The Pawnee: Prairie Town Builders, Pawnee History

The Pawnee: Prairie Town Builders, Pawnee History The Pawnee migrated from the Southwest and lived in the Platte and Loup Village areas for more than seven centuries.

The Pawnee were the most influential and populous of the native peoples of Nebraska. They dwelt mainly in a group of “Permanent” but frequently moved earth-lodge villages around the confluence of the Platte and Loup Rivers in East Central Nebraska. Village sites are located from about fifteen miles below Fremont on the Platte to approximately one hundred twenty miles upstream to St. Paul on the Loup. In the early 1800’s, the Pawnee lived in five or six principal towns, each estimated to consist of forty to two hundred lodges containing from eight hundred to three thousand five-hundred inhabitants, and commonly fortified. Villages were the local point for their agricultural activities that included cultivation of corn, beans, squash, and pumpkins.

During the summer and winter bison hunting expeditions, the Pawnee ventured well into Western Nebraska and Northwestern Kansas.

The name Pawnee is thought to mean “a horn” and derived from Pakiki. This term was used to designate the peculiar manner of dressing the scalp-lock by stiffening the hair with paint and fat to make it stand erect and curved like a horn. Through all the difficulties of the 19th century, and white mans diseases, the Pawnee never made war against the U.S. The Pawnee gave many evidences of forbearance and Pawnee scouts served faithfully and courageously in the U.S. Army during Indian hostilities. The Last Pawnee tract was ceded in 1876 when tribes moved to Oklahoma.