Pawnee mythology is the body of oral history, cosmology, and myths of the Pawnee people concerning their gods and heroes. The Pawnee are a federally recognized tribe of Native Americans, formerly located on the Great Plains along tributaries of the Missouri and Platte Rivers in Nebraska and Kansas and currently located in Oklahoma. They historically speak Pawnee, a Caddoan language. The Pawnees lived in villages of earth lodges. They grew corn and went on long bison hunts on the open plains twice a year. The tribe has four bands: the Skidi and "the South Bands" consisted of the Chawi, the Kitkahahki and the Pitahawirata Pawnee.
There were some differences in the mythology of the Skidi and the South Bands.James Rolfe Murie. (1981b): "Ceremonies of the Pawnee. Part II. The South Bands." Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology. No. 27. Washington. The Skidis were "the great star specialists", with a belief system focusing on visible objects on the night sky. Stars east of the Milky Way were regarded as male gods, while the female powers reigned in the western sky.Murie, James R. (1981a): "Ceremonies of the Pawnee. Part I. The Skiri." Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology. No. 27. Washington. The South Bands acknowledged the creative powers of some celestial objects and meteorological phenomena, but largely counted upon animals for support and guidance.
Much of the written literature about Pawnee religion and cosmology was recorded by the anthropologist James Rolfe Murie (Skiri Pawnee) (1862–1921), who was a fluent Pawnee speaker.
Deities and spirit animals Atías Tirawa, which means "Our Father Above" in the Pawnee language (often translated, inaccurately, as "Great Spirit"), was the creator god. Another variant, perhaps most used, is Tirawahat. Blaine, Martha R. (1990): Pawnee Passage, 1870-1875. Norman and London. He was believed to have taught the Pawnee people tattooing, fire-building, hunting, agriculture, speech and clothing, religious rituals (including the use of tobacco and sacred bundles), and sacrifices. He was associated with most natural phenomena, including stars and planets, wind, lightning, rain, and thunder. The wife of Tirawa was Atira, goddess of the Earth. Atira (literally, Mother Corn) was associated with corn.
The male Morning Star in the East was believed to be created first. Being the war god he wore the dress of a warrior. After him came the female Evening Star in the West. She resisted the divine plan to create humankind. Morning Star had to fight and overcome a number of forces in the western sky with his fireball to finally mate with her. The first human being thus created was a girl.
Six major stars represented other gods controlled by Tirawahut. Two of them were the female Southwest and Northwest Stars. The male stars were the North, the Northeast, the Southeast, and the South Stars. Some had specific tasks to fulfill: The North Star was the son of South Star. He watched over the people and had to keep his post. Northeast Star (or Big Black Meteoric Star) controlled the animals, in particular the bison. He was also in charge of the shift from day to night. According to some Skidis, this unidentified and enigmatic star was a buffalo bull carrying the heaven on his back. The mythology of the South Bands does not mention this god at all and only a number of the other star gods. Southeast Star (or Red Star) regulated the coming of day and had authority among the animals. South Star rose sometimes on the heaven to see if his son (North Star) remained on his fixed position. South Star ruled in the land of the dead. He received no prayers and no ceremony was held in his name. Paths in the Milky Way guided the dead human beings to his dominion.
The Thunder, the Lightning, the Cloud and the Wind were four great powers in the west. They obeyed the Evening Star. By means of constant song they generated the Earth on which the first girl (the child of Evening and Morning Stars) was placed.
The solar and lunar deities were Shakuru and Pah, respectively. They were the last of all gods placed in the heavens. Their offspring was a boy, and he was put on Earth, too. Aside from this, the Sun and the Moon are of relatively minor standing in the Skidi Pawnee mythology.
Meteorites brought good fortune to the finders. They were seen as the children of Tirawahut sent down to Earth.
While the Skidi Pawnee relied a great deal on the powers and the aid of stars and other objects in cosmos, the South Bands came through foremost by the assistance and advice of a number of animals. Yet, the gods in heaven existed, and the animals acted as go-betweens when they instructed and guided the South Bands.
The White Beaver ceremony of the Chawi served nearly the same purpose as the renewing or restarting Spring Awakening ceremony (Thunder ceremony) of the Skidi. However hibernating animals were revitalized through this rite rather than the renewal of corn crops.
Tirawa conferred miraculous powers on certain animals. These spirit animals, the nahurac, would act as Tirawa's messengers and servants, and could intercede with him on behalf of the Pawnee. The nahurac had five dwellings or lodges:Grinnell, George Bird (1893). Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk Tales. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Retrieved 2010-09-16. The foremost among them was Pahuk, usually translated "hill island", a bluff on the south side of the Platte River, near the town of Cedar Bluffs in present-day Saunders County, Nebraska.Jensen, Richard E. (1973). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form: Pahuk". Lalawakohtito, or "dark island", was an island in the Platte near Central City, Nebraska. Ahkawitakol, or "white bank", was on the Loup River opposite the mouth of the Cedar River in what is now Nance County, Nebraska. Kitzawitzuk, translated "water on a bank", also known to the Pawnee as Pahowa, was a spring on the Solomon River near Glen Elder, Kansas. It now lies beneath the waters of Waconda Reservoir."The History of Waconda". Glen Elder, Kansas. Retrieved 2010-09-16. The fifth lodge of the nahurac was known to the Pawnee as Pahur (/pa'hur/, translated as "hill that points the way" or "guide rock").
