Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk-Tales Part 12

It is generally believed by the p.a.w.nees, especially by those who are most intelligent, and have had most intercourse with the southern tribes, that the Lipans are allied to them, and that this relations.h.i.+p is traceable through the Wichitas and the Tonkaways. The evidence consists of (1) statements by the Wichitas and Tonkaways, (2) an alleged similarity of language and personal names, and (3) a similarity in the songs of the tribes. A p.a.w.nee Indian, who has lived for seven seasons with the Wichitas, gave me the following story which he had gathered from that people. They say that long ago they did not know the Tonkaways, but that when the tribes met they found that they could understand each other's speech. Their languages were not the same, but they were not more unlike than were the tongues spoken by the Skidi and the three other p.a.w.nee bands long ago; in other words, they were dialects of the same language. After that meeting, the Tonkaways and the Wichitas lived together for a time. But the Tonkaways had bad ways. They would eat human flesh. When they could find a Wichita boy out away from the camp, they would capture him, and strangle and eat him. Sometimes they would kill a man of the Wichitas, if they could catch him away off on the prairie. Therefore the Wichitas drove the Tonkaways off south, and soon afterward moved up across the Arkansas River, and into southern Kansas. Since then the Wichitas and the Tonkaways have never lived together. A Tonkaway chief named Charlie told Ralph J. Weeks, an educated p.a.w.nee, "I have heard that my people are p.a.w.nees, but that we separated long ago." I am informed that the personal names of the Tonkaways are the same as those of the p.a.w.nees, and are readily comprehended by the latter.

Ralph Weeks, while in a Tonkaway lodge, heard a man call out to a girl, addressing her as _Tsi-sah-ru-rah-ka'-ri-ku_, which means "Woman Chief's House." Ralph inquired about this name, and found that it was the same in sound as p.a.w.nee, and had the same meaning. The Tonkaways say that some of the p.a.w.nee words are the same as those used by their relations to the south, the Lipans and others. The songs of the Tonkaways are the same as those of the p.a.w.nees, and the latter at once recognize them. The old songs of the Lipans are the same as those of the p.a.w.nees, according to both p.a.w.nee and Tonkaway testimony. Finally, the Tonkaways and Lipans claim close relations.h.i.+p. They speak different dialects of the same language.

The p.a.w.nees, however, say that they never knew of the existence of the Tonkaways until they came down into the Indian Territory, and, of course, never met them until after that time. Neither did they know the Caddos. As the p.a.w.nees knew nothing of the Caddos and Tonkaways, so the Wichitas knew nothing of the Arickaras until recently, and were greatly surprised to learn that far to the north there was another tribe which spoke their language.

The Wichitas claim that they and the Caddos are one people. Their languages are said to differ somewhat, but only dialectically.

The southern members of the p.a.w.nee family appear always to have lived on excellent terms with the other wild tribes which inhabited their country. They were allies of the Kiowas, Comanches, and Cheyennes, tribes with which the northern p.a.w.nees were long at war.

II. ORIGIN AND MIGRATIONS.

The p.a.w.nees came from the south. All the information bearing on their origin, which has as yet been secured, points to the conclusion that the primitive home of this family was in the south.

Although Mr. Dunbar has carefully traced out the later history of several of the members of this group, his researches carry us back scarcely further than the beginning of the present century, and we have no actual knowledge of the origin and early history of the p.a.w.nees. Except the Arickaras, none of the tribes belonging to this family have ever dwelt much north of the Platte River, and in this we have an indication of their southern origin. The traditions of the tribe confirm this suggestion, and Mr. Dunbar has given other reasons, derived from his study of this people, which abundantly justify us in regarding them as migrants from the south.

There are still current among the p.a.w.nees two traditions as to the region from which they came, but both of these are vague, and so lacking in detail as to be of little value except as suggestions which need confirmation before being accepted as having any solid basis of fact. The first of these traditions, now half forgotten, is known only to the very oldest men. It is to the effect that long ago they came from the far southwest, where they used to live in stone houses.

This might point to an original home for the p.a.w.nees in Old Mexico, and even suggests a possible connection with the so-called Pueblo tribes, who still live in houses made of stone, and entered from above.

Secret Pipe Chief, a very old Chau-i, the High Priest of the tribe, gave me the history of their wanderings in these words: "Long ago," he said, "very far back, all of one color were together, but something mysterious happened so that they came to speak different languages.

