Pawnee Pottery Making
“POTTERY MAKING”
Potters of the plains were not so skillful as those of the pueblo region of the Southwest, but Pawnee women produced good and serviceable jars from the clay and sand of their local river banks. Often these pieces were decorated by incised designs on the upper part of the jar. In this scene the kneeling woman builds the walls of the jar by coiling a strip of soft clay until it reaches the desired height and shape. Another potter is finishing a jar by patting it with a cord-wrapped paddle until the walls are smooth and solid. It will be dried and subjected to great heat in the open fire before it is a finished jar, such as the white-clad maiden is using to carry clay and water. Jars were made large and small and were used for cooking and for food storage. In the distance, industrious workers lash poles together to form a framework for brush and sod which will make a weatherproof home like those behind it.”
“PAWNEE INDIANS”
In the heart of the buffalo range and on fertile gardening soil, the Pawnees lived and prospered in their large villages along the prairie rivers of south central Nebraska and north central Kansas. Bits of broken pottery and the arrow makers’ flint chips now mark the sights where earth lodges once stood, and on nearby hills shallow unmarked graves contain the bones of their dead. The religion of the Pawnees was essentially a worship of the sun, moon, and stars, which they believed to be the ancestors of their people. An elaborate and colorful mythology reveals them as a romantic and happy people. Friendliness of the Pawnee toward immigrants was an important factor in the westward march of the white man, but the Pawnees did not receive due consideration in later years. Slowly their land was taken from them and they were removed to a reservation in Oklahoma.”
A Contemporary Perspective
The ancestors of the Pawnee migrated north to central Kansas and southern Nebraska some years before European contact. By the time Europeans first observed them, they were already well established in permanent earth lodge villages near waterways. Although Pawnee families left home on extended seasonal bison hunts, their primarily agricultural and sedentary lifestyle permitted them to produce crafts difficult to travel with, such as pottery. As discussed in the original text, Pawnee pottery was hand-built and included elaborate designs. Today, archeologists use these designs–which changed over time–to help date historic Pawnee village sites.
The Pawnee were also skilled astronomers who developed complex star charts to set their agricultural and ceremonial calendars. Although the original text simplifies Pawnee religion to “essentially a worship of the sun, moon, and stars,” their belief system was in fact incredibly sophisticated. Their main deity, Tirawa, was the creator of the universe. His wife, Atira, the goddess of the Earth, was especially associated with corn—the Pawnee’s staple crop. Other heavenly beings, whom the Pawnee connected to particular stars, helped Tirawa and guarded the Pawnee people. The two most prominent of these star spirits were the Evening Star, the goddess of darkness and fertility, and the Morning Star, the god of war, fire, and light. The Pawnee also recognized various earth spirits whom they identified with animals. These beings provided special guidance to individuals as well as to Pawnee secret societies. Each Pawnee village had its own sacred bundle of religious objects, which Pawnee priests used to communicate with Tirawa and appeal for aid during special rituals.
The Pawnee also practiced elaborate mortuary customs. Highly-ranked individuals as well as those who died of extreme old age were painted with a sacred red ointment, dressed in finery, and wrapped in a bison robe for burial. The Pawnee believed that the spirit of these honored deceased rose to heaven to become a star. The souls of less worthy individuals, meanwhile, traveled to a village of spirits in the south.
The Pawnee were among the Plains tribes most willing to forge alliances with Americans in the early-to-mid-19th century. In part, their “friendliness” toward Americans stemmed from their desire to defend themselves against Indigenous rivals, like the Lakota, whose expansion across the northern and central Plains threatened Pawnee hunting grounds. Although American emigration paths flowed directly through Pawnee territory, the Pawnee did not harass travelers but rather aided them on their westward journeys. During the American Civil War as well as the Plains Indian wars of the late 19th century, Pawnee warriors even served in the U.S. Army as scouts. They fought alongside U.S. soldiers against Lakota and Cheyenne enemies.
Their alliance with the Americans, however, ultimately did not protect them from U.S. reservation policy. As noted in the original text, the federal government slowly reduced their territory in a series of land cession treaties from the mid-to-late 19th century to make way for White homesteaders. By 1857, the U.S. had confined the tribe to a small reserve in Nebraska. Finally, in 1874, the federal government began the process of removing the Pawnee from their homelands altogether. The Pawnee settled on a new reservation in Indian Territory, just south of the Osage Reservation.
Like other tribes, the Pawnee suffered greatly on their reservation, in particular due to the spread of epidemic diseases like smallpox and cholera. Although they had numbered as many as 12,000 people in the early 19th century, their population decreased to just over 600 by 1900. The Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act of 1936, however, provided the tribe with the opportunity for rebirth. Shortly after the act passed, the Pawnee established a new tribal government and gained federal recognition as the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma. Slowly, their population recovered.
Today, the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma includes more than 3,000 enrolled tribal citizens. The Pawnee continue to celebrate their culture in yearly gatherings, homecoming ceremonies, and powwows.
