Pawnee


From Encyclopedia Britannica (11th edition, 1910)

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Pawnee (perhaps from the native word for "horn," in allusion to their scalping lock, which was "dressed" so as to stand straight up), a tribe of North-American Indians of Caddoan stock. They formerly lived on the Platte river in Nebraska. They call themselves Skihiksihiks (" men of men"). They were a brave, war-loving tribe, whose history was one of continual strife with their neighbours. In 1823 their village was burned by the Delawares, and in 1838 the tribe suffered severely from small-pox, the death-roll being, it is said, 2000. By treaty in 1833 they had ceded their territory south of the Platte, and in 1858 they surrendered all their remaining land except a strip on the Loup River. Here they lived till 1874, when they moved to a reservation in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), where they now are.