They were all together, and determined that they would separate into different parties to go and get sinew. They could not all go in company, there were too many of them. They were so numerous that when they traveled, the rocks where their lodge poles dragged were worn into deep grooves. Then they were far off in the southwest, and came from beyond two ranges of mountains. When they scattered out, each party became a tribe. At that time the p.a.w.nees and the Wichitas were together. We made that journey, and went so far east that at last we came to the Missouri River, and stopped there for a time. When the season came round, we made out of the shoulder blade of a buffalo an implement to cultivate the ground. There we made our fields."

Another very old man, Bear Chief, a Skidi, said, "Long ago we were far in the southwest, away beyond the Rio Grande. We came north, and settled near the Wichita Mountains. One summer there we planted our corn. So we came from the south. After we left the Wichita Mountains, that summer we came north as far as the Arkansas River, and made our fields, and raised corn. Afterward we went to the Mississippi River where the Missouri runs into it. My father was born while we lived on the Mississippi." As Bear Chief must be nearly or quite eighty years old, it would seem likely that the Skidi, or some village of that tribe, may have been established on the Mississippi one hundred years ago, but this was not a permanent location.

The second of these traditions tells of a migration from the southeast. It states that the tribe originally came from somewhere in the southeast, that is from what is now Missouri or Arkansas. They started north after sinew--to hunt buffalo--and followed up the game, until they reached the northern country--the region of the Republican and the Platte rivers. They found this a pleasant country, abounding in game, and they liked it, and remained there. The Wichitas accompanied them part way on their journey, but turned aside when they had reached southern Kansas, and went south again.

All the traditions agree that up to the time of the journey which brought the p.a.w.nees to their homes on the Solomon, Republican, Platte and Loup rivers, the Wichitas were considered a part of the p.a.w.nee tribe. They agree also that after this separation, the two divisions of the tribe lost sight of each other for a very long time, and that each was entirely ignorant as to what had become of the other. We know that for a long time they were at war, and the difference of the dialects spoken by these two divisions of the family shows that the period of separation was a long one.

The tradition of the migration of the p.a.w.nees from the southwest is evidently much older than the one which tells of their coming from the southeast. Most of the younger men know the latter; but for the account of the journey over the mountains from the southwest and across the Rio Grande, it is necessary to go to the very old men. It is quite possible that both stories are founded on fact; and, if this is the case, the migration from the southeast may have taken place only a few generations ago. Such a supposition would in part explain its general currency at the present time.

In the existing state of our knowledge of this people, we have no facts to go on, nothing in the nature of evidence as to their early history, and we can only speculate as to the probabilities in regard to their wanderings. It may be conjectured that the p.a.w.nees came from somewhere in Old Mexico, and, either as a number of related tribes, or as a single tribe made up of different bands, they crossed the mountains and the Rio Grande in a body, and wandered eastward across what is now Texas. From this body it seems probable that the ancestors of the Lipans and the Tonkaways were the first to separate themselves.

The main tribe perhaps gradually drifted further and further to the east until it had crossed Texas and reached northwestern Louisiana, and perhaps even the neighborhood of the Mississippi River. During this long journey, which must have occupied many years--perhaps many generations--we may imagine that the Huecos and possibly the Keechies dropped behind, and remained on the plains.

How long the p.a.w.nees sojourned in Louisiana no one can say. They now found themselves in a country, which in climate, productions, and topography, differed widely from anything they had before known. Up to this time, these people had always inhabited the high, dry tablelands of Mexico, or the almost equally arid plains of Texas, and now they had come to a country having a heavy rainfall, abounding in swamps, and overgrown with deciduous timber. The traditions of both Skidi and p.a.w.nees speak of a time when they lived in a country where grows the cane which the white men use for fis.h.i.+ng poles. We may imagine that this forest country was a barrier to their further progress eastward, and that it turned their steps in a new direction.

When the p.a.w.nees left Louisiana, the Caddos certainly, and perhaps the Keechies and the Tawaconies, were left behind, and for a very long time lived in and near what is now Caddo Parish, Louisiana, where they were at the time of the Louisiana Purchase. Geographical names in this region indicate that their residence there was a long one, and Caddo Lake, Caddo Fork, Caddo Gap and a town named Keatchie, still bear testimony of the former occupants of the soil. From there the Caddos moved up to the Brazos River in Texas. They have always kept up a close intimacy with the Wichitas.

