for the rider. In these appears in the satiric 1976 Robert Altman film gaits the exaggerated leg action of the mount Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's coupled with the lack of movement in the rest History Lesson. Regarding Sitting Bull's role in of the animal's body produces a spectacular his wild West Show, Buffalo Bill is informed aesthetic effect: it almost seems that the horse that "Sitting Bull has decided that he will do the is floating. Tennessee Walking Horses, another only thing that he had seen here that he would American breed, must also be trained to use want to show his people." When Cody asks, the "walking" gait, or amble, for which they "What's that?" he is told that "Sitting Bull are known, though breeders say they are born will make the gray horse dance." Later, when with a propensity to it. Ordinarily, all these presenting the horse to the Indian, Buffalo unnatural gaits must be taught, and often such Bill tells him, "Chief, I'm gonna make you a horses need to be continually reconditioned to gift of that dancin' gray. You two deserve each execute them. other. Shoot a gun and you ... dance." Still Descriptions of the White Steed always em­ later, when news comes of Sitting Bull's death phasize his unusual pacing gait with its great back on the reservation, the wild West per­ smoothness and speed, a grace of motion that formers are told, "They say the horse danced is awe-inspiring to the beholder. Indeed, he when they shot the chief.,,28 seems to glide over the earth, and his pace sets As Sitting Bull's biographer described this him apart from all other creatures. I suggest event, the Indian police who had shot the that implicit in this trait is the idea that some­ Sioux leader were frightened by the horse's thing of "culture" may in a certain mysterious "putting on his stunts" at his master's death, way be part of the extraordinary makeup of the and they viewed this strange phenomenon as Pacing Mustang, setting him apart from other "worse than the guns of their enemies." They wild horses. Also, I see the pace as a device to thought that the spirit of the dead chief had attribute to him a unique power of movement, entered into the performing horse. Here again making him the swiftest and most graceful of is the concept of a human influence or "cul­ all horses, and giving him the nearest earthly tural" quality represented by the animal's substitute for the wings of Pegasus. Thus, not gait. Also like the Mustang, the circus horse only through the "cultural" association of his appeared invulnerable, for he was unaffected special gait might he span the worlds of man by the flying bullets and "came through without 90 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1981

a scratch." Those who were present said that terpretation whiteness sets him apart as nature "he sat down gravely in the middle of all that undeflled, primeval. White color may stand for carnage, and raised his hoof.,,29 Or, as the poet coldness, the antithesis of the passionate ele­ John Neihardt describes it, "Haughtily he ment of life; but a contradiction is inherent in raised / A hoof, saluting, as a horse should that image, for "white heat" is the opposite do.,,30 extreme. Herman Melville expressed this dual­ In this story I see not only the bond that ity when he wrote of the White Steed galloping linked an animal to its dead master but an "with warm nostrils reddening through his equine figure whose special gait, like that of cool milkiness. ,,32 the Pacing White Steed, symbolizes his role On a more mundane level, his color may be as an intermediary between nature and man. thought to stand for the white race. Such a The artificiality of the learned "circus tricks," meaning is imputed to the Saxon Horse, a or dance steps, exhibited by this horse is part British emblem of the conquering people.33 of the human "cultural" world, part of the The frontier experience of the American West taming process that had been imposed upon the has been conceptualized largely as a white beast as "nature," linked with the same com­ Anglo-Saxon male endeavor, and only recently plex of domination that had conquered land, has there been appreciable interest in the part Indian, and animal alike. played by blacks, Mexicans, and other (dark) minority groups.34 Indeed, the concept of the Anglo-Saxon as the one people ideally suited THE MUSTANG'S COLOR to carry out the conquest of the American West Whiteness is the most prominent attribute of has been set forth with conviction by Owen th~ Steed in almost all versions of the tale. In Wister.35 It was not only the Anglo-Saxon's a few accounts he is gray. Some gray horses special traits, Wister asserts, but also the destiny are white at certain stages of their lives; the that brought the man of this stock into part­ Lippizan stallions, for example, are gray nership with a particular kind of horse, the throughout their early years and onll attain mustang, as "foster-brother" and "ally," which creamy whiteness at about age ten.3 Grays, resulted in the development of the New World then, are almost as close to white animals in cavalier who