After near extermination, Ojibwe pony returns to ancestral homelands

Jan. 31—SAWYER — For generations, Lac La Croix Indigenous ponies worked and lived alongside the Ojibwe people of western Ontario and northern Minnesota.

That was until the 1970s when the entire population was reduced to just four mares, threatened with extinction by the Canadian government. Now, nearly a half-century later, the pony has returned to its ancestral homelands on the Fond du Lac Reservation.

Last year, David and Patra Wise of Native Wise farms on the Fond du Lac Reservation welcomed two Lac La Croix Indigenous ponies, Shy Boy and Echo.

"They really just kind of want to be with you. They're almost like a big dog," David said about the two horses as they followed him around the farm.

Shy Boy is an elder horse, believed to be around 18, and has a sweet and curious demeanor. He came to the Wise's farm Seine River First Nation in northwestern Ontario. Echo, 8, is timid and distrustful of humans due to past experiences as a ranch horse. He came to Native Wise after being adopted by The Humble Horse, a nonprofit farm in western Wisconsin dedicated to the rehabilitation and preservation of the Lac La Croix Indigenous pony.

There are stories about the Lac La Croix Indigenous pony, colloquially known as the Ojibwe pony, running as freely through the northwoods as deer. That came to a gradual end, though, as conflict with European settlers led to the horse's decline. By the 1940s, one small herd in the United States remained at the Bois Forte Reservation in northern Minnesota, but they were all killed on the advice of missionaries, making the breed extinct in the United States.

What remained of the breed roamed the wilderness surrounding Lac La Croix First Nation in Ontario until the 1970s, until just four mares remained. However, in 1977, Canadian health officials deemed the four remaining mares a health risk and announced plans to exterminate them — making the breed extinct.

But before the government could execute their plan, five men from Bois Forte and Lac La Croix rescued the mares by loading them onto a trailer and driving them across the frozen lake to Minnesota.

Since no stallions remained, to prevent the breed from going extinct, the mares were crossbred with a mustang. Today, thanks to a concerted breeding effort, there are around 175 Ojibwe ponies in existence.

Both Shy Boy and Echo are geldings — castrated horses — and thus removed from the breeding stock. That doesn't make them any less valuable for the Wises, though. They intend to use the retired horses as cultural ambassadors to reconnect the surrounding Ojibwe community with their roots as horse people.

"It's been part of our existence forever ... and it would be a tragedy to lose it," David said. "So I just want to make sure it has a good safe place to live, and hopefully I can do something to help, even if it's just bringing awareness."

This is in line with the broader mission of Native Wise, a 380-acre farm outside of Sawyer that was started in 2019

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As a farm, it is focused on sustainable agriculture and education. By fostering Ojibwe ponies, which the Wises refer to as "Ojibwe spirit horses," local Ojibwe youth have a place to directly experience their culture and history, even if it is sometimes forgotten.

"All the kids that come to our classes, they have no idea that they have an Ojibwe spirit horse, and that's part of their culture," Patra said.

The ponies were historically integral to Ojibwe life. In the winter, they were used for labor such as pulling wood and nets. However, as the ice thawed and transportation pivoted to canoes, they were left to freely wander the woods throughout the summer. Their free-roaming nature is reflected in the defining characteristics that make the breed unique.

"One thing that is incredibly distinct and unique about what we know about this breed is that they were not fenced in; they were not tied up. They lived around Indigenous villages and when somebody wanted to work with a horse they'd grab a horse and work with them. So they are incredibly friendly and very, very people-oriented," said Trevor Kirczenow MacDonald, breed registrar for the Ojibwe Horse Society, which oversees, registers and maintains breed standards.

The horse is genetically distinct from other horse breeds, making it uniquely adapted to the boreal forests they historically inhabited. They have a unique nostril structure and nose flaps that warm the air before they breathe in, and wide feet that are good for stomping through the snow, allowing them to thrive in much colder climates.

Though it is conventionally believed the Ojibwe pony is a cross between a Spanish mustang and a Canadian horse brought over by European settlers, David believes there is evidence to suggest the horse was here well before the colonial project began.

"The story is they've always been here," David said.

Though the population is trending upward, it is still an uphill battle for the future of the Ojibwe pony. Because all the horses are descendants of the four mares that were rescued from Canada in the 1970s, the current population is facing high rates of inbreeding, compromising the genetic health of the entire breed.

"It's reaching this really critical precipice," said Em Loerzel, president of the Ojibwe Horse Society and co-owner of The Humble Horse, the farm that donated Echo to the Wise family.

Though there are roughly 175 Ojibwe ponies in existence, most of the males have been gelded, making them permanently lost to the breeding population. There are only 27 intact stallions and young stud colts.

"It sounds pretty good, but if you hear that there's 25 stallions, that is not a lot of stallions," Kirczenow MacDonald said.

Because of the lack of genetic diversity due to inbreeding among the 27 breeding males, Ojibwe pony breeders are looking into outcrossing the horse with other breeds to eliminate the fragile elements of their genetics and replace them with stronger genes through a process known as "hybrid vigor." Over time, breeders hope to isolate the gene to recreate 100% genetically pure Ojibwe ponies.

"(In three generations) that horse is genetically back to being 100% Ojibwe pony, if we are thinking about blood quantum," Loerzel said.

For the Wises, the story of the Ojibwe pony and the Ojibwe people go hand in hand. There isn't one without the other. At Native Wise, the Wise's want to reignite the deep cultural connection between the Ojibwe people and their horse. By providing community access to their ancestral breed of horse, they hope it will foster a sense of pride in local Ojibwe youth as a horse people.

"It's part of the Northland. It's as much part of the Northland as the moose is, or the snowshoe hare. It's part of our ecosystem, so we should all be excited and inspired by it," David said.