University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for Summer 2012 INDIANS AND EMPIRES CULTURAL CHANGE AMONG THE OMAHA AND PAWNEE, FROM CONTACT TO 1808 Kurt E. Kinbacher Spokane Falls Community College Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly Part of the American Studies Commons, Cultural History Commons, and the United States History Commons Kinbacher, Kurt E., "INDIANS AND EMPIRES CULTURAL CHANGE AMONG THE OMAHA AND PAWNEE, FROM CONTACT TO 1808" (2012). Great Plains Quarterly. 2803. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/2803 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. INDIANS AND EMPIRES CULTURAL CHANGE AMONG THE OMAHA AND PAWNEE, FROM CONTACT TO 1808 KURT E. KINBACHER The Great Plains is in the middle of every­ vast territories and created dynamic cultures. where. It has been crossed and recrossed for Among these peoples were the Omaha, tens of thousands of years. Because of its cen­ who settled on the Missouri River, and the tral location, the region served as a historical Pawnee, who lived in the Platte Valley. Four laboratory where people were "forever imagin­ empires-Spain, France, Great Britain, and ing new environments and trying to muscle the United States-also forced their way into them into being."l In what is now the state of the Great Plains beginning in the sixteenth Nebraska-the very center of the middle­ century. They saw the region as a geopolitical divergent groups of Native Americans claimed buffer zone and a potential source of wealth. Their worldviews of the region would have been very hard for the Omaha or the Pawnee to understand. While three of the empires claimed to own Nebraska, in reality, before Key Words: Caddo an, Chief Blackbird, Dhegfha, the nineteenth century, it was Indian ter­ diplomacy, Ponca, trade ritory. The collision of Indian and European cul­ tures created new relationships all across the Kurt E. Kinbacher is a History Instructor at Spokane Great Plains. Native peoples responded to the Falls Community College in Spokane, Washington. He teaches the US Survey sequence, Native American European presence by redefining their world­ History, East Asian History, World History, and the views to include outside ideas and materials. Pacific Northwest. He earned his PhD in the History Many tribes not only survived the early impact of the North American West from the University of but also managed to thrive as the result of it. Nebraska-Lincoln in 2006. His research interests Initially, both the Omaha and Pawnee peoples include the movements of diverse groups of people into and around the Great Plains. reimagined their own potentials and expanded their horizons and spheres of influence. As time progressed, however, they encountered fluctu­ [GPQ 32 (Summer 2012): 207-21] ating power structures and wholesale assaults 207 208 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 2012 FIG. 1. Omaha Nation and Pawnee Nation, 1715-1808. Map prepared by Brent M. Rogers, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. on the "Indian way." Ultimately, between first NATIVE AMERICAN ORIGINS AND contact and 1808, both cultures experienced TRADITIONS profound economic, political, social, and demographic upheavals that irrevocably trans­ Indian societies were never static, and both formed their traditional customs and ways of the Omaha and Pawnee migrated to their living. home territories within the last 600 years. Indian Nations were never passive play­ By the time the European empires began his­ ers in their own dispossession; instead, they torical narratives of the region, the Omaha actively confronted outside pressures and Nation was defined internally as a territory made accommodations to forward their from the Platte to the Niobrara and from the own agendas. The experience of some large Missouri to the headwaters of the Elkhorn Plains Nations-including the Comanche and River. (See Fig. 1.) Tribal members traveled Lakota-have been well documented, in part, for food and trade as far east as the Mississippi because they created empires of their own River, as far south as the Kansas River, and to compete with Europeans, Americans, and as far west as the Rocky Mountains. Prior to other Indian peoples. Those with smaller pop­ claiming this country, the Omaha (Um6nhon, ulations and territories-such as the Omaha meaning "upstream people") were part of the and Pawnee-were no less proactive in their greater Dhegfha group. United by a common efforts. Although their economic reaches may Siouan dialect and shared traditions, they were not have constituted empires, both Nations once joined with the Quapaw ("downstream became major regional players during the people"), the Osage, the Kansa, and the Ponca, tumultuous eighteenth century. They were who remained with the Omaha as late as 1715. only forced to relinquish these newfound roles These five cognates divided as they spread after the United States gained full title to the across