Perhaps it was during the sojourn of the p.a.w.nees on the western borders of Louisiana and Arkansas, though it may have been much earlier, that the Skidi and the Arickaras, either as a single tribe, or as already divided into two separate bands, left the p.a.w.nees and moved north and northwest. There appears to be reason for supposing that for a while this section of the tribe lived on the Red River, the Canadian and the Arkansas, and it is quite certain that sometimes they went as far east as the banks of the Mississippi near where St. Louis now is; but their permanent home, since they have been known to the whites, was on the Platte and the Loup rivers in Nebraska.

The p.a.w.nees with the Wichitas moved northwest into what is now the Indian Territory and southern Kansas, where they separated, the latter turning off to the south, and living at various times on the Canadian and Red rivers and near the Wichita Mountains, while the p.a.w.nees proper slowly continued their march northward and westward, residing for a time on the Arkansas and Solomon, the Republican and Platte rivers. Here they again met the Skidi.

It is impossible to conjecture when this settlement in the northern country took place, but it was certainly long ago. Mr. Dunbar has pointed out that "_O-kut-ut_ and _oku'-kat'_ signify strictly above and below (of a stream) respectively. Now their villages have usually been situated upon the banks of the Platte, the general course of which is from west to east. Hence each of these words has acquired a new meaning, _i. e._, west and east." In the same way _Puk-tis'-tu_--toward the Omahas, has come to mean north; and _Ki'ri-ku'ruks-tu_--toward the Wichitas, to mean south. The coining of such words points to a long sojourn by the p.a.w.nees in the region of the Platte. It is interesting to note that the Omahas have never in historic times lived north of the p.a.w.nees, but always east of them, though we know that long ago they did live to the north.

These remarks on the movements of the p.a.w.nees are, to be sure, very largely speculative, but speculation guided by the hints gathered from conversations with the older men. It is a surmise as to what may have been the wanderings of these people. If it were possible to talk with all the different tribes of the family, something more definite might be reached, but at this late day this seems hopeless. A study of the Lipans, and an investigation of their relations.h.i.+ps with other southwestern tribes, might furnish us clues of the utmost importance in tracing the origin of the p.a.w.nee family.

III. THE SKIDI.

Ranking high among the p.a.w.nee bands, for their intelligence, energy and courage, stand the Skidi. Their past history is obscure, and we know little about it beyond the fact that it was different from that of the other bands. Although the relations.h.i.+p between them is perfectly well established, still both p.a.w.nee and Skidi traditions agree that the two tribes were originally distinct, and that their first meeting took place long ago, but after the migration of the p.a.w.nees to the northern country. We know, too, that the Arickaras were close neighbors and near relatives of the Skidi, and it is probable that they const.i.tuted a band, village, or division of that tribe.

It is believed by those who should be well informed, that the northward migration of the Rees took place not more than a century ago. One tradition of the separation runs in this way: The Skidi started out on a hunt, a part going ahead and the others following later. The first party were killing buffalo, when they were attacked by a large war party of Sioux. These got between the two parties of the Skidi, driving one of them back to the village, while the other retreated northward. This retreat continued until they had been driven some distance up the Missouri River, where their enemies left them.

They remained there through the winter, and planted their corn in the spring, nor did they apparently for some time make any attempt to rejoin their tribe. After some years, however, the two bands came together on the Loup, and for a time lived together. The Rees even went further south, to the neighborhood of the Wichita Mountains, where the p.a.w.nees at that time were living, but soon afterward they went north again, and rejoined the Skidi on the Loup, and lived near them there, and on the Platte near Scott's Bluffs. It was not long, however, before a disagreement arose between the Rees and the Skidi, and the Rees again moved off north. It is probable that this quarrel may have originated in the fact that the Rees wished to make war on the whites, but there is some reason to believe that there was also jealousy about the head chieftains.h.i.+p of the two bands.

The testimony of men still living indicates that about one hundred years ago some of the Skidi lived on the Mississippi River, near the present site of St. Louis, and it is said that it was only the coming in of the white settlers in considerable numbers that caused them to move further westward. I am inclined to regard this location as only a temporary one, and to believe that their real home, prior to this, had been to the west, on the Platte and Loup rivers.

