DCHP-1 Online
horse Indian Hist. 
1 a Kootenay Indian of the interior of Southern B.C., so called from the practice of travelling by horse rather than canoe.
- 1888 (1890) . . . she like all Kootenay women, carried her "quirt," or riding-whip, for they are horse Indians and rarely walk.
- 1948 And for some unknown reason the Indians around Okanagan Lake neither made nor used canoes. Probably they belonged to a different tribe; they were sometimes referred to as horse Indians, and those round the Shuswap Lake as canoe Indians; however in other ways their customs were much the same.
2 † a member of a of several tribes of Indians inhabiting the prairies, as the Blackfoot, Assiniboine, and Plains Cree.
See also: Plain(s) Indian
- 1954 For the Blackfeet, the Piegans and the Bloods kept the land. They were the Horse Indians, war-like, proud, without fear of the white man.
- 1888 (1890) . . . she like all Kootenay women, carried her "quirt," or riding-whip, for they are horse Indians and rarely walk.