Pahuk

Last updated

Pahuk
Pahuk from S 2.JPG
Pahuk, seen from the south
Nearest city Cedar Bluffs, Nebraska
Area85 acres (34 ha)
NRHP reference No. 73001074 [1]
Added to NRHPAugust 14, 1973

Pahuk, also written Pahaku, or Pahuk Hill, is a bluff on the Platte River in eastern Nebraska in the United States. In the traditional Pawnee religion, it was one of five dwellings of spirit animals with miraculous powers. The Pawnee occupied three villages near Pahuk in the decade prior to their removal to the Pawnee Reservation on the Loup River in 1859.

Contents

Pahuk is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Description

Pahuk was defined by erosion of the Platte River and tributary gullies into the plain south of the river. The north side of the bluff is a near-vertical face rising 150 feet (46 m) from the river. The east and west sides are delimited by deep and steep-sided gullies about 1,000 feet (300 m) apart. The ground dips slightly to the south; there is a gentle rise about 40 feet (12 m) high near the bluff edge, making Pahuk the highest point for several miles in any direction. [2]

Pawnee tradition

The Pawnee name "Pahuk" is generally translated as "hill island". [3] :358 The accent is on the second syllable; the vowel in the first syllable is pronounced like the "a" in "father"; and the "u" is pronounced short, as in "us". [3] :xxi More recently, the name has often been rendered "Pahaku". [4]

In the Pawnee traditional religion, the supreme being Tirawa conferred miraculous powers on certain animals. These spirit animals, the nahurac, act as Tirawa's messengers and servants, and can intercede with him on behalf of the Pawnee. [3] :xvii

The nahurac had five underground lodges, of which Pahuk was one. The others were Lalawakohtito, or "dark island", an island in the Platte near present-day Central City, Nebraska; Ahkawitakol, or "white bank", on the Loup River opposite the mouth of the Cedar River in what is now Nance County, Nebraska; Pahur, or "hill that points the way", a bluff south of the Republican River near its namesake Guide Rock, Nebraska; and Kitzawitzuk, translated "water on a bank", a spring on the bank of the Solomon River near Glen Elder, Kansas, also known to the Pawnee as Pahowa, but generally called today by its Kaw name of Waconda Spring. [3] :358–9

George Bird Grinnell GeorgeBirdGrinnell.JPG
George Bird Grinnell

The nahurac who met at Pahuk were regarded as the most powerful. They figure in two of the Pawnee tales recounted by George Bird Grinnell. In "A Story of Faith", a young doctor is poisoned by a rival. Sick and miserable, he wanders until he unwittingly arrives at Pahuk. He is brought into the lodge, but before the doctor animals there will essay to cure him, they send him to the other four nahurac dwellings. At all of these, the doctors admit that curing him is beyond their powers, and acknowledge the leadership of those at Pahuk. The man is then returned to Pahuk, where the doctors cure him and instruct him in their secrets. He returns to his home, where he uses the magic he has learned to destroy the doctor who poisoned him, pouring his enemy's flesh and blood into the river to feed the nahurac. [3] :98–120

In "The Boy who was Sacrificed", a man sacrifices his dearly-loved son to Tirawa, killing the boy with a knife and throwing him into the Platte. The boy's corpse drifts downstream to Pahuk, where the kingfisher messenger of the nahurac finds him and implores the spirit animals to restore him to life. The nahurac of Pahuk send the messenger to the other four lodges to ask what should be done with the boy; but the animals there are unable to make the decision, and it is left to the nahurac at Pahuk. Petitioned earnestly by the messenger bird, they bring the boy back to life, then teach him their secrets. He returns to his village and becomes a great doctor. [3] :161–170

In a Pawnee creation story recounted by Mari Sandoz, the first people and animals awoke from a sleep underground, and emerged onto the earth's surface through a hole on Pahuk. [5]