determined the course of history the world of nature as they seem to be in on the American continent.36 It is possible, symbolism. The Mustang's whiteness is the then, that some frontiersmen could have seen most complex and mysterious of his qualities a reflection of themselves in the proud and and is subject to many interpretations, not all superior white creature who appeared as lord of which are consistent with each other. of the plains. I find it significant that it is Whiteness may represent the essence of the vaqueros who are ultimately responsible for the Stallion's wildness; in my own professional Mustang's capture. Symbolically, this has the experience with stockmen I have frequently effect of removing guilt from Anglo-Ameri­ encountered their firm belief that the whiter cans and placing it instead on persons of Mexi­ an animal is the wilder it will be. Whiteness can or mestizo descent. From this point of could also represent the Steed's universality, view, the idea of the dark foreigner as villain, his composite nature, since white is technical­ not "one of us," assumes importance in iden­ ly the reflection of all colors. Or it may sym­ tifying the destroyer of the freedom of the bolize his spirituality, the supernatural aura beautiful White Steed. with which many of the tales endow him-for White animals have often been regarded as gods are often clothed in white. Whiteness essentially different from those of other colors, may be the expression of his goodness, his in many cases as embodying the supernatural. purity in the face of evil that surrounds him The Plains Indians, for example, considered and always threatens to snare him. In this in- the rare white buffalo sacred and had many THE WHITE MUSTANG OF THE PRAIRIES 91

was pure white. Melville's Moby Dick, with all its complex symbolism, however, is no doubt the best known of all white animals. In his discussion of the quality of whiteness Melville includes a glowing account of the White Mus­ tang:

Most famous in our Western annals and In­ dian traditions is that of the White Steed of the Prairies; a magnificent milk-white charger. ... Nor can it be questioned from what stands on legendary record of this noble horse, that it was his spiritual white­ ness chiefly, which so clothed him with divineness; and that this divineness had that in it which, though commanding worship, at the same time enforced a certain nameless terror. 40

Here reflected is the ambivalence and mystery represented by whiteness, simultaneously in­ spiring both fear and a sense of holiness. THE DEATH STRUGGLE (1845) by Charles In the same passage Melville indicates that Deas. Here the artist has made use of the sym­ "always to the bravest Indians he was the bolic qualities of light and dark imagery. The object of trembling reverence and awe." Some contrast between the predominantly white tribes of Indians had their own legends about horse of the trapper and the darkness of his the Phantom White Mustang that probably Indian adversary's mount suggests the clashing antedated those of the white settlers. The of incompatible forces upon the frontier. Kiowas, for example, believed that this horse Courtesy of the Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, could not be harmed by arrows or rifle balls Vermont. and could run unscathed through a prairie fire. The Blackfeet considered him as possessing the taboos about its use, particularly the hide, potency to sire war horses that made their which was given to the Great Spirit.37 White riders invulnerable in battle.41 Navajos have a elephants are said to be sacred in India, as white high regard for white horses, and their mythol­ asses are In. P erSla.. 38 Th ough many w h"Ite anI- ogy describes the sun and moon deities riding mals occur in literature, I have encountered on elegant milk-white steeds. White is the no more memorable creatures than the two color that Navajos associate with dawn, since spotless and specially blessed white mules, the early morning light banishes the shadows Contento and Angelica, ridden by the padres and mysteries of the night. Because of this in Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Arch­ association, a Navajo who owns a white horse bishop. "They are as good as their names," considers himself fortunate and believes that no their owner noted. "It seems God has given bad luck will befall him when he rides it.42 them intelligence. When I talk to them they Throughout the world there has been a look up at me like Christians; they are very preference for white horses as the mounts of companionable. They are always ridden to­ the gods. Vishnu, the Hindu deity, is said to gether and have a great affection for each have ridden a white (and winged) horse.43 In other.,,39 Saint John's vision of Christ in heaven as war­ Nor can one forget that the mythical unicorn rior and King of Kings he was seated upon a 92 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1981 white horse.44 Joan of Arc, later a saint, rode a · spotless white steed on her holy mission. Correlated with their role as mounts for sacred heroes is the strong tradition identifying