It is, of course, impossible to fix, even approximately, the time when the p.a.w.nees and the Skidi came together, but it probably was soon after the p.a.w.nees had settled on the Republican in their northward migration. It is said that their first meeting was friendly, and that they made a treaty, and smoked together. But no peace between two such warlike tribes could last very long, and there were frequent collisions and disagreements. There was a sharp rivalry between the Chau-i and the Skidi, and their disputes finally culminated in an unprovoked attack by the Skidi upon some p.a.w.nees, while they were hunting buffalo, in which about one hundred of the latter were killed.

The p.a.w.nees made ready to avenge this injury, and marshaled all their forces. They made a night march to the vicinity of the Skidi village, which is said to have been on the north side of the Loup, distant from their own only about twenty miles, and just at daylight sent out about one hundred warriors, all mounted on dark colored horses, to decoy the Skidi from the village. These men, lying down on their horses, and covering themselves with their robes, represented buffalo, and rode over the hill in sight of the Skidi village. The ruse was successful.

The Skidi at once started out to kill the buffalo, leaving their village unprotected. The disguised warriors fled, leading the Skidi further away, while the p.a.w.nees who were in reserve rushed into the defenseless village, and captured it, almost without striking a blow.

They took all the inhabitants back with them to their own village. The Skidi were forced to sue for peace; and for their breach of faith were heavily fined by the victorious p.a.w.nees. They were incorporated into the tribe, and since that time have lived as a part of the p.a.w.nee nation. This event was probably the culminating point of a series of petty fights and skirmishes, which must have been annoying to the p.a.w.nees. This fighting went on within the memory of men now living, though there are but few who are old enough to remember it.

Curly Chief, who is about 65 years old, can remember a man who took part in these wars, and whose name was "The-Skidi-wounded-him-in-the-leg."

Bear Chief, a very old and decrepit Skidi, and Secret Pipe Chief, an old Chau-i, have both told me that they can remember one or more fights between the Skidi and the other bands.

A rather interesting evidence of the feeling once existing between the Skidi and the other bands, and even now surviving among some of the oldest men, is the statement by Bear Chief that the three other bands were known as "Big s.h.i.+elds," the implication being that as they hid themselves behind these big s.h.i.+elds they were not so brave as those who used smaller ones. The existence of such a feeling at the present day indicates that the final conquest of the Skidi and their incorporation into the p.a.w.nee tribe took place not very long ago.

Mr. Dunbar sums up the traditions of the meeting of the tribes, their wars and subsequent union, in the following language: "The historic basis of this may be somewhat as follows: In the migration of the p.a.w.nees from the south, the Skidi preceded the other bands perhaps by nearly a century. With them were the Arickaras. These two bands together possessed themselves of the region of the Loup. When the other bands arrived they were regarded as intruders, and hence arose open hostilities. The result of the struggle was that the two bands were forced to admit the new comers, and aid in reducing the surrounding territory. Subsequently the Arickaras seem to have wandered, or more probably, to have been driven from the confederacy, and to have pa.s.sed up the Missouri. Later the Skidi, in consequence of some real or fancied provocation, attempted to retrieve their losses, but were sorely punished, and henceforth obliged to content themselves with a subordinate position in the tribe."

It is said that in the olden time the Skidi were very powerful. The tribe was made up of four bands or villages, each of which numbered 5,000 people, or 20,000 for the whole tribe. This estimate, which is founded merely on the statements of old men now living, is probably excessive. There is no doubt, however, that they were a large and powerful tribe, while their warlike habits and fierce natures caused them to be feared and hated by all their neighbors.

The four divisions of the Skidi tribe exist now only in name, and the origin of these names is almost forgotten. As the result of much effort and inquiry, I have secured the following list:

_Names of the Skidi Bands._

1. _Tuhk-pah-huks-taht_--Pumpkin vine village. This name is said to have come from the fact that once, after planting time, this band went off on the summer hunt, and while they were away, the pumpkin vines grew so luxuriantly that they climbed up over the lodges, covering and hiding them.

2. _Skidi rah'ru_--Wolves in the pools (of water). The name originated in this way: Long ago one band of the Skidi were camped on the Loup River. It was winter, and the buffalo came to them in great numbers. They killed many and prepared great quant.i.ties of dried meat. The buffalo kept coming, and at length they had so much meat that they had room for no more.

