Katie Locke
American Studies
December 9,2007


Jesse Redheart is the great grandnephew of Chief Joseph. He has a wife and six kids. He used to ride broncos but he gave that up to train and breed Appaloosas. He lives on the Lapwai reservation in Idaho. Jesse rides horses the same way his ancestors used to which is by knotting handmade reins around the muzzle. All of his kids ride, including the youngest. Jesse wears a Nez Perce outfit that he inherited from his grandmother. There is a war bonnet of black and white turkey feathers in front by a row of dyed red feathers. White ermine tails stream from the beaded headband. The buckskin trousers and jacket are adorned with beads of blue,white,red,and yellow. He has 28 Appaloosas.


There are many ways to tell what an Appaloosa looks like. One of them being that they have striped,durable hooves, that are wide at the heel. They have a long head with a flat profile, with mottled skin around the nose and eyes. With the eyes, there needs to be a white are around the iris. A deep, narrow,and medium chest with long, sloping shoulders. The long,muscular,medium neck and muscular agile legs. Appaloosas usually have a tapered tail. Many Indians liked this because the tail wouldn’t tangle in thorns and brush. But even with all these qualifications, an Appaloosa can’t be registered unless he has spots with the skin color being the same color as the spots. Their height is from around 14.2- 16 hands high. The weight is from 900- 1150 pounds. They are known for having a fast easy walk called he “ indian shuffle .“ There are five different coat patterns. Leopard, white with dark spots; Snowflake, white spots all over the body but concentrated over the hindquarters. Another one is Blanket, where the quarters maybe spotted or white; Marble, a mottled pattern over the body, and Frost, white specks on a dark back ground.


There are two different stories that tell how the Nez Perce got the Appaloosa and thus began the history of the Appaloosa. One story is where a Dutch ship was sinking and the stallions swam a shore to the northwest coast and the indians found them and bred them to their best mares. The second story is most likely the true story. When the Spaniards came, they brought horses with them and the horses escaped and made their way to Idaho. It’s been debated about when the Nez Perce started breeding the Appaloosa. Some say the 1500’s and others say the1700’s. One thing is known though, the breed got it’s name from the Palouse river. Apparently, the reasons why the horses were always of the highest quality is the Nez Perce either traded or gelded horses that were not at the set standard. Because of these standards the Appaloosa was described by Meriweather Lewis as being “ An excellent race. They are lofty, elegantly formed and durable.”


One of the reasons why the Nez Perce choose the Appaloosa is because they liked bright colored horses. They could have chosen the Pinto,Paint,or the Palomino for their mounts, but they created the Appaloosa so it would be their own. From all the years of careful breeding they created an Appaloosa that had a distinguished appearance. For one thing, theirs hooves were really strong and could stand up to the pounding of the hard earth and the jagged rocks that littered the ground. They made good mounts for racing and hunting. A good reason why they were such good buffalo mounts is because they were versatile and had good endurance and temperaments. Appaloosas are also very willing and intelligent. For trading an Appaloosa, you could get anything you wanted like a wife or enough food for the winter!

Chief Joseph was fine breeder of horses and a good chief. He made a famous speech with the words “ From the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.” He was told to give up the land by the whites but he wouldn’t sell the land and that decision escalated into a war. He did eventually move onto a reservation. As the Nez Perce were moving to the reservation, some of the warriors killed settlers and that sent the Army to destroy them. Joseph and his band tried to flee to Canada and they almost made it, except the Army reached them first. He surrendered with the condition that they gave up their horses and they did. Joseph often thought about the horses they had given up and quoted “ somebody has got our horses.” He died in 1904 from a broken heart.