have been given, and their origin and derivation. The other tribes
were divided into bands, or gentes, but these divisions have almost
been forgotten. Of the Chau-i there is now said to be only one band;
of the Kit-ke-hahk´-i three; the Great Kit-ke-hahk´-i, Little
Kit-ke-hahk´-i, and Blackhead Kit-ke-hahk´-i; while of the
Pita-hau-erat there were two bands, the Pita-hau-erat proper and the
Ka-wa-ra´-kish. This last-named division appears to have had some
customs peculiar to itself, and quite different from anything known to
the other Pawnees.
The Pawnees call the Wichitas and the other related southern tribes
_Kiri-kur´uks_--Bear's-eyes. The reason for this appellation is
obscure. The only explanation of it that I have been able to obtain,
is that when the Pawnees first saw the Wichitas they thought they had
eyes like a bear. As Mr. Dunbar has suggested to me, the allusion may
have been to the ring sometimes painted or tattooed about the eyes of
the Wichitas.
It is generally supposed that an Indian receives his personal name
from some peculiarly memorable act that he has performed, or from
some incident that has happened to him. This is not now commonly the
case in the tribes with which I am best acquainted. Personal names
formerly originated in this way among the Indians, but at the present
day I question much if they are often given for such reasons. Most of
the names borne by the warriors have been long known in the tribe, and
I believe the coining of new names to fit a special set of
circumstances to be now quite unusual. Children were named soon after
they were born, and retained their childish names until well grown.
_Ta´-ka_--white, was a common boy's name, as was _Ka-tit_--black;
_Ki-ri´ki_--bright eyes, was often given to little girls. Nicknames
referring to personal peculiarities were common.
Here is a list which will give some notion of the general character of
the Pawnee names: Lucky Hawk, Good Fox, Turn-your-robe-hair-out, Chief
of Men, Pipe Chief, Lone Chief, Leader, Brave Chief, Leading Fox,
Still Hawk, Hunting Chief, Yellow Fox, Charging-the-camp, Angry Chief,
Little Warrior, Good Bear, Eagle Chief, Sun Chief, White Horse,
He-gives-away-many-horses-and-others-ride-them, Riding-up, Good Sky,
Walking Bear, Proud Eagle, Seven Stars, Sitting Bull, Big Mountain,
Fancy Horse, Fox Chief, Good Sun, Curly Hair, Blue Hawk, Mad Wolf,
White Elk, Young Hawk, War Chief, Good Chief, Curly Chief, Sitting
Eagle, Running Eagle, Mad Bear, Walking Sun, See-the-eagle-flying,
etc.
Mr. Dunbar states that "the tribal mark of the Pawnees in their
pictographic or historic painting was the scalp lock dressed to stand
nearly erect, or curving slightly backward something like a horn." I
have never met a Pawnee who knew of this manner of dressing the hair
in his own tribe, but all unite in stating that the Wichitas used to
wear the lock in this manner. If this is the case, no doubt in ancient
times it was common to the Pawnees as well, but with them it has
become obsolete, and is now forgotten.
In books the sign for "Pawnee" is sometimes given as the forefinger of
the right hand held at the back of the crown of the head, and pointing
upward to represent this erect scalp lock, but I conceive that this
sign is really that of the Pawnee Picts or Wichitas, who have been so
constantly confused with the true or northern Pawnees.
[Illustration: SIGN FOR PAWNEE.]
The only sign for "Pawnee" that I have ever seen employed among
Indians in the West is that for "wolf," which is the name under which
the Pawnees are, or at least were formerly, known to most other
tribes. This sign is made in two ways, (1) by holding the two hands,
palm forward, the first and middle fingers extended close together
upward and a little forward, thumb and other fingers closed, close to
the head, about opposite the temple; (2) the right hand alone may be
held palm forward at the height of, and just in front of, the
shoulder, the first and middle fingers extended, separated and
pointing upward, the thumb and others closed; the hand is then moved
forward and downward from the wrist, so that the extended fingers
point almost to the front. Both these signs represent the pricked ears
of a wolf, and, so far as my experience goes, are universally
understood to mean "Pawnee." The one last described is now much the
more common of the two. The first of these signs is shown in the
frontispiece, which is copied from an engraving in the First Annual
Report of the Bureau of Ethnology.