History

In the 1850s, three Pawnee villages were located in the vicinity of Pahuk. The Skidi (Wolf Pawnee) had established a village at the McClean Site on the bluff between 1847 and 1850. [6] By 1855, the Skidi had been joined by the Pitahauerats (Tapage Pawnee), and the village had been fortified against Sioux attack with a sod wall. The Chaui (Grand Pawnee) were in a village at the Leshara Site, about four miles southeast of the Skidi, near present-day Leshara, Nebraska. A third village, probably of the Kitkehahki (Republican Pawnee) was located on the south bank of the Platte west of the Skidi. [7]

In 1857, the Pawnee, under pressure from white settlers and Sioux attacks, [7] signed a treaty giving up all claims to land in Nebraska in exchange for a reservation on the Loup River in present-day Nance County, Nebraska. In 1859, the Mormon settlers of the town of Genoa on the reservation were evicted, and an agency built there. [8] In that same year, the Pawnee left the villages near Pahuk for their summer buffalo hunt; shortly after they had departed, the villages were burned, either by Sioux raiders or by settlers. The destruction of the villages and the hope of obtaining government protection from the Sioux drove the Pawnee to leave the Platte and move to the reservation. [7]

In 1858, the Nebraska Territorial Legislature, meeting in Florence, voted to move the territorial capital from Omaha to Pahuk, which they dubbed "Capitol Hill", and on which they proposed to build a capital city named Neapolis. [9] Although a majority of the members of the legislature had been present at the Florence session, Governor William Alexander Richardson refused to recognize its actions, on the grounds that it had not met at Omaha, the legitimate seat of government. [10] The nascent Neapolis community was soon abandoned. [2]

Pahuk was claimed by homesteaders in 1868. [11] Its name was given to Pohocco Precinct, organized in about 1869, [12] although the bluff did not actually lie within the precinct. [13]

Preservation

Although the top of the bluff was cultivated, the site otherwise underwent very little development. The wooded portion of the bluff was purchased in 1962 by Dr. Louis and Geraldine Gilbert. Learning of its significance to the Pawnee, they applied to have the site listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The application was approved in 1973. [11] By then, it was the only one of the five nahurac sites that had not been destroyed or significantly damaged. [2]

Dutchman's breeches Dicentra cucullaria.JPG
Dutchman's breeches

In the 1980s, the Gilberts placed a conservation easement on their property. [11] The existence of the easement and Pahuk's sanctity to the Pawnee were factors cited in the 2005 decision by the Nebraska Department of Roads not to reroute U.S. Highway 77 west of Fremont in the course of converting it into an expressway between Lincoln and Norfolk, Nebraska. [4]

In 2008, Pat and Nancy Shanahan, who farmed the land atop the bluff, created a conservation easement to protect their 257 acres (104 ha) from development. Four representatives of the Pawnee tribe traveled from Oklahoma to Nebraska for the dedication ceremony. [14]

Apart from its historic and religious significance, Pahuk is of interest to biologists, as lying near the westernmost point in the Platte Valley distribution of a number of eastern woodland plant species, including bitternut hickory, black walnut, American linden, and Dutchman's breeches. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pawnee people</span> Indigenous people of the Great Plains

The Pawnee are a Central Plains Indian tribe that historically lived in Nebraska and northern Kansas but today are based in Oklahoma. They are the federally recognized Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, who are headquartered in Pawnee, Oklahoma. Their Pawnee language belongs to the Caddoan language family, and their name for themselves is Chatiks si chatiks or "Men of Men".

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, originally located on the Great Plains along tributaries of the Missouri and Platte Rivers in Nebraska and Kansas and currently located in Oklahoma. They traditionally 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central City, Nebraska</span> City in Nebraska, United States

Central City is a city and the county seat of Merrick County, Nebraska, United States. It is part of the Grand Island, Nebraska Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,934 at the 2010 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arikara</span> Ethnic group

Arikara, also known as Sