Mustangs and Prisoners: Narratives of Capture and Domestication

This paper analyzes narratives of capture and domestication that link subgroups of men and horses: male inmates of U.S. prisons and mustangs removed from federal lands. The paper focuses on the semiotic and material analogies between law-breaking men and feral horses and considers the “gentling” and “civilizing” effect that results from negotiating species difference. These redemptive narratives appeal to revisionist approaches to the Wild West, but they also neglect critical questions about the ideologies and practices that have resulted in discardable populations of both humans and horses within the United States.