What do you call a new kind of animal?
As each tribe encountered the horse, they coined a name for it.
A number of tribes used names that likened it to the dog.
He put us in mind of a stag that had lost his horns, and we did not know what name to give him.
But as he was a slave to man, like the dog, which carried our things, he was named the Big Dog.
—Saukamaupee (Piegan), 1787
Assiniboine: thongatch-shonga or sho-a-thin-ga (“big dog”)
A’aninin (Gros Ventre): it-shuma-shunga (“red dog”)
Lakota (Sioux): Sunkakhan (“holy dog” or “mystery dog”)
Siksika (Blackfoot): ponoka-mita (“elk dog”)
Cree: mistatim (“big dog”)