Pawnee

Pawnee, Native American tribe of the Caddoan language family and of the Great Plains culture area. At the time of the early European explorations, the Pawnee inhabited the region that is now Nebraska. They engaged in frequent warfare with neighboring tribes, especially their hereditary enemies, the Sioux. The Pawnee were never at war with the U.S. government and, in fact, were allied with the whites in efforts to control raids by other Native Americans.

The Pawnee lived in earth lodges clustered in small villages. Their economy was based on intensive farming. The native religion involved visions and ceremonial rituals, including the sacrifice of a young woman each year to the morning-star deity. Pawnee myths and folklore were imaginative and richly symbolic. Tribal organization was characterized by four distinct bands, each with its own chief.

In various treaties made in the 19th century, the Pawnee ceded most of their land south of the Platte River in Nebraska to the United States. Meanwhile, severe smallpox epidemics and attacks by the Sioux and other tribes constantly diminished their numbers. In the late 19th century they gave up their remaining lands in Nebraska in return for a reservation in Oklahoma. At that time the Pawnee population numbered fewer than 1000, and the tribe was in danger of extinction.

Today most tribe members live on individual allotments of land on their reservation. Most earn a subsistence living by raising stock or cultivating small farms. In the 2000 U.S. census about 2,500 people identified themselves as Pawnee only; an additional 2,100 people reported being part Pawnee.

See also Native American Languages; Native Americans of North America: Great Plains.