Rare Horse Breed Revived for Choctaw Nation
乔克托族恢复了稀有的马品种
The animals on Bill Franck Brown's farm in Poplarville Mississippi look like ordinary sheep, cattle and horses but they're not. Their ancestors were brought to America by Spanish conquistadors and bred by Choctaw Indians in what are now Alabama Mississippi and Louisiana.Colonial Spanish horses are among the world's few genetically unique horse breeds and their ties to Native Americans run deep, says Francine Locke Bray, a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.
比尔·弗兰克·布朗农场的动物看起来像普通的绵羊、牛和马，但它们并不普通。它们的祖先由西班牙的征服者带到美国，由乔克托族印第安人在现在的阿拉巴马州、密西西比州和路易斯安那州培育。殖民时期的西班牙马匹是世界上少数几个基因独特的马品种之一，它们与美洲原住民息息相关，俄克拉荷马州乔克托族的成员弗朗辛·洛克·布雷如是说。
When they first started using them, they used them as pet animals. So they literally, you know, they took them on hunting trips.Of course the women were responsible for processing the meat and all that but instead of carrying them on, they're carrying it on their backs, they now could carry it on the horses.
他们最初是把它们当做宠物来用的。毫不夸张地说，他们带着它们到处去打猎。当然，妇女们要负责处理肉，但她们不扛着它们，她们现在可以把肉背在马背上。
The small sturdy horses were thought to be long gone from the deep south expelled along with the Choctaw and other tribes in the mid-1800s. Their forced migration to Oklahoma became known as the Trail of Tears.A few hundred Choctaw horses have been bred in Oklahoma but the gene pool is small. In 2005 an expert on the breed visited Brown's farm to check on the descendants of colonial cattle and sheep, and discovered Desoto. DNA testing proved the stallion is Choctaw—a thrill for members of the Choctaw Nation.
这些小而结实的马被认为是在19世纪中期与乔克托族和其他部落一起被驱逐出南部腹地的。它们被迫迁移到俄克拉荷马州，被称为“眼泪之路”。在俄克拉荷马州已经培育了几百匹乔克托马，但是基因库很小。2005年，该品种的专家到访布朗农场，查看殖民地牛羊的后代，发现了德索托。DNA检测证明这匹种马是乔克托族的——这对乔克托族的成员来说是一种兴奋。
These horses were so important to our people, and yet our ancestors.Rare farm animals like the ones on the Brown's farm are also important for the future because of their robust health mothering and foraging instincts and the proven ability to thrive in a changing climate.Before commercial agriculture took place they evolved on their own to live off the land, on their own through. You know, drought, you know, through, you know, in wintertime a lot of animals live on whatever they could find in the, in the longleaf pine forests years ago and in the coastal plains and flatwoods, so they have ability to survive where your commercial-type on those will not.
这些马对我们的人民和我们的祖先来说都是非常重要的。布朗农场的那些稀有的动物将来也很重要，因为它们有强健的母体、强大的觅食本能以及在多变的气候中茁壮成长的能力。在商业农业出现之前，它们靠自己进化，在这片土地上生存下来。你知道，干旱以及冬天的时候，很多动物靠着它们能找到的一切东西存活下来，比如在年份较久的长叶松森林里，在沿海平原和低平林地，它们都能存活下来，所以它们的生存能力是你在商业社会中所没有的。
The mares that were the best genetic matches for Desoto were brought to Mississippi last year. The Browns say some of the foals will remain with them while others will go back to Oklahoma along with pregnant mares.
去年，基因匹配德索托最好的母马被带到密西西比。布朗夫妇说，一些小马驹将留在他们身边，而另一些将与怀孕的母马一起回到俄克拉荷马州。
I'm Faith Lapidus VOA news.
我是Faith Lapidus, 美国之音新闻报道。