The Pawnee Indians

The Pawnee Indians

Author: George E. Hyde

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 1988-01-01

Total Pages: 402

ISBN-13: 9780806120942

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No assessment of the Plains Indians can be complete without some account of the Pawnees. They ranged from Nebraska to Mexico and, when not fighting among themselves, fought with almost every other Plains tribe at one time or another. Regarded as "aliens" by many other tribes, the Pawnees were distinctively different from most of their friends and enemies. George Hyde spent more than thirty years collecting materials for his history of the Pawnees. The story is both a rewarding and a painful one. The Pawnee culture was rich in social and religious development. But the Pawnees' highly developed political and religious organization was not a source of power in war, and their permanent villages and high standard of living made them inviting and 'fixed targets for their enemies. They fought and sometimes defeated larger tribes, even the Cheyennes and Sioux, and in one important battle sent an attacking party of Cheyennes home in humiliation after seizing the Cheyennes' sacred arrows. While many Pawnee heroes died fighting off enemy attacks on Loup Fork, still more died of smallpox, of neglect at the hands of the government, and of errors in the policies of Quaker agents. In many ways The Pawnee Indians is the best synthesis Hyde ever wrote. It looks far back into tribal history, assessing Pawnee oral history against anthropological evidence and examining military patterns and cultural characteristics. Hyde tells the story of the Pawnees objectively, reinforcing it with firsthand accounts gleaned from many sources, both Indian and white.


The Pawnee Mythology

The Pawnee Mythology

Author: George Amos Dorsey

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 1997-01-01

Total Pages: 580

ISBN-13: 9780803266032

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The Pawnee Mythology, originally published in 1906, preserves 148 tales of the Pawnee Indians, who farmed and hunted and lived in earth-covered lodges along the Platte River in Nebraska. The stories, collected from surviving members of four bands-Skidi, Pitahauirat, Kitkehahki, and Chaui-were generally told during intermissions of sacred ceremonies. Many were accompanied by music. George A. Dorsey recorded these Pawnee myths early in the twentieth century after the tribe's traumatic removal from their ancestral homeland to Oklahoma. He included stories of instruction concerning supernatural beings, the importance of revering such gifts as the buffalo and corn, and the results of violating nature. Hero tales, forming another group, usually centered on a poor boy who overcame all odds to benefit the tribe. Other tales invited good fortune, recognized wonderful beings like the witch women and spider women, and explained the origin of medicine powers. Coyote tales were meant to amuse while teaching ethics. George A. Dorsey (1868-1931) was a distinguished anthropologist and journalist who also wrote about the traditions of the Arapahos, Arikaras, and Osages. Douglas R. Parks is a professor of anthropology and associate director of the American Indian Studies Research Institute at Indiana University. He is the editor of James R. Murie's Ceremonies of the Pawnee (Nebraska 1989) and the editor and translator of Myths and Traditions of the Arikara Indians (Nebraska 1996).


The Cottonwood Tree

The Cottonwood Tree

Author: Kathleen Cain

Publisher: Big Earth Publishing

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 9781555663704

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And so poet and naturalist Kathleen Cain fell in love with the cottonwood tree. Regarded by many as a nuisance, a "trash tree," the cottonwood not only has a fascinating history, it has served noble purposes as well. Ranging from Vermont to Arizona to Alaska, this native North American tree, in various sizes, shapes, and subspecies, has been a sacred symbol, a shelter providing relief from both heat and cold, a signpost for the lost and weary-and underneath its branches many dreams have been born. In a magical blend of art and science, the author looks not only at the cottonwood-how it grows, how it travels, and what it says-but at the roles it has played and continues to play in the art, health, and history of North America. If you need the science, you will find it here-if you need the human heart, you will find it here as well. "Champion" means winner, defender, something outstanding-a hero. After reading The Cottonwood Tree: An American Champion you will see why this remarkable tree stands so tall in the American landscape. Book jacket.


Myths and Traditions of the Arikara Indians

Myths and Traditions of the Arikara Indians

Author: Douglas R. Parks

Publisher:

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 158

ISBN-13: 9780803237124

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When trappers and fur traders first encountered the Arikara Indians, they saw a settled and well-organized people who could be firm friends or fearsome enemies. Until the late eighteenth century the Arikaras, close relatives of the Pawnees, were one of the largest and most powerful tribes on the northern plains. For centuries Arikaras lived along the middle Missouri River. Today, they reside on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. Though much has been written about the Arikaras, their own accounts of themselves and the world as they see it have been available only in limited scholarly editions. This collection is the first to make Arikara myths, tales, and stories widely accessible. The book presents voices of the Arikara past closely translated into idiomatic English. The narratives include myths of ancient times, legends of supernatural power bestowed on selected individuals, historical accounts, and anecdotes of mysterious incidents. Also included in the collection are tales, stories the Arikaras consider fiction, that tell of the adventures and foibles of Coyote, Stuwi, and of a host of other characters. Myths and Traditions of the Arikara Indians offers a selection of narratives from Douglas R. Parks's four-volume work, Traditional Narratives of the Arikara Indians. The introduction situates the Arikaras in historical context, describes the recording and translation of the narratives, and discusses the distinctive features of the narratives. For each story, cross references are given to variant forms recorded among other Plains tribes.


Tolkien in Pawneeland

Tolkien in Pawneeland

Author: Roger Echo-Hawk

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2013-12-04

Total Pages: 492

ISBN-13: 9781494333416

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This second edition of Tolkien in Pawneeland (July 2016) features new essays on JRR Tolkien's use of the real-world traditions of race, including a detailed analysis of the transformation of his fairytale goblins into racialized "Mongol-type" orcs. The first edition of Tolkien in Pawneeland (December 2013) shared groundbreaking new insights on North American mythology and Middle-earth. Comparison of shared textual elements shows that Tolkien made use of a 1904 book called Traditions of the Skidi Pawnee to colorize The Book of Lost Tales, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings. This new edition of Tolkien in Pawneeland adds more detail to those insights. It greatly expands the scope of inquiry, delving into Tolkien's hobbit origin story and his knowledge of British folklore. This book illuminates JRR Tolkien's creative strategy of harvesting details from diverse mythological and folkloric traditions, reconfiguring them into his own epic tales of Middle-earth.


Cannibalism, Headhunting and Human Sacrifice in North America

Cannibalism, Headhunting and Human Sacrifice in North America

Author: George Franklin Feldman

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2023-10-03

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 1493082027

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This riveting volume dispels the sanitized history surrounding Native American practices toward their enemies that preceded the European exploration and colonization of North America. We abandon truth when we gloss over the clashes between Native Americans and Europeans, encounters of parties equally matched in barbarity, says George Franklin Feldman, We neglect true history when we hide the uniqueness of the varied cultures that evolved during the thousands of years before Europeans invaded North America. The research is impeccable, the writing sparkling, and the evidence incontrovertible: headhunting and cannibalism were practiced by many of the native peoples of North America.


If You Lived with the Iroquois

If You Lived with the Iroquois

Author: Ellen Levine

Publisher:

Published: 1999-10

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780613195447

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Details the traditional life, customs, and everyday world of the Iroquois--one of the strongest and most significant Native American nations--in a question-and-answer format