When they could no longer store dried meat, they stopped taking the flesh of the buffalo and took only the hides. The buffalo continued to come and to cross the river just below the camp, and the men on foot would chase the buffalo on the ice, where the great animals would slip and sprawl, so that the Skidi could run up close, and stab them. They would skin them there and leave the carca.s.ses on the ice. From far and near great numbers of wolves gathered to feed on the carca.s.ses, and as it was toward spring, and the weather was growing milder, the ice began to melt on top, and little pools of water stood on it. About this time, there came to this village a Skidi from another band who were half starving, for they could find no buffalo at all. When the man saw that this village had so much meat, he wondered at the plenty, and asked how it was. They took him out from the village down to where the dead buffalo lay on the ice, and pointed them out to him, and he saw the wolves standing in the water and feeding on the carca.s.ses. Then they took him back to the village, gave him all the dried meat he could carry, and sent him away to his home, heavily loaded. When he reached his own village he told the people there how those in the other camp had plenty, and when they asked him where it was, he told them, and said that it was _Skidi rah'ru_--where the wolves stand in the pools of water.

3. _Tuh-wa-hok'-a-sha_--Village on a ridge. _Tuh_--village, _wa_--the central roach on the head of a man whose hair has been shaved on both sides, _hok'-a-sha_--curving over. This village was on a ridge, reaching over on both sides of it.

4. _Tu-hi'ts-pi-yet_--Village on a point or peninsula.

_Tuh_--village, camp, or band; _hits-pi-yu_--a point.

There are yet to be seen on the Loup Fork, in Nebraska, innumerable remains of Skidi villages, some of which are very ancient.

IV. NAME AND EMBLEM.

It is probable that the name p.a.w.nee, as Mr. Dunbar has remarked, is an abbreviated form of the word _pa-ri'-ki_, which means a horn, and referred to the peculiar erect scalp lock which may once have been worn by this tribe. As Mr. Dunbar says, the name probably once embraced the p.a.w.nee Picts or Wichitas, among whom this fas.h.i.+on of wearing the hair seems to have persisted long after it had been abandoned by the p.a.w.nees. The same writer gives the name Arickara as from "_ur'-ik-i_, a horn; with a verbal or plural suffix, being thus simply a later and exact equivalent of _Pa'-ni_ itself."

The name p.a.w.nee Picts, so commonly applied to the Wichitas, appears to mean p.a.w.nee Picked, or tattooed p.a.w.nees; and refers to the markings upon the faces and b.r.e.a.s.t.s of these people, which are picked in with a sharp instrument. The northern Indians speak of the p.a.w.nees as _Pa-na'-na_, while the southern tribes call them _Pi-ta'-da_, and the Dakotas call the Arickaras _Pa-da'-ni_. All these appear to be merely attempts to reproduce the name by which the p.a.w.nees call themselves, _Pa'-ni_.

The English names of the four bands of the p.a.w.nees are, as has been already stated, for the Skidi, the Wolf; for the Chau-i, the Grand; for the Kit-ke-hahk'-i, the Republican, and for the Pita-hau-erat, the Tapaje, p.a.w.nees.

An old French trader, who has known these people for many years, states that the Skidi are called Wolf p.a.w.nees from the river Loup, on which they lived; that Grand is an abbreviation for _Grand-pas_, because the Chau-i were mostly tall men and took long steps; that the Kit-ke-hahk'-i were called Republican from the river of that name, and the Pita-hau-erat _Tapaje_ (Fr. noisy), because they are noisy and restless, and are continually moving about from place to place. This explanation of these English names is not altogether satisfactory. Mr.

Dunbar informs me that he believes that the Chau-i were called Grand from the appellation given them by the Spaniards, who called them _Los Grandes_, referring to their physical stature.

In the chapter on the Skidi the names of the four bands of that tribe have been given, and their origin and derivation. The other tribes were divided into bands, or gentes, but these divisions have almost been forgotten. Of the Chau-i there is now said to be only one band; of the Kit-ke-hahk'-i three; the Great Kit-ke-hahk'-i, Little Kit-ke-hahk'-i, and Blackhead Kit-ke-hahk'-i; while of the Pita-hau-erat there were two bands, the Pita-hau-erat proper and the Ka-wa-ra'-kish. This last-named division appears to have had some customs peculiar to itself, and quite different from anything known to the other p.a.w.nees.

The p.a.w.nees call the Wichitas and the other related southern tribes _Kiri-kur'uks_--Bear's-eyes. The reason for this appellation is obscure. The only explanation of it that I have been able to obtain, is that when the p.a.w.nees first saw the Wichitas they thought they had eyes like a bear. As Mr. Dunbar has suggested to me, the allusion may have been to the ring sometimes painted or tattooed about the eyes of the Wichitas.