Across the Ice: How We Saved the Ojibwe Horse

Authors Darcy Whitecrow and Heather O’Connor employ fictional narrative—an Ojibwe grandmother, Nookomis, retelling the history of the Ojibwe horse breed to her grandchildren on a momentous night—to relate the true story of how the Ojibwe breed was saved from annihilation.

In an authors’ note, Whitecrow and O’Connor write, “Most people have never heard of the Ojibwe horse. It’s a wild breed that once lived among the Ojibwe people of northwestern Ontario and northern Minnesota. … Winters are cold and snowy north of Lake Superior. Ojibwe horses developed special adaptations to help them survive.”

The authors explain that, in a symbiotic relationship, the horses helped the Ojibwe people run their traplines and the Ojibwe people provided shelter and food for the horses in the winter. When settlers arrived, many of the horses were destroyed and, by 1977, only four mares survived at Lac La Croix First Nation, by Quetico Provincial Park. When the government decided that the horses were a health hazard, the Ojibwe community forged an innovative and daring plan to save the mares by transporting them across frozen Lac La Croix and into the care of a Minnesota farmer who was willing to provide shelter, food, and safety for the animals.

Now, 40 years later, after the Ojibwe breed was saved by initially mating the four mares with a mustang stallion, Nookomis, her grandchildren, and their community await with joy and hope the arrival of the mares’ descendants—five mares and a stallion—so the Lac La Croix First Nation can once again be home to a small herd of Ojibwe horses.

Young children are sure to catch the excitement and wonder of this amazing story of environmental stewardship and protection of a culturally significant breed of horses. Today there are 180 Ojibwe horses, including a small herd at Lac La Croix First Nation where their story of preservation began.

(Candlewick)