The Pani[112] stock was scattered irregularly from the Middle Missouri
River to the Gulf of Mexico. The Pawnees proper occupied the territory
from the Niobrara River south to the Arkansas. The Arikari branch had
separated and migrated to the north at a comparatively recent period,
while the Wichitas, Caddoes and Huecos roamed over Eastern Louisiana and
Western Texas. The earliest traditions of all these peoples assign their
priscan home toward the south, and the Pawnees remembered having driven
the Dakota tribes from the hunting grounds of the Platte Basin.
The stock as a rule had an excellent physique, being tall and robust,
with well-proportioned features, the lips thin and the eyes small.
Longevity however was rare, and few of either sex reached the age of
sixty. The division of the tribes was into bands and these into totems,
but the gentile system did not prevail with much strength among them.
The chieftainship of the bands was hereditary in the male line, and the
power of the chief was almost absolute. He was surrounded by a body
of retainers whom he supported, and who carried out his orders. When
he wished a council these messengers carried the summons. Property as
well as power passed to the family of the male, and widows were often
deprived of everything and left in destitution. Marriage was a strictly
commercial transaction, the woman being bought from her parents. The
purchase effected, the bridegroom had a right to espouse all the younger
sisters of his wife as they grew to maturity, if he felt so inclined. The
laxity of the marriage rules of the stock was carried to its limit by the
Arikaris, among whom it is said fathers united with their daughters and
brothers with their sisters, without offending the moral sense of the
community. This may have arisen after corruption by the whites.
Agriculture among them was more in favor than generally on the plains.
Maize, pumpkins and squashes were cultivated, each family having its
own field two or three acres in extent. For about four months of the
year they were sedentary, dwelling in houses built of poles and bark
covered with sods, while the remainder of the time they wandered over
their hunting grounds, carrying with them tents of skins which were
stretched on poles. The women manufactured a rude pottery and the men
implements and weapons of wood and stone. The Arikaris were skilled in
the construction of boats of skin stretched over wooden frames, an art
they may have learned from the Mandans.
The information about their religion is vague, but it seems in some
respects to have resembled that of the Mexican nations. One of their
chief divinities was the morning star, _Opirikut_, which was supposed
to represent the deity of fertility and agriculture. At the time of
corn-planting a young girl, usually a captive, was sacrificed to this
divinity. The victim was bound to a stake and partly burned alive; but
before life had ceased, her breast was cut open, her heart torn out
and flung in the flames. Her flesh was then cut into small pieces and
buried in the cornfield. This was believed to secure an abundant crop.
The similarity of the rite to that in vogue among the Mexicans, who also
worshipped the morning star as the goddess of fertility, is interesting.
The dead were buried with their possessions, and the customs of mourning
continued sometimes for years.[113]