The Pawnees have always been called by their neighbors to the south
"Wolves." It has been suggested that this term was applied to them by
their enemies in contempt, but there seems no reason for believing
this to have been the case, since it may be doubted that an Indian
feels contempt for a wolf any more than he does for a fox, a rabbit,
or an elk.
An Indian going into an enemy's country is often called a wolf, and
the sign for "a scout" is made up of the signs "wolf" and "look." The
Pawnees were most adroit scouts, warriors and stealers of horses; and
it seems perfectly natural that they should have received from the
neighboring tribes, who had such frequent evidences of their skill as
scouts and horse takers, the appellation Wolf. The Pawnees themselves
believe that the term was applied to them because of their great
endurance, as well as of their skill in imitating wolves so as to
escape detection by the enemy either by day or night. The Cheyennes,
Wichitas and Comanches all testify that they call the Pawnees Wolves
because they prowl like wolves; because, too, they have the endurance
of wolves, and can travel all day, and dance all night, and can make
long journeys, living on the carcasses they find on their way, or on
no food at all.
The Pawnees, when they went on the warpath, were always prepared to
simulate wolves. This was one of their regular practices, and this no
doubt was one reason for their remarkable success in taking horses,
for it enabled them to escape observation and to reconnoitre at close
quarters without danger of discovery. Wolves on the prairie were too
common to excite remark, and at night they would approach close to the
Indian camps, and often venture into them. The Pawnee who was
disguised as a wolf could trot up close to the village of his enemy,
see where the horses were tied, and perhaps even hear what was being
said, and lay his plans accordingly. The Pawnee starting off on the
warpath usually carried a robe made of wolf skins, or in later times a
white blanket or a white sheet; and, at night, wrapping himself in
this, and getting down on his hands and knees, he walked or trotted
here and there like a wolf, having thus transformed himself into a
common object of the landscape. This disguise was employed by day as
well. To escape observation when traveling in daylight, the Pawnee war
party always chose the ravines and lower ground to march in.
Sometimes, especially in a country where there was danger of coming
unexpectedly on the enemy, it was important that a reconnoissance
should be made from some commanding point. A man walking up to the top
of a hill might be seen, and recognized as a suspicious object, a long
way off, but no one would look a second time at a wolf. While the
party remained hidden in some ravine or hollow, therefore, the man who
was to ascend the hill would put his white robe over him and gallop to
the top on all fours, and would sit there on his haunches looking all
over the country, and any one at a distance who saw him, would take
him for a wolf. It was acknowledged on all hands that the Pawnees
could imitate wolves best. In one of the stories already given, an
instance is mentioned in which two Pawnees in the United States
service made use of this device to recover captured animals.
The name "Wolf," as given to the Pawnees, is probably merely a
translation of the word _Skiri´ki_, meaning wolf, from which the name
of the Skidi band may be supposed to be derived. Mr. Dunbar says: "The
emblem probably originated from the Skidi band. They being in advance
of the other bands in the northern migration, became known to the
tribes about them as wolves; and as the other bands arrived the sign
was naturally made to include them also, and in this enlarged use was
at length accepted by the Pawnees themselves."
[Illustration: BUFFALO HORN LADLE AND SPOON.]
PAWNEE CUSTOMS.
I. EARLY DAYS.
Pawnee history goes back to a time when the tribe knew nothing of
horses. In those early days they went on foot, and depended for animal
food on their bows and arrows. At that time their bows did not differ
from those recently in use, but the heads of their arrows were made of
stone, and their knives were of flint. With this simple equipment they
set out on the hunt.