Celestial observation The Pawnee seasonal rituals were tied to the observation of the stars and planets. Their earthwork lodges were built at the same time as observatories and as "microcosm" (scale-model of the universe). Each lodge "was at the same time the universe and also the womb of a woman, and the household activities represented her reproductive powers." Weltfish, The Lost Universe: Pawnee Life and Culture, Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1965; reprint 1977, p 64 The lodge also represented the universe in a more practical way. The physical construction of the house required setting up four posts to represent the four cardinal directions, "aligned almost exactly with the north–south, east–west axis."Patricia J. O'Brien, "Prehistoric evidence of Pawnee Cosmology", American Anthropologist (New Series) Vol. 88, No. 4 (Dec 1986), pp 939–946 A Pawnee observatory-lodge also required an unobstructed view of the eastern sky. The lodge's axis would be oriented east–west in such a way that the sunrise of vernal equinox would cast light on the altar. The dimensions of the lodge's smoke hole and door would be designed to allow observation of the sky, e.g. with the smoke-hole aligned to enable observation of the Pleiades.'Weltfish, p. 942
According to one Skidi-band Pawnee man at the beginning of the twentieth century, "The Skidi were organized by the stars; these powers above made them into families and villages, and taught them how to live and how to perform their ceremonies. The shrines of the four leading villages were given by the four leading stars and represent those stars which guide and rule the people."Alice C. Fletcher, "Star Cult among the Pawnee: A Preliminary Report", American Anthropologist (New Series) Vol 4, No 4 (Oct 1902), pp. 730–736
Regular ceremonies were performed before major events, such as semi-annual buffalo hunts. Kawaha, an often-besought god of good luck, was closely connected to buffalo hunts. Many other important activities of the year were started with a ceremony, such as sowing seeds in the spring and harvesting in the fall .
The most important ceremony of the Pawnee culture, the Spring Awakening ceremony, was meant to awaken the earth and ready it for planting. It can be tied to celestial observation, held at the time when the priest first tracked "two small twinkling stars known as the Swimming Ducks in the northeastern horizon near the Milky Way." and then heard a rolling thunder from the West. (See above for the role of Thunder in the Creation myth)."The position of the stars was an important guide to the time when this ceremony should be held. The earth-lodge served as an astronomical observatory and as the priests sat inside at the west, they could observe the stars in certain positions through the smokehole and through the long east-oriented entranceway. They also kept careful watch of the horizon right after sunset and just before dawn to note the order and position of the stars." Weltfish, p. 79
Morning Star ceremony
The Morning Star ceremony was a religious ceremony occasionally involving a ritual human sacrifice of a young girl, performed only by a single village (Village Across a Hill) of the Skidi band of the Pawnee. It was connected to the Pawnee creation narrative, in which the mating of the male Morning Star with the female Evening Star created the first human being, a girl.
The Skidi Pawnee practiced the Morning Star ritual regularly, although seemingly not annually, through the 1810s. In June 1818, the Missouri Gazette reported a sacrifice "some time ago". The newborn of a captive Comanche woman was sacrificed after the woman herself had managed to escape on a stolen horse.Thurman, Melburn D.: "The Timing of the Skidi-Pawnee Morning Star Sacrafice.[sic]" Ethnohistory, Vol. 30 (1983), No. 3, pp. 155-163. However, two members of the Long Expedition in 1820 believed that the young Pawnee man Petalesharo had rescued the Comanche girl and urged an end to the Morning Star ritual. Edwin James gave the year for this action as 1817, while John R. Bell placed it around 1815.
U.S. Indian agents sought to convince chiefs to suppress the ritual,Jones, Dorothy V.: "John Dougherty and the Pawnee Rite of Human Sacrifice: April, 1827." Missouri Historical Review, Vol. 63 (1969), pp. 293-316. and major leaders, such as Knife Chief and his relative Petalesharo or Man Chief, worked to change the practices objected to by the increasing number of American settlers on the Plains. An additional aim of the agents could have been to protect the fur trade by reducing intertribal animosity.Thurman, Melburn D.: "The Skidi Pawnee Morning Star Sacrifice of 1827." Nebraska History. 1970, pp. 268-280.
The custom came to the wider attention of the public in the Eastern United States in 1820 due to reports of a young Pawnee warrior, Man Chief, who risked his life to rescue a Comanche girl from the sacrificial scaffold in defiance of the Skidi Pawnee priesthood.Weltfish, p. 9 Indian Agent John Dougherty and some influential Pawnees tried without luck to save the life of a Cheyenne girl before mid-April 1827. The last known sacrifice was of Haxti, a 14-year-old Oglala Lakota girl on April 22, 1838.Hyde, George. The Pawnee Indians. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1974. pp. 19–359 (A later stated 1833 sacrifice was confused with the one in April 1827).Thurman, Melbrun D.: "A Case of Historical Mythology: The Skidi Pawnee Morning Star Sacrifice of 1833." Plains Anthropologist. Vol. 50 (1970), pp. 309-311.
The identity of the Morning Star The identity of the Morning Star is not clear. "The earliest accounts specified Venus as Morning Star, while most ethnographers favored Mars", given it was said to be red. Jupiter is also a candidate.