A FTER THE explorations of Lewis and Clark ¦Zl. in the early 1800s, Euro-Americans started looking to the West as the place for freedom and adventure. Yet just as the East Coast had already been populated by people, so was the West. Hundreds of nations lived west of the Mississippi. Many were Plains people such as the Sioux, Apache, Comanche, and Arap-aho. These nomadic bands moved from place to place as they followed food sources like the bison. Other nations, such as the Pueblo peo Pie, stayed in one place and farmed. The Pawnee did both.
Pawnee villages sat alongside rivers throughout Nebraska. People lived in earth lodges measuring about 40 feet around. Fields of corn, squash, beans, and pumpkins surrounded the villages. After the plants were established, the Pawnee often left for a summer buffalo hunt. When they returned in early autumn, they harvested their crops. If there was time, they might undertake one more buffalo hunt to store food for winter. The Pawnee were great hunters.
Pawnee men were often easy to identify in the 1800S. Many added paint and buffalo fat to their hair, which made it look like a horn. The Pawnee became known for being good scouts who occasionally helped the U. S. army, particularly against enemy nations such as the Lakota.
Native American nations that followed the buffalo usually lived in tepees, which were easy to move from place to place. Before the arrival of the Spanish to the Southwest, dogs carried belongings from place to place on a framework of poles called a travois that was attached to the dogs by leather straps. By the time explorers and settlers from the East arrived, the Plains people were accomplished horsemen who used horses to drag the poles used for the tepee frames. The remainder of their belongings sat on the poles.
Plains people were determined to continue living on the plains as they had been doing for
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