“Their horses appear to be of an excellent race; they are lofty, elegantly formed, active and durable: in short many of them look like fine English coursers and would make a figure in any country.”

— Meriwether Lewis, Lewis and Clark Expedition, Journal entry, Feb. 15, 1806

At first glance the PBS Nature program American Horses (Wednesday, PBS, 8/7c) presents itself as an overview of the four horse breeds that have traditionally called the New World home — the Morgan, Quarter Horse, Appaloosa and the Mustang and, as with all programs of its kind, American Horses will appeal to different viewers for different reasons.

To these eyes, though, it’s the passage on the Appaloosa that struck the deepest chord.

Perhaps that’s because, as a non-horse person, I responded to the way the program makers chose to focus on the close relationship between these semi-wild horses — most identifiable by the vibrant, spotted patterns of their coats, and the indigenous Nez Perce First Nations tribe, who have lived on the Columbia River Plateau in the US Pacific Northwest for some 12,000 years.

The Nimíipuu people and nearby Chinook — collectively dubbed Nez Percé by French explorers and trappers who somewhat lazily defined all indigenous people in the area by the loose translation, “pierced nose,” even though the Chinook were the only First Nations tribe in the region to use that body modification — started to breed the Appaloosa in the 18th century. The Nimíipuu were part of a widespread, far-reaching network of indigenous tribes across coastal Oregon and Washington State, over the Rocky Mountains to the high plains of Montana and the northern Great Basin of Idaho. At the widest extent of their range the Nez Perce — Appaloosas in tow — could be found as far south as Nevada.

The Nez Perce may have started developing the Appaloosa as an original American breed in the mid- to late 1700s — after first obtaining them from the Shoshone First Nation around 1730 — but cave paintings, depicting wild horses with distinctive spotted coat patterns range as far afield as Ancient Greece and the Han dynasty in China. Early European settlers in the Pacific Northwest dubbed the horse the “Palouse horse,” probably after the Palouse River, a tributary of the Snake River that links Washington State with Idaho. Over time, the name was shortened to ‘Appaloosa.’

American Horses, narrated by the American actor Bill Pullman — himself a rancher; Pullman co-owns a cattle ranch with his brother in Montana, near the town of Whitehall — touches on how the Appaloosa has evolved to become one of the most recognizable and widespread horses of the New World. Appaloosas have retained their traditional wild streak over the decades — and centuries — and have been used in many movies.

That said, they’re not particularly “child friendly” and have a reputation for being “opinionated” (American Horses producer Eric Bendick’s word), tough, willful, resilient, fast runners, difficult to handle at times, and quick to adapt to varying terrain and ever-changing climate patterns.

The traditional relationship between the Nez Perce and the Appaloosa “was a very powerful part of the filming process,” producer Bendick explained, in a teleconference call with writers in the TV Critics Association. “It took us several years of conversation to be welcomed and learn their traditions. Some of the stories they shared with us are the first time these stories have been told on film.

“So we had a huge responsibility. We did a lot of long listening, to understand their point of view, to understand the Appaloosa, to understand the beautiful place that the Appaloosa come from and how complex that journey has been, for both (the horses) and for Native American people.

“My sense is that that is one of the things that has kept their culture alive, and kept their families together over extended generations. For us to share that message helps provide a small ray of hope, I think, for a culture that has faced a lot of adversity. It was a beautiful thing for us to know we could be a part of that, to celebrate the younger generation, the up-and-coming riders who are so fun to watch. They really are free in their spirit, their understanding of what the Appaloosa means to their family tradition, taking that torch and moving it forward.”

The fascinating life story of the Appaloosa is only one small part of American Horses — there’s only so much story a program can tell in less than an hour after all — but that small part pries open a window onto the Big Picture of the historical connections between wild horses and the various indigenous tribes across the American West, and their connection to the natural world.

Perhaps, one day, the Appaloosa — and the Nez Perce themselves for that matter — will warrant a full documentary series in their own right.

American Horses premieres Wednesday on PBS at 8/7c, at pbs.org/nature and on the PBS Video app.