A wealthy family — one with large horse herds — was not just economically secure.

It had the social capital that came from being able to be generous: to give horses to those who needed them, to provide horses for ceremonial use, to equip warriors who lacked their own mounts.

When the horse herds were shot at Palo Duro, the wealth destruction was not abstract.

It was the elimination of the tangible savings of the families who had accumulated those animals over years or decades.

Horses that had been bred and trained and cared for over seasons — horses that represented the labor and knowledge of specific people — were shot on the Panhandle plains.