Choosing a still day, they would surround a small bunch of buffalo,
stretching out in a long line whose extremities would gradually draw
together, as the hunters, perhaps disguised as wolves, stole from hill
to hill, around the unconscious prey. When the circle was complete,
some one man would shout and startle the buffalo, and then as they
turned to run, another man would show himself before them, and call
out, and turn them, and whichever way they ran, some one would appear
before them, and turn them back. The buffalo, becoming each moment
more frightened, would run now this way, now that, and gradually the
Pawnees would close in on them, but would still keep the buffalo from
breaking through the line by yelling, and by tossing their robes in
the air. As the prey became more and more terror-stricken and
confused, they would run here and there, and round and round within
the ring of men; and as they grew more tired, the men would close in
on them still more, and first one, and then another, would shoot an
arrow, until at last the arrows were flying fast, and some of the
great beasts were down, and others were staggering along with the
blood pouring from their mouths; and soon the buffalo were so worn out
that they could run no longer, and it was an easy matter for the
Indians to dispatch them. Even those which were only slightly wounded
were secured, for it is said that when the animals were hit by the
arrows, even if it were only in the leg, they would soon swell up and
die. This statement refers to a belief, which I find quite widespread
among plains Indians, that the ancient stone arrow heads were
peculiarly deadly, and possessed this property, that even a slight
touch with them made a wound which was likely to be fatal. The
Blackfeet Indians have often told me the same thing about the stone
arrow heads which they used in early times.
Game, which inhabited the underbrush or the forest, was captured by a
method similar to that employed to secure the buffalo. If the Pawnees
discovered that deer or elk were in a piece of timber, they would
surround it, and then alarm the game, and keep them from breaking
through the line of men. The animals, frightened and confused, would
run round and round in a circle until exhausted, when the Pawnees
would close in, and kill them with their arrows.
It must be remembered in this connection, that in those days game
animals were enormously abundant and comparatively tame, and also,
that the Pawnees, from the necessities of their lives, were
tremendously active, very swift runners, and as tireless as the wolves
from which they took their name. Their endurance was something
astonishing. In their long journeys on the warpath they often
traversed on foot six or eight hundred miles of country, carrying,
during a part of the time, very heavy loads. Instances are not
uncommon where runners have traveled one hundred miles in twenty-four
hours. I myself know of a case where two men ran over seventy miles in
eleven hours. We may imagine that in the old days when the Pawnees
made all their journeys on foot, and were thus constantly exercising,
their speed and activity were greater, and their powers of endurance
still more remarkable.
Although their ancient arrows were usually headed with flint, they
sometimes used bone or the sharpened tine of a deer's horn. No one now
alive can remember when these were in common use, but there are men
who have heard their fathers and their grandfathers tell of them, and
who say that these arrows were good for war and for the chase. "You
could drive them through a thick shield," said Bear Chief. As soon as
they began to trade with the whites, arrow heads of sheet-iron came
into use. They say that, so long as the Pawnees used flint for making
arrow heads, they used to find plenty of these stones lying on the
prairie, but that when the whites brought them iron, _Ti-ra´-wa_ said
to himself, "The Pawnees no longer need these flint stones; I will
make no more of them." This shows an odd confusion of ideas, for, of
course, the reason that they did not find the stones was that they no
longer looked for them, their use having been abandoned.
Although these stone arrow heads must have passed out of general use
toward the end of the last century, yet some of them were preserved
much later, and it is possible that there may even now be some among
the Pawnees, hidden away in the sacred bundles. After they ceased to
be used for general purposes, they took on a sacred character and were
employed to slay the sacrifices; among the Skidi to kill the captive,
and in the Lower Village tribes the buffalo and deer, for sacrifice.
There was a time when it was deemed essential that the animals to be
sacrificed to _Ti-ra´-wa_, should be killed by one of these
ancient--and so sacred--arrows.
In the early days the Pawnees did not depend for food wholly--perhaps
not even largely--on the flesh of the animals which they killed by
hunting. They have always been an agricultural people, cultivating the
ground, and raising corn, beans, pumpkins, and squashes. They also dug
up many edible roots, and collected and dried various berries and
other fruits. Besides this, they captured birds and smaller mammals by
means of snares and traps. It is said that before they obtained
horses, they killed but few buffalo, only enough to provide
themselves with clothing and with sinew for sewing, backing bows, and
other uses.
