Chapter IV: Name and Emblem

It is probable that the name Pawnee, 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 Pawnee Picts or Wichitas, among whom this fashion of wearing the hair seems to have persisted long after it had been abandoned by the Pawnees. The same writer gives the name Arickara as from "_ür´-ik-i_, a horn; with a verbal or plural suffix, being thus simply a later and exact equivalent of _Pa´-ni_ itself."

The name Pawnee Picts, so commonly applied to the Wichitas, appears to mean Pawnee Picked, or tattooed Pawnees; and refers to the markings upon the faces and breasts of these people, which are picked in with a sharp instrument. The northern Indians speak of the Pawnees 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 Pawnees call themselves, _Pa´-ni_.

The English names of the four bands of the Pawnees 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, Pawnees.

An old French trader, who has known these people for many years, states that the Skidi are called Wolf Pawnees 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 Pawnees.

The Pawnees 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 Pawnees 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.

It is generally supposed that an Indian receives his personal name from some peculiarly memorable act that he has performed, or from some incident that has happened to him. This is not now commonly the case in the tribes with which I am best acquainted. Personal names formerly originated in this way among the Indians, but at the present day I question much if they are often given for such reasons. Most of the names borne by the warriors have been long known in the tribe, and I believe the coining of new names to fit a special set of circumstances to be now quite unusual. Children were named soon after they were born, and retained their childish names until well grown. _Ta´-ka_--white, was a common boy's name, as was _Ka-tit_--black; _Ki-ri´ki_--bright eyes, was often given to little girls. Nicknames referring to personal peculiarities were common.

Here is a list which will give some notion of the general character of the Pawnee names: Lucky Hawk, Good Fox, Turn-your-robe-hair-out, Chief of Men, Pipe Chief, Lone Chief, Leader, Brave Chief, Leading Fox, Still Hawk, Hunting Chief, Yellow Fox, Charging-the-camp, Angry Chief, Little Warrior, Good Bear, Eagle Chief, Sun Chief, White Horse, He-gives-away-many-horses-and-others-ride-them, Riding-up, Good Sky, Walking Bear, Proud Eagle, Seven Stars, Sitting Bull, Big Mountain, Fancy Horse, Fox Chief, Good Sun, Curly Hair, Blue Hawk, Mad Wolf, White Elk, Young Hawk, War Chief, Good Chief, Curly Chief, Sitting Eagle, Running Eagle, Mad Bear, Walking Sun, See-the-eagle-flying, etc.

Mr. Dunbar states that "the tribal mark of the Pawnees in their pictographic or historic painting was the scalp lock dressed to stand nearly erect, or curving slightly backward something like a horn." I have never met a Pawnee who knew of this manner of dressing the hair in his own tribe, but all unite in stating that the Wichitas used to wear the lock in this manner. If this is the case, no doubt in ancient times it was common to the Pawnees as well, but with them it has become obsolete, and is now forgotten.

In books the sign for "Pawnee" is sometimes given as the forefinger of the right hand held at the back of the crown of the head, and pointing upward to represent this erect scalp lock, but I conceive that this sign is really that of the Pawnee Picts or Wichitas, who have been so constantly confused with the true or northern Pawnees.

The only sign for "Pawnee" that I have ever seen employed among Indians in the West is that for "wolf," which is the name under which the Pawnees are, or at least were formerly, known to most other tribes. This sign is made in two ways, (1) by holding the two hands, palm forward, the first and middle fingers extended close together upward and a little forward, thumb and other fingers closed, close to the head, about opposite the temple; (2) the right hand alone may be held palm forward at the height of, and just in front of, the shoulder, the first and middle fingers extended, separated and pointing upward, the thumb and others closed; the hand is then moved forward and downward from the wrist, so that the extended fingers point almost to the front. Both these signs represent the pricked ears of a wolf, and, so far as my experience goes, are universally understood to mean "Pawnee." The one last described is now much the more common of the two. The first of these signs is shown in the frontispiece, which is copied from an engraving in the First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology.

The Pawnees have always been called by their neighbors to the south "Wolves." It has been suggested that this term was applied to them by their enemies in contempt, but there seems no reason for believing this to have been the case, since it may be doubted that an Indian feels contempt for a wolf any more than he does for a fox, a rabbit, or an elk.

An Indian going into an enemy's country is often called a wolf, and the sign for "a scout" is made up of the signs "wolf" and "look." The Pawnees were most adroit scouts, warriors and stealers of horses; and it seems perfectly natural that they should have received from the neighboring tribes, who had such frequent evidences of their skill as scouts and horse takers, the appellation Wolf. The Pawnees themselves believe that the term was applied to them because of their great endurance, as well as of their skill in imitating wolves so as to escape detection by the enemy either by day or night. The Cheyennes, Wichitas and Comanches all testify that they call the Pawnees Wolves because they prowl like wolves; because, too, they have the endurance of wolves, and can travel all day, and dance all night, and can make long journeys, living on the carcasses they find on their way, or on no food at all.

The Pawnees, when they went on the warpath, were always prepared to simulate wolves. This was one of their regular practices, and this no doubt was one reason for their remarkable success in taking horses, for it enabled them to escape observation and to reconnoitre at close quarters without danger of discovery. Wolves on the prairie were too common to excite remark, and at night they would approach close to the Indian camps, and often venture into them. The Pawnee who was disguised as a wolf could trot up close to the village of his enemy, see where the horses were tied, and perhaps even hear what was being said, and lay his plans accordingly. The Pawnee starting off on the warpath usually carried a robe made of wolf skins, or in later times a white blanket or a white sheet; and, at night, wrapping himself in this, and getting down on his hands and knees, he walked or trotted here and there like a wolf, having thus transformed himself into a common object of the landscape. This disguise was employed by day as well. To escape observation when traveling in daylight, the Pawnee war party always chose the ravines and lower ground to march in. Sometimes, especially in a country where there was danger of coming unexpectedly on the enemy, it was important that a reconnoissance should be made from some commanding point. A man walking up to the top of a hill might be seen, and recognized as a suspicious object, a long way off, but no one would look a second time at a wolf. While the party remained hidden in some ravine or hollow, therefore, the man who was to ascend the hill would put his white robe over him and gallop to the top on all fours, and would sit there on his haunches looking all over the country, and any one at a distance who saw him, would take him for a wolf. It was acknowledged on all hands that the Pawnees could imitate wolves best. In one of the stories already given, an instance is mentioned in which two Pawnees in the United States service made use of this device to recover captured animals.

The name "Wolf," as given to the Pawnees, is probably merely a translation of the word _Skiri´ki_, meaning wolf, from which the name of the Skidi band may be supposed to be derived. Mr. Dunbar says: "The emblem probably originated from the Skidi band. They being in advance of the other bands in the northern migration, became known to the tribes about them as wolves; and as the other bands arrived the sign was naturally made to include them also, and in this enlarged use was at length accepted by the Pawnees themselves."

PAWNEE CUSTOMS.