present-day Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, region. and Oklahoma.2 © 2012 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln INDIANS AND EMPIRES 209 Gulf of Mexico FIG. 2. Greater Louisiana, 1714-1808. Map prepared by Brent M. Rogers, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. There is some debate about Dhegfha origins. home, scholars more frequently argue that the The Omaha creation story states that the "people Dhegfha organized in the Great Lakes region lived near a large body of water, in a wooded and migrated along the Ohio, Mississippi, Des country where there was game.'" Material cul­ Moines, and Missouri Rivers. (See Fig. 2.) The ture-single-ply moccasin soles and bandoleer­ archaeological record traces seventeenth-century style game bags-supports the idea of an eastern Omaha movement from the Pipestone region of woodlands genesis. While some historians sug­ Minnesota to a large village on the Big Sioux gest that the Virginia Piedmont was their original River in southeastern South Dakota.4 © 2012 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln 210 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 2012 The Omaha and Ponca appear to have chiefs-the lower levels being a sort of meritoc­ arrived in Nebraska just before their split. racy-real social order was vested in a Council By 1775 the Omaha alone founded their "Big of Seven. The council members came from the Village" on Omaha Creek seven miles from the seven clans who carried the appropriate pipes. Missouri River while the Ponca retired farther The three remaining clans had duties, such as up the main stream. The creek's floodplain making war, that made the responsibilities of was lined with cottonwoods and willows, a civil government undesirable. Vacancies in the convenient source of fuel and materials for council-originally hereditary but later com­ construction of earth and timber lodges. It was petitive-were filled upon death.8 Peace and also prime horticultural soil, and the Omaha order within the tribe were the prime consid­ boasted a 483-acre garden. Here the women erations, and slow deliberation and consensus cultivated "mother" corn, beans, melon, and were the norm. squash in "grandmother" earth.s The traditional economy was based on This reverence for soil and maize was indic­ subsistence hunting and horticulture There is ative of a society that was intimately connected clear evidence of intertribal trade, but in the to all aspects of the natural world through their pre-European era, it revolved less around profit belief in a creator called Wak6nda. This deity and more around the concept of gift reciproc­ represented "the mysterious life power perme­ ity. Exchanging offerings created fictive kin­ ating all natural forms and forces and all phases ship ties among the participants.9 Production of man's conscious life."6 The cohesion of the of trade goods was limited by transportation Omaha and their communal lifestyle depended difficulties and a reliance on stone, bone, on the ceremonial activities designed to keep wood, leather, and pottery as the primary tools. Wak6nda favorably inclined toward them. Omaha society was patriarchal, and gender The ceremonial nature of society was roles were specifically defined. The men were employed in its fullest during the journey warriors, hunters, and priests. The women of their traditional economy known as the raised children in accordance with tribal ritu­ "Omaha round." The cycle began in May when als, tended the crops, and prepared food and the corn was planted. After tending the crop clothing. The tribe's population was never until its establishment in June or July, almost great. Estimates of its numbers prior to 1800 the entire village-save the infirm and a hand­ range from 2,500 to 3,200, although figures of ful of guardians-left for the summer buffalo the early explorers should not be considered hunt. Living in tipis that could be moved daily, accurate.1° some of the tribe's most important rituals were In contrast, the Pawnee were a large tribe of performed away from their "permanent" home. perhaps 6,000 to 10,000 souls, although once They returned to the Big Village in time for a again these numbers are approximations.Jl September harvest and rested through October. They called themselves Pani, a word that prob­ November and December were spent in small ably referred to the distinct hornlike scalp lock bands hunting deer and fowl in the river bot­ worn by warriors.1 2 Members of the Caddo an toms. The tribe reassembled in January and language family, they were one of the first hunted buffalo again through March. In April, modern tribes to move into the Plains. they returned to the village to start the cycle For centuries, the distantly related Caddo an again.? peoples lived in a swath of territory run­ Before their arrival in Nebraska, the Omaha ning from modern Texas to South Dakota and their cognates demonstrated a tendency where they remained relatively isolated from toward political disintegration.