The Pawnees aver that they have cultivated the corn as far back as
they can remember. They say also that this is their corn, that it is
not the corn of the whites, but is different from it--which is
true--and that they did not get it from the whites. It is their own.
On this they insist strenuously. I have found it impossible to obtain
any clue as to where the corn came from or how they obtained it. To
all inquiries on this point, they reply that it must have been "handed
down from above;" that it was given them by "the Ruler." Various
stories are told about it, but none of them are very pointed or
satisfactory.
They call the corn _a-ti´ra_, "mother." It has a sacred character, and
plays an important part in many of their religious ceremonies. This
name which they give it, the mother corn, no doubt refers to the fact
that it nourishes and supports them; that by it they are made strong.
I have also heard it said that it is called mother because it produces
others; it has young ones like a woman; "you put it in the ground and
it brings forth others."
The Pawnees cultivated their fields with hoes made from the shoulder
blade of the buffalo. Taking the ligament from the back of a buffalo's
neck, they lashed a stick firmly to the articulation of the shoulder
blade, nearly at right angles to the plane of the bone and to its
length. Then, dipping the joint into hot water, the ligament would
shrink, and bind the bone and the handle together as firmly as iron.
Years ago, on the sites of abandoned Pawnee villages, on the Loup Fork
and on the Platte, fragments of pottery used to be found among the
débris of the fallen lodges. The manufacture of this pottery was no
doubt abandoned long ago, and has probably not been practiced to any
considerable extent since they met the whites. A man about fifty years
of age stated to me that he had never seen these pots in use, but that
his grandmother had told him that in her days they made and used them.
He said that they were accustomed to smooth off the end of a tree for
a mould. A hot fire was then built, in which stones were roasted,
which were afterward pounded into fine powder or sand. This pounded
stone they mixed with fine clay, and when the material was of the
proper consistency, they smeared it over the rounded mould, which was
perhaps first well greased with buffalo tallow. After the clay had
been made of even thickness throughout, and smooth on the outside,
they took a small, sharp stone, and made marks on the outside to
ornament it. When the material was sufficiently dry, they lifted it
from the mould and burned it in the fire, and while it was baking,
"put corn in the pot and stirred it about, and this made it hard as
iron." This may mean that it gave the pot a glaze on the inside. In
these pots they boiled food of all kinds. Mr. Dunbar informs me that
these pots were also made in later times within a frame-work of willow
twigs. The clay, made very stiff, was smeared on this frame, the
inside being repeatedly smoothed with the moistened hand, and but
little attention being given to the appearance of the outside. After
they had been sun-dried, such pots were baked without removing the
frame, which burned away in the fire, leaving the marks of the twigs
visible on the outside of the pot.
Corn was, and is still, crushed in wooden mortars, hollowed out by
fire, and the pestle is also of wood, about four feet long, with an
enlargement at the upper end to give added weight.
Dishes and bowls were made of wood, or of large gourds; spoons and
ladles were fashioned from the horns of the buffalo; mats were woven
of rushes, ropes of buffalo hair, and lariats of rawhide.
Fire in the early days was obtained by means of fire sticks, the point
of one being twirled on a hollow in the other, until the charred dust
at first smoked and then ignited. It is said that sometimes it would
take four men to make a fire, one relieving another as they grew
tired. It was hard, slow work, but sometimes one man, if he was stout,
could make a fire alone. The use of fire sticks on war parties has
continued till within a short time, perhaps within twenty years.
As their clothing was manufactured wholly from skins, sewing occupied
a considerable part of the time of the women. This was done by means
of a bone needle--often the metacarpal or metatarsal bone supporting
the accessory hooflets on the deer--and a thread twisted of sinews.
Such sewing was extremely durable.
The other implements and utensils of the Pawnees did not differ
materially from those of other plains Indians.
