North Platte in Lincoln County, Nebraska — The American Midwest (Upper Plains)

Pawnee Indian Garden

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, August 4, 2021

1. Pawnee Indian Garden Marker (left panel)

Inscription. The Pawnee were one of the most important Native American tribes of the Plains area. By the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries they were living in circular earthlodges in large villages, sometimes including more than a thousand people. To sustain this number of people, the Pawnee depended not only on hunting, but on gathering and planting as well.

Pawnee women and girls gathered many kinds of food from plants that grew on the prairie. These included milkweed pods, sunflower seeds, wild nuts, and berries. Along streams or in marshy places they found roots of yellow lotus, cattail, wild onions, and sweet flag. They also gathered chokecherries, wild plums, wild grapes, sand cherries, wild potatoes, turnips, and turkey peas.

Cultivated gardens produced much of their food. A Pawnee woman's garden was about one acre in size. They used simple tools: a rake, a hoe made from a bison shoulder blade, and a digger, made from a fire-hardened stick. Using seeds they had saved from the previous year, they planted corn, beans, pumpkins, squash, and melons. Corn, their main food, was picked and roasted or allowed to dry on the

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stalk before picking. Pumpkins were cut into strips and dried. Corn and beans were dried and put into skin bags and then lowered into an underground storage pit. Some storage pits were located in the earthlodge; others were built outside the earthlodge. The outdoor food pits were ten to twelve feet deep and held food enough for several years.

Squash
Narragansett Indian word askutasquash,
which means "eaten raw or uncooked."Squash are one of the oldest cultivated plants known to exist. Dating from 10,000 years ago, they were initially prized for their utilitarian properties (i.e., utensils, containers, etc...). Eventually, their flesh and seeds became valuable food sources.

The European settlers in the Americas only began to eat them when food became scarce during their first winter in the "New World."

Types of squash include: Butternut, Hubbard, Turban, Winter Pumpkins, Butternuts, Musky Winter Squash, Cushaw, Zucchini, Yellow Squash, Ornamental Gourds, Crookneck, Spaghetti Squash, and Summer Pumpkins.

Maize
(Indian Corn)
Zea mays L.Indian Corn (Maize) was domesticated over 8,000 years ago in southwestern Mexico. It was likely derived

Pawnee Indian Garden Marker (<i>right panel</i>) image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, August 4, 2021

2. Pawnee Indian Garden Marker (right panel)

from the wild grass plant called Balsas teosinte. For thousands of years, the plant travelled all over the Americas, becoming one of the most important food plants in the Hemisphere.

Grown as a food staple (similar in importance to wheat in the Old World) for the Native American diet, it was not introduced to Europeans until after Christopher Columbus' discovery of the New World. Since then, it has gone through major transformations. As an example, yields have gone from 32 bushels per acre in the early 1900's to over 200 bushels per acre today.

Modern corn varieties are grown for specific applications, such as feed for animals, high-fructose corn syrup, ethanol, and human consumption.

Anasazi BeansAnasazi Beans were originally domesticated by the Anasazi Indians who lived in the region of the four corners in the western United States. Largely known for their cliff dwellings, the Anasazi were accomplished farmers developing advanced irrigation methods to make the cultivation of their corn, bean, and other crops possible in an otherwise arid region.

Despite the story that all modern Anasazi Beans originated with ones found sealed in a

Pawnee Indian Garden & Markers image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, August 4, 2021

3. Pawnee Indian Garden & Markers

jar among cliff dwelling ruins, it is more likely that today's beans come from stock that continued to be cultivated by the modern Pueblo Indians of the region.

Just like the corn (maize), these beans are heirlooms. This means that no genetic modification has been made to them beyond the time-honored tradition of human selection of seed. It also means that they are not hybrids and the seed produced by the plant can be replanted and fertile seed will again be made by that plant.

Erected by Nebraska State Historical Society.

Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Agriculture • Indigenous Peoples and Communities • Settlements & Settlers • Women.

Location. 41° 9.631′ N, 100° 47.404′ W. Marker is in North Platte, Nebraska, in Lincoln County. It can be reached from North Buffalo Bill Avenue 0.8 miles north of Lincoln Highway (U.S. 30), on the right when traveling north. Marker and garden are located on the Lincoln County Historical Museum grounds. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 2403 North Buffalo Bill Avenue, North Platte

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, August 4, 2021

4. Pawnee Indian Garden & Markers

NE 69101, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in Central Nebraska and in the Platte River Valley.

It is also in the American Midwest,

in the Corn Belt,

on the prairies,

on the Great Plains,

and specifically on the High Plains.

Globally, it is in North America,

the Western Hemisphere,

the Western World,

and the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once the Louisiana Purchase.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: Jeffers Family Home (a few steps from this marker); U. P. Caboose #25486 (a few steps from this marker); Ericsson House (a few steps from this marker); Union Pacific Depot (a few steps from this marker); General Store (a few steps from this marker); Brady Island Depot (a few steps from this marker); Windmill & Cistern (within shouting distance of this marker); Blacksmith Shop (within shouting distance of this marker). Touch for a list and map of all markers in North Platte.

Related markers. Click here for a list of markers that are related to this marker. Lincoln County Historical Museum

Credits. This page was last revised on March 3, 2024. It was originally submitted on February 12, 2022, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida. This page has been viewed 879 times since then and 62 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4. submitted on February 12, 2022, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.