Pawnee people: Plains nation, culture, and history

The Pawnee chiefdom, inherited through the female line, consisted of four bands (ákitaaruʾ) that spoke two mutually difficult-to-understand dialects: In the north, the politically centrally strongly organized Skidi / Skiri Federation spoke the so-called Skidi/Skiri dialect (SK dialect) (which closely resembled the language of the Arikara or Northern Pawnee) and the so-called. South Bands dialect (SB dialect) was spoken by the three southern bands, which did not form a central political unit, but consisted of three dominant bands (groups): the Chaui / Chawi, Kitkehakhi and Pitahawirata. Each of the four Pawnee bands in turn subdivided into several village groups living along the river courses. Although the Skidi / Skiri Federation was the most populous Pawnee group, nevertheless the Chaui / Chawi of the Southern Bands were generally considered the leading political group within the Pawnee, whose leading chief (reesaahkitáwiʾuʾ / riísaahkitawiʾuʾ) generally acted as spokesman for all Pawnee bands to outsiders (Indians as well as Europeans) (however, he possessed no political "force" to impose on the other three bands any contentious issues or decisions). Disputes and violence between the four bands was not uncommon in history, especially between the Skidi / Skiri Federation (allies of the Arikara) and the Chaui / Chawi (Grand Pawnee).

Skidi / Skiri Federation (abgl. from Ckirir /Tski'ki - "wolf" or Tskirirara - "wolf standing in water", approx: "wolf people"), proper name Ckírihki Kuuruúriki ("people who resemble wolves, behave like wolves", referring to the character and bravery of the animals, hence called Loup Pawnee by the French and later Wolf Pawnee by the Americans), were also known as Atatkipaasikasa ("Feces Lying In The Shade", literally.

• Akapaxtsawa ('Tipi painted with a buffalo skull')
• Arikarariki ('Where a wapiti with a small antler stands')
• Arikararikutsu ('Where a wapiti with big antlers stands')
• Kitkehaxpakuxtu ('Old Earth Village' or 'Old Earth Village')
• Tuhawukasa ('village stretching over a hill')
• Tuhitspiat or Tuhricpiiʾat (SB dialect) ('village spreading into the lowlands').
• Tuhutsaku ('village within a gorge')
• Tukitskita ('village along a river arm')
• Turawiu (was only a part of a village)
• Turikaku ('Central Village', 'Main Village')
• Tuwarakaku ('village within a dense forest')
• Tskisarikus ('Osprey')
• Tstikskaatite ('Black-Ear-of-Corn', i.e. 'Black Corn')

Politically independent, but based on their dialect as well as their tribal territories, the following bands within the Pawnee were counted as part of the Skidi Federation:

• Tskirirara ('wolf standing in the water', were namesake of the Skidi Federation)
• Páhukstaatuʾ (Sk dialect), Páhukstaatuʾ (SB dialect) or Pahukstatu ('pumpkin vine village').
• Panismaha (also Panimaha, ca. 1770 this group split off from the Skidi, migrated southward into the area of the Texas-Arkansas border, allied there with the Taovayas/Tawehash (a tribe of the Wichita), Tonkawa, Yojuanes and other Texan tribes first against Lipan Apache, then against the Comanche)

Southern bands - referred to by the Skidi / Skiri Federation as Tuhaáwit ("East Village People", i.e.: "People in the East").

• Cáwiiʾi (SB dialect), Cawií (Sk dialect), also: Tsawi, today usually Chaui (official spelling of the Pawnee Nation) or Chawi (called "People in the Middle" because of the location of their tribal territory; sometimes the name is rendered as "Those who beg for meat"), called Grand Pawnee by Europeans because of their political leadership role.
• Kítkehahki (SB dialect), Kítkahaahki (Sk dialect), also: Kitkahaki or Kitkehaxki (literally: "those who live in small earth huts" or "those who live in the small village with muddy ground"), due to their dominance of the Middle Republican River also called Republican Pawnee
• Kitkehahkisúraariksisuʾ (SB dialect) or Kítkahaahkisuraariksisuʾ (Sk dialect) (actually Kitkahahki Band, literally "true Kitkahahki"'; in the late 19th century Kitkahahki split into two bands, this being the larger of the two).
• Kitkehahkiripacki (SB dialect) or Kítkahaahkiripacki (Sk dialect) (literally "Little Kitkahahki", a small splinter group that broke away from the main group in the late 19th century)
• Piitahawiraata (SB dialect), Piítahaawìraata (Sk dialect), also: Pitahauirata, Pitahaureat, today usually: Pitahawirata (official spelling of the Pawnee Nation) (literally: "Those who go downstream, i.e. eastward"), by the French also called Tapage Pawnee ("Screaming, Howling Pawnee") and therefore later by the Americans also Noisy Pawnee ("Loud, Noisy Pawnee") (both foreign names are based on the translation of Piíta (SB dialect) and Piíta (Sk dialect) as "man, human" and Rata as "scream").
• Piitahawiraata or Piítahaawìraata (actually Pitahawirata, leading group)
• Kawaraakis (SB dialect), now usually Kawarakis (possibly deriv. from the Arikara word Kawarusha - "horse" and the Pawnee word Kish - "people", but the name could also derive from the sacred bundle associated with this group called "Kawaraáʾa", other Pawnee claimed that the Kawarakis spoke like the northern living Arikara, so they may have belonged to the Arikara driven from their villages by the Lakota in 1794-1795, who then joined their southern living Pawnee relatives).

