The Legend

     

 

Traditional Dakotah and Lakota people firmly believe that the aboriginal North American horse did not become extinct after the last ice age, and that is was part of their precontact culture.   They believe that the horse originated in the New World and were not obtained via the Spanish conquistadors.  Some Dakotah  Indian traditionalists believe they have always had horses (Sunkakan).  There is much controversy surrounding this theory but the Dakotah Indians believe that the Nokota Horse is a descendent of the original Dakotah horses.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Lightening, Wakinyan tonwairjpi, in Dakotah is considered to be a very powerful, mythic and spiritual force within Dakotah culture.  In this Dakotah legend, the horse emerged and originated when lightening struck a large whirlpool in the Missouri River.  Some Dakotah traditionalists state that when horses run very fast and hard in an electrically charged thunderstorm, lines of sparks will trace and fly off the horses ears.