white horses as steeds of conquest. Of the Four Horses of the Apocalypse, each one a different color, the white steed is so designated, for "he that sat upon him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him; and he went forth conquering, and to conquer. ,,45 Each of the Four Horses, according to the Book of Revelations, will bring a source of destruction to the earth, but it is notably the white horse who represents the force of conquest itself. Worldly conquerors also have a strong predilection for white mounts, and many famous military leaders have chosen them as war horses. The pure-white steed Marengo car­ ried Napoleon Bonaparte, Tor was Charle­ magne's huge white stallion, and Old Whitey bore Zachary Taylor to battle under four dif­ ferent flags. Portraits of George Washington as COLONEL WILLIAM F. CODY (1889) by a military hero usually show him astride a white Rosa Bonheur. In his public appearances wil­ charger, and it is difficult to separate the war­ liam "Buffalo Bill" Cody frequently rode a splendid white horse. This painting by Rosa rior image of Robert E. Lee from that of his Bonheur contributed to his image in the popu­ gray horse, Traveler. Stephen Vincent Binet lar mind as a heroic conqueror and despoiler describes them both as "iron gray"; "He and of the West. Courtesy of the Buffalo Bill His­ his horse are matches for the strong / Grace of torical Center, Cody, Wyoming. proportion that inhabits both. ,,46 More recently, General George Patton was instrumental in saving the famed Lippizan horses of Vienna from destruction by the Buffalo Bill's favorite mount, Brigham, Nazis during world War II. Thus he preserved plays an important symbolic role in the Altman for posterity the world's most highly schooled film Buffalo Bill and the Indians, in which he is horses, trained to execute almost incredible referred to as "a magnificent white stallion," feats of precision-all pure white stallions. who has clearly contributed to Cody's "heroic Buffalo Bill, whose popular image is that of image." As pointed out in the script, "When conqueror and despoiler of the West, is always Bill's dressed for a ride and mounted on that pictured riding a magnificent white horse in his high-steppin' stallion 0' his, any doubts con­ wild West Show. A poster once used in adver­ cernin' his legends are soon forgot." Buffalo tising the performance depicted two men on Bill's haughty figure on his white charger con­ white chargers, one Cody and the other Napo­ trasts ironically with that of the humble Sitting leon. 47 Rosa Bonheur's widely reproduced Bull portrayed as a small man riding a small portrait of the triumphant showman astride pinto. Later, when Sitting Bull finally acquires his white stallion contributed greatly to his the tall circus horse from Cody, the Indian's fame, and the poet e. e. cummings, has cele­ status has been somewhat improved, yet the brated Buffalo Bill as the one "who used to / animal turns out to be a mare. When Sitting ride a water smooth-silver / stallion. ,,48 Bull rides into the show arena on this gray mare THE WHITE MUSTANG OF THE PRAIRIES 93

and is pointed out as "just a little old man," the 2. Washington Irving, A Tour on the response is "well, rna ybe the horse is too large.,,49 Prairies (1835; reprint, Norman: University of Black Elk, the famed holy man of the Oglala Oklahoma Press, 1971), p. 116. Sioux, though not destined to become a war­ 3. George Wilkins Kendall, Narrative of the Texan Santa Fe Expedition (1844; reprint, rior, was granted in his early youth a super­ Chicago: Lakeside, 1929),pp.107, 109. natural vision to show him how to lead his 4. Josiah Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies, people. In this vision many splendid horses 2 vols. (1944; reprint, New York: Readex, appeared, and of these, twelve were white, 1966), 2 :207-208. with "manes flowing like a blizzard wind." 5. Robert M. Denhardt, The Horse of the White color in Sioux sacred ceremony stood Americas (1947; reprint, Norman: University for the north, "whence comes the great white of Oklahoma Press, 1975), p. 117. cleansing wind." Thus, like the White Steed of 6. Phil Strong, Horses and Americans the Prairies, these horses could symbolize (1939~ reprint, New York: Garden City, 1946), strength and endurance, the ability to survive p.195. 7. J. Frank Dobie, Mody C. Boatright, in the face of adversity, as well as purity and and Harry H. Ransom, eds., Mustangs and Cow beauty. Describing the white horses of his Horses (Austin: Texas Folk-Lore Society, dream, Black Elk revealed that "all about them 1940), pp.175-79. white geese soared and circled." 50 These birds 8. Irving, A Tour on the Prairies, p. 116; might represent winged spirits that attend the Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies, p. 207. white horses; they also suggest an analogy 9. Strong, Horses and Americans, p. 195. between Black Elk's visionary steeds and the 10. Though I do not draw upon it directly god-horse Pegasus, with his wings and white here, the work of Claude Levi-Strauss should color, as well as his general depiction as rider­ be cited in connection with the nature-culture less. True to a common thematic pattern, the theme. See especially The Elementary Struc­ tures of Kinship (Boston: Beacon, 1969) and white horses are specially set apart in the The Raw and the Cooked (New York: Harper, narrative by unusual characteristics. 