During the late 18th and early 19th centuries (and prior to 1833), the four Pawnee bands settled in clusters of settlements along major tributaries of the Missouri River (kícpaarukstiʾ / kicpaárukstiʾ) (literally, "sacred water") in central Nebraska and northern Kansas. At the time of first contact with the Europeans (Spanish and later French), they formed one of the largest and best-known semi-settled prairie tribes, with an estimated population of ten to twelve thousand, and militarily as well as politically dominated this region of the prairies (húraahkatuusuʾ / kuúhaaruʾ) ("flat land") favorable both for trade and for agriculture and (later horse breeding and livestock farming).

To the northwest and north lived the Skidi / Skiri Federation, historically also known as the Loup Pawnee or Wolf Pawnee; their tribal territory extended from the south bank of the Niobrara River (kíckatariʾ) (literally: "swift-flowing water") southward to the north bank of the Platte River (kíckatus / kíckatus) (literally: "shallow river"); their villages (once at least thirteen) were concentrated along the Elkhorn River (kicita) and the many tributaries of the Loup River (ickariʾ/ ickáriʾ) (literally: "[river where] many Indian potatoes [grow]"), which was named after them by the Europeans. Since the early 19th century, however, the Skidi / Skiri lived only in a village along the north bank of the Loup River.

South of them along both banks of the Platte River and southward to both sides of the Republican River (with hunting grounds southward to the Solomon River (kiicawiicaku) (literally, "springtime on the riverbank") and Smoky Hill River (aahkáwirarahkata) (literally, "yellow cliffs and riverbank, respectively") in Kansas lived the three South Bands Pawnee: the Kitkehahki (Republican Pawnee in the west, the Chaui / Chawi (Grand Pawnee) in the center, and the Chaui / Chawi (Grand Pawnee) in the north. Riverbank")) in Kansas lived the three South Bands Pawnee: the Kitkehahki (Republican Pawnee) in the west, the Chaui / Chawi (Grand Pawnee) in the center, and the Pitahawirata (Tappage Pawnee / Noisy Pawnee) in the east.

The Kitkehahki Pawnee, historically known mostly as the Republican Pawnee, and their settlements dominated the middle reaches of the Republican River named for them by the French, their tribal territory bounded on the north by the Platte River and encompassing Prairie Dog Creek, a tributary of the Republican River in northern Kansas, on the south. Under pressure from the Kansa (árahuʾ / árahuʾ), however, they had abandoned their original tribal territory and had been settled along the Loup River since about 1811, finding protection from the Skidi / Skiri Federation.

The Chaui / Chawi Pawnee, referred to as the Grand Pawnee because of their political leadership role by the French (and later Americans), settled in several villages south of the Platte River and on both sides of the Republican River; their tribal territory lay almost "centrally" between the upriver (west) Kitkehahki Pawnee, the downriver (east) Pitahawirata (Tappage Pawnee / Noisy Pawnee), and the Skidi /Skiri Federation directly to the north. Beginning in the late 18th century, the Chaui / Chawi Pawnee moved into two large settlements south of the Platte River to provide military as well as organizational support against tribes advancing westward onto their former tribal lands (but who were themselves fleeing the advancing frontier).

The Pitahawirata Pawnee, also known historically as the Tappage Pawnee or Noisy Pawnee, were the easternmost and also smallest band of Pawnee, living in several villages south of the Platte River and on both sides of the Republican River. Beginning in the late 18th century, they inhabited only a single settlement, mostly near the Chaui / Chawi Pawnee; by the mid-19th century, they probably inhabited a village with the Chaui / Chawi Pawnee (since no separate name or location is given for a Pitahawirata settlement).