Some Native American tribes, most notably the Lakota, referred to horses as “Sun’ka Wakan”, which translates to “Holy Dog” or “Mysterious Dog”

This term reflects the deep spiritual and cultural reverence they held for horses, seeing them not just as animals but as companions, teachers, and even relatives

The idea of calling horses “sacred dogs” comes from the fact that, to many Plains peoples, horses were vastly different from any animal they had known before. Dogs were their closest companions, so when horses first appeared in the 1500s, they were often described in terms of dogs — as “big dogs,” “mystery dogs,” or “sacred dogs”

. This was a way to convey their size, strength, and the awe they inspired.

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