Palouse

The Nez Perce of the Columbia Plateau received horses around 1730, earlier than most Plains tribes, through trade from the south. Within two generations they had become expert breeders, selecting for speed, endurance, and the spotted coat pattern — what we now call the Appaloosa coloring — that they found beautiful and distinctive. By the 1750s, Nez Perce horses were famous throughout the Northwest.

French Canadian trappers encountered the horses near the Palouse River in present-day Idaho and eastern Washington. The horses were 'les chevaux de Palouse' — the horses of the Palouse country — and the name contracted. 'A Palouse horse' became 'a Palouse horse' became 'Apalouse' became 'Appaloosa.' The Nez Perce name for the breed has not survived clearly in historical records; the name they use today was given by outsiders.

The U.S. Army's 1877 Nez Perce War ended in the forced surrender of Chief Joseph's band after a 1,700-mile flight toward Canada. As part of the suppression of the tribe's resistance, the Army killed or dispersed the famous Nez Perce horse herds. The Appaloosa nearly vanished. A scattered remnant population survived on ranches and farms.

Claude Thompson of Moro, Oregon, founded the Appaloosa Horse Club in 1938, creating the breed registry that formalized the modern Appaloosa. The breed recovered. Today there are over 700,000 registered Appaloosas. The horse the Nez Perce spent 150 years perfecting, then nearly lost, then recovered, is now the third most popular breed in the United States.