Lifeways

The Pawnee are an intriguing cultural mix. Since they lived in permanent villages much of the year and farmed, they are classified as part of the Prairie group of the Great Plains Culture Area (see PRAIRIE INDIANS and PLAINS INDIANS). They were such skillful farmers that some varieties of their seeds are still used by modern farmers. When in their villages, the Pawnee lived in earth lodges, unlike their kinsmen the Caddo and Wichita, who lived in grass houses. While on the trail in pursuit of buffalo, however, the Pawnee lived in tipis. After they had acquired horses brought to North America by the Spanish, they roamed far from their homeland to hunting grounds in Wyoming and New Mexico. They came to share many other customs of the Prairie and Plains tribes, such as several rituals surrounding the growing of corn and the buffalo hunt.

But the Pawnee also possessed cultural traits similar to the early MOUND BUILDERS of the Southeast and by extension to Mesoamerican cultures. They even kept these traits longer than their relatives the Caddo, who are classified among SOUTHEAST INDIANS.

Pawnee religion had a strict and complex structure. Their medicine men constituted a whole class of people, like a priesthood. These priests were responsible for many elaborate ceremonies, made up of songs, poetry, and dances, all rich in symbolism concerning the heavenly bodies. Like the AZTEC and the Mound Builders, the Pawnee can be called Sun-worshippers and Moon-worshippers.

Pawnee case for bow and arrows, made from buffalo leather and worn around the waist while on horseback

Pawnee skull representing the First Man

There was one Skidi Pawnee custom that was especially unusual for Indians north of Mexico in the historic period—the practice of human sacrifice. As late as the early 1800s, the Pawnee still performed what they called the Morning Star Ceremony. The Skidi Pawnee believed that the supreme god was Tirawa, the Sun. Tirawa and Mother Earth conceived Morning Star, the God of Vegetation. Once a year, the Skidi Pawnee would raid another tribe with the purpose of capturing a young girl about 13 years old. They would let this girl live among them for months, treating her with kindness and keeping secret from her their plans. Early in the morning at the time of the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, the priests would paint half the maiden’s body red, for day, and the other half black, for night. Then they would tie her to a rectangular frame in the fields outside the village. As the morning star rose, three priests would perform the sacrificial murder with a torch, an arrow, and a knife. Then every male who could handle a bow would shoot arrows into the body. The corpse was left behind to fertilize the earth. The tribe then held a festival of dancing and singing.

Not all Pawnee approved of this terrible act passed down among priests over the centuries. Finally, one Pawnee chief became determined to stop it. His name was Petalesharo (“Man-Chief”). In 1816, when he was only 19, he rescued a Comanche girl from the scaffold at the last minute and commanded the priests to stop their barbarism and cruelty. Other warriors backed him up despite the priests’ threats of placing curses on them. Petalesharo became a hero of future generations of Pawnee for standing up to the powerful priesthood.