1975). Very useful in elucidating the way in Unlike Pegasus, however, the Pacing White which the terms nature and culture are used Stallion was mortal. Though he lived in legend is Sherry B. Ortner, "Is Female to Male as on the plains for many years, it was inevitable Nature is to Culture?" in Woman, Culture and that he would die. For the kind of unbounded Society, edited by Michelle Z. Rosaldo and freedom that he represented ended when the Louise Lamphere (Stanford: Stanford Uni­ frontier was closed, making his uncompromis­ versity Press, 1974), pp. 72-73. ing spirit of liberty an anachronism. The new 11. Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies, p. pragmatic order of the civilized world that was 208. 12. Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies, p. closing in on him demanded that he be usefully 208. subjugated or else destroyed. Like the bison 13. Anthony Amaral, "The Wild Stallion: and others who would follow, he could not be Comments on His Natural History," in Brand left to exist for his own sake. But, as people Hook no. 13 (Los Angeles: Westerners, 1969), still yearn with nostalgia for the lost wilderness, p.38. so they remember the White Mustang who once 14. Rufus Steele, Mustangs of the Mesas (Hollywood: Murray and Gee, 1941), p. 188. paced across its limitless expanses in freedom, 15. Irving, A Tour on the Prairies, p. 122. an image expressing the very essence of the 16. For discussion of the Myth of the Gar­ untamed frontier. den, see Henry Nash Smith, Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and Myth (1950; NOTES reprint, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971) and Leo Marx, The Machine in the Gar­ 1. J. Frank Dobie, The Mustangs (1934; re­ den: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in print, Boston: Little, Brown, 1952), pp. 144, 170. America (1964; reprint, New York: Oxford 94 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1981

University Press, 1976). 33. Howey, The Horse, p. 168. 17. Walker D. Wyman, The Wild Horse of 34. Walter Prescott Webb, The Great Fron­ the West (1945; reprint, Lincoln: University tier (1951; reprint, Austin: University of Texas of Nebraska Press, 1965), p. 313. Press, 1975). 18. Plutarch, "Alexander the Great and 35. Owen Wister, "The Evolution of the Bucephalus," in The Great Horse Omnibus, Cow-Puncher," in Ben M. Vorpahl, My Dear edited by Thuston Macauley (New York: Wister: The Frederic Remington-Owen Wister Ziff-Davis, 1949), pp. 3-4. Letters (Palo Alto, California: American West, 19. Kate Klimo, Heroic Horses and Their 1972), pp. 77-96. Riders (New York: Platt and Munk, 1974), 36. Ibid., p. 81. p.34. 37. Frank Gilbert Roe, The North American 20. Dobie et al., Mustangs, p. 178. Buffalo, 2nd ed. (Toronto: University of On­ 21. Richard Slotkin, Regeneration Through tario Press, 1970), pp. 715-28. Violence: The Mythology of the American 38. Howey, The Horse, p. 185. Frontier, 1600-1860 (Middletown: Wesleyan 39. Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Arch­ University Press, 1973). bishop (1926; reprint, New York: Knopf, 22. Marcel Griaule, Conversations with Ogo­ 1942), p. 69. temmeli (London: Oxford University Press, 40. Melville, Moby Dick, pp. 275-76. 1975), p. 131. 23. Dobie et al., Mustangs, p. 177. 41. Denhardt, Horse of the Americas, p. 119. 24. J. Frank Dobie, On the Open Range (1931; reprint, Dallas: Banks Upshaw, 1940), 42. La Verne Harrell Clark, They Sang for pp.103-9. Horses: The Impact of the Horse on Navajo 25. M. Oldfield Howey, The Horse in Magic and Apache Folklore (Tucson: University of and Myth (New York: Castle, 1948), p. 184. Arizona Press, 1966), p. 22. 26. Irving, A Tour on the Prairies, p. 116. 43. Howey, The Horse, p. 29. 27. Stanley Vestal, Sitting Bull: Champion 44. Revelations 19:11-16. of the Sioux (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1932), 45. Revelations 6:2. p.308. 46. Stephen Vincent Benet, John Brown's 28. Alan Rudolph and Robert Altman, Buf­ Body (1927; reprint, New York: Rinehart, falo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's His­ 1955), pp. 170-71. tory Lesson (New York: Bantam, 1976), pp. 47. Henry Blackman Sell and Victor Wey­ 118, 141, 148. bright, Buffalo Bill and the wild West (New 29. Vestal, Sitting Bull, p. 308. York: Oxford University Press, 1955), p. 226. 30. John G. Neihardt, The Song of the Mes­ 48. e. e. cummings, 100 Selected Poems siah (New York: Macmillan, 1935), p. 87. (1923; reprint, New York: Grove, 1978), p. 7. 31. Morris Weeks, J r., "Home Turf of Those 49. Rudolph and Altman, Buffalo Bill, Great White Horses," New York Times, April 2, pp. 47-126, passim. 1978, p. 1. 50. John G. Neihardt, Black Elk Speaks 32. Herman Melville, Moby Dick (1851; re­ (1932; reprint, Lincoln: University of Nebraska print, New York: Modern Library, 1930), Press, 1961), pp. 2, 23. p.276.