It is a long time since they first began to use articles and
implements manufactured by the whites. Curly Chief related to me the
story of what was perhaps the first official visits from the whites
ever received by the Pawnees. He said:
"I heard that long ago there was a time when there were no people in
this country except Indians. After that the people began to hear of
men that had white skins; they had been seen far to the east. Before I
was born they came out to our country and visited us. The man who came
was from the Government. He wanted to make a treaty with us, and to
give us presents, blankets and guns, and flint and steel, and knives.
"The Head Chief told him that we needed none of these things. He said,
'We have our buffalo and our corn. These things the Ruler gave to us,
and they are all that we need. See this robe. This keeps me warm in
winter. I need no blanket.'
"The white men had with them some cattle, and the Pawnee Chief said,
'Lead out a heifer here on the prairie.' They led her out, and the
Chief, stepping up to her, shot her through behind the shoulder with
his arrow, and she fell down and died. Then the Chief said, 'Will not
my arrow kill? I do not need your guns.' Then he took his stone knife
and skinned the heifer, and cut off a piece of fat meat. When he had
done this he said, 'Why should I take your knives? The Ruler has
given me something to cut with.'
"Then taking the fire sticks, he kindled a fire to roast the meat, and
while it was cooking, he spoke again and said, 'You see, my brother,
that the Ruler has given us all that we need; the buffalo for food and
clothing; the corn to eat with our dried meat; bows, arrows, knives
and hoes; all the implements which we need for killing meat, or for
cultivating the ground. Now go back to the country from whence you
came. We do not want your presents, and we do not want you to come
into our country.'
"Afterward, however, a treaty was made. The first treaties were not to
purchase land. The Government made presents, and bought the right to
pass through the country. Roads were made up the Republican, the
Platte and the Solomon rivers."
II. EVERY-DAY LIFE.
In these hasty remarks upon the ways of the Pawnees, which are in fact
no more than a series of rough notes supplementary to Mr. Dunbar's
fuller history of this people, I shall not attempt to give any
general account of their habits. These can be learned by reference to
the papers, so often quoted. My object is to give a picture of the
Pawnee ways of thought rather than of their material life.
Their government was semi-republican. They were ruled by a head chief,
in later times always the head chief of the Chau-i band; and this
title was hereditary, but the chief, if he had not the requisite
strength of character, might lose all his influence, and his position
be practically, though not in name, held by a sub-chief or even
warrior of his own or another band. As has been well said, "The office
itself was hereditary, but authority could be gained only by
acknowledged personal accomplishments." Each band was ruled as to its
own affairs by four chiefs--a head chief, second chief, third and
fourth chiefs--but often some warrior who held no office, and bore no
title, might wield more power and influence than any of these. In
minor matters, the chief gave his orders without consultation with any
one, but more important affairs were usually discussed in council by
chiefs, head men and warriors, and the opinion of the assemblage
prevailed, even if it were opposed to the opinion of the chief. Among
the Pawnees, as elsewhere, a man's personal character determined the
position he should occupy and the influence he should wield. Bravery,
wisdom, and personal popularity were the important factors in
acquiring and retaining influence and authority.
Mr. Dunbar alludes to one matter which is little understood in
general; that is the existence among the Pawnees of a class of
servants. These were for the most part young men, or boys growing up,
who had not yet acquired any special standing. They lived in the
family of men of position and influence, from whom they received
support, and for whom they performed many offices, which were almost
menial. The relation which they held to the head of the family was not
altogether unlike that of a page or a squire to his knight in mediæval
times. These young men drove in and saddled the horses, made the
fires, ran errands, and carried messages for the leaders whom they
followed. The same menial offices were often performed by other, older
men, who were too lazy and too worthless to make positions for
themselves, and who were willing to continue to serve for their
support. This relation of servant persisted even among the Pawnee
Scouts after their enlistment, and, while among the privates in this
body all were of course equal in name, it was yet common, as the camp
prepared to start in the morning, to see the younger men saddling up
the horses, and performing other duties for the chiefs and the proved
warriors, whose military standing was no higher than those who were
serving them.