Did the Plains Indians get horses from the Spanish or...?

Question

I know horses arrived in the Americas with the Spanish, but did the Plains Indians get them from the Spanish, or did horses get loose and spread through the plains like an invasive species, or what?

Answer 1

A combination of both! The Plains Indians and other Amerinds stealing horses from the Spanish or being given them as gifts or payment for work and stallions escaping and taking mares with them and migrating north into the Plains Indian Areas.

Answer 2

Most were stolen from the Spanish and traded North to those that would become the Plains Tribes.

Until the arrival of the horse the plains were sparsely settled. Dogs were the only beasts of burden so people stayed close to the edges of the plains. The horse gave them the ability to travel great distances and hunt large numbers of buffalo.

It's been suggested that without humans the horse would have gone extinct. They tend to need a good deal of care. The idea that a few horses escaped then move hundreds of miles northward is unlikely

Answer 3

It was a combination of the two factors. Many horses were stolen from the Spanish, others escaped and formed wild bands of mustangs. However, bands of wild horses reached their highest numbers during the latter half of the 1800's when most Native Americans had been banished to reservations.

Answer 4

i cannot  say exactly probably both ,but more the second way