The economic dimensions of the horse herds destroyed at Palo Duro Canyon deserve more attention than they typically receive.

On the Southern Plains, horses were not just transportation and hunting tools.

They were the primary form of stored wealth.

A family’s horse herd was the family’s savings account, its capital assets, its measure of prosperity.

This wealth was liquid in a specific sense: horses could be traded for other goods, given as bride price in marriage arrangements, offered as gifts to cement political relationships, used to compensate for injuries or deaths, donated to ceremonies and giveaways that built social standing.

The circulation of horses through these social mechanisms was one of the ways that economic resources were distributed through the community.