Contemporary Pawnee

The Pawnee hold trust lands in Pawnee County, Oklahoma. Others live in and around Fullerton, Nebraska. In recent times, there has been a resurgence of traditional customs, with many tribal members participating in dances passed down from earlier generations. The Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma holds an annual powwow in July at Pawnee, Oklahoma.

It is thought that the dancing at modern-day powwows evolved out of a 19th-century ceremony of the Pawnee, the Irushka (or Iruska, “they are inside the fire”), sponsored by a medicine society, the members of which specialized in healing burns. Irushka dancers wore a special roach, or hairlock, symbolizing fire, and a belt supposedly given to humans by the Crow People to help overcome the fire. The dance was passed to the OMAHA, who called it the Hedushka and used braided grass tails to symbolize scalps taken in warfare. Other Plains tribes developed their own variations and symbolism, but always with the roach and belt. In modern times, the variations evolved into competitive and athletic fancy dancing, with elaborate headdresses and bustles.

The Pawnee Nation has recently turned to gaming for new tribal revenue. Among the tribe’s projects is the opening of the Pawnee Nation Academy, a two-year college and workforce development corporation.

In 1973, the Pawnee John Echohawk became the first Indian director of the Native American Rights Fund (NARF), an Indian rights organization providing legal representation for individuals and tribes. NARF, founded in 1970, operates out of Boulder, Colorado, with branch offices in Washington, D. C., and Anchorage, Alaska, and focuses on the preservation of tribal existence, the protection of tribal natural resources, the promotion of individual rights, the accountability of governments, the development of Native law, and educating the public about Native issues and rights.