Travois

A travois is an A-frame load-dragging structure historically used by Plains Indigenous peoples of North America, made from two long poles lashed together at one end in an A shape with a platform or netting slung between them, sometimes braced by a third pole bound across the two, with the pointed joined end dragged forward along the ground. It could be hauled by hand, sometimes with a shoulder harness, or pulled by dogs, and after Spanish colonization introduced the horse to the region in the sixteenth century, horse-drawn travois became dominant, largely replacing dog-drawn versions by the mid-eighteenth century. Archaeological evidence of travois tracks in New Mexico has been dated to as far back as roughly 22,000 years. The design proved more practical than a wheeled cart on the terrain travois users actually crossed, including forest floors, soft soil and snow, where wheels tend to bog down or fail.