Sharing the previous post generated a lot of pushback, surprisingly from a Facebook group on the Book of Mormon and archaeology. The suggestion that this particular figure of the geoglyphs in the southern California desert known today as the Blythe Intaglios could possibly be a horse was met primarily with criticism. The common answer was that it was a mountain lion and could not be a horse. Why would an animal design like this be identified with a predator like a puma or cougar?

The prevailing interpretation is that the humanoid figure is Mastamho, the creator of life. He had a companion and helper known as Hatakulya, a mountain lion. Some legends say that Hatakulya could also transform into a man. Other legends state that there were two mountain lions: Hatakulya and Numeta. One has a tail that hangs down an the other has one that goes up. These creation stories come from the Mohave and Quechan tribes that live in the region today.

This is the most common interpretation of these giant images, but if you look at websites that describe the site, they all appear to have copied text from the same source, as they all say the same thing. The human and animal figures are grouped together as a pair. Each set is traditionally identified as Mastamho and Hatakulya, but since Hatakulya is a mountain lion that can transform into a man, perhaps each set represents the two aspects of each being. A third humanoid is nearby, but without an accompanying animal. 

LegendsofAmerica.com has a page on the Intaglios and repeats the same story as all the rest do, but also suggests that the figures may represent powerful individuals in a clan interacting with their surroundings. It also includes the observation that: 'Part of the dating problem is that the animal figures appear to be horses. If so, they must have been carved either before American horses went extinct some 10,000 years ago or more recently after the Spaniards arrived in California in 1540.

Another theory holds that some modern horses did exist in North America before the Spaniards, but were regarded as food sources rather than bests of burden.'

Our point is that it really is not clear what these figures were originally created to represent. Since neither the Mohave nor the Quechan made them, it is reasonable to look at alternative interpretations. We have suggested several possibilities. The problem is, as LegendsofAmerica states, the animal figures (particularly one of them) appear to be horses.