Pawnee Tribe

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The Pawnee were one of the first few tribes to establish on the Great Plains. The Pawnee came up from their inherited home of Mississippi and east Texas, by the Gulf of Mexico. The Pawnee then established on the Republican, Platte, and Loup rivers, located in current day Nebraska. This area was great for living because it had an ample supply of prey, rich soil, and plenty of rivers/lakes for water.
Being one of the few tribes on the Great Plains they had more than enough food and water, meaning that the Pawnee population would exceed 35,000 people. Eventually the Pawnee split up into 4 separate groups. The 4 groups were the Pitahauerat, meaning people downstream, the Chaui, meaning people in the middle, the Skidi, meaning wolf, the Kitkehahaki, meaning little muddy bottom village. The Chaui lived by the Arkansas River in Kansas and the Platte in Nebraska. The Pitahauerat lived in the same place as the Chaui. The Skidi spread out across the northern prairie of Nebraska with their settlements on the northern part of the Loup River. The Kitkehahaki settled in Nebraska at the Loup River. These 4 groups eventually had to come together because the copious amounts of the food and water attracted more tribes.
The Pawnee way of life was a big contrast from the other tribes on the Great Plains. While a majority of the tribes in the Great Plains were hunters, the Pawnee were very agricultural. They had set villages where they cultivated crops. The Pawnee’s culture and rituals were based on growing and harvesting corn. The most popular forms of corn grown were blue and white corn. Plants grown were beans, squash, watermelon, and corn. Some crops that grew in the forest were wild cucumbers, wild onions, lambs quarter, Indian potato, wild plums...

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...he gods. Chiefs could act like priests but priests were not allowed to stand in as chiefs. Holy men were thought of as shining stars from heaven and the guardians of their tribe.

Works Cited

"Comanche Timeline." Comanche Language. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Feb. 2014. .
Kallen, Stuart A. The Pawnee. San Diego, CA: Lucent, 2001. Print.
Kappler, Charles J. "INDIAN AFFAIRS: LAWS AND TREATIES. Vol. 2, Treaties." INDIAN AFFAIRS: LAWS AND TREATIES. Vol. 2, Treaties. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Feb. 2014. .
"Pawnee Indians." Family Search. N.p., 16 Jan. 2014. Web. 6 Feb. 2014. .
"Pawnee People." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 02 June 2013. Web. 06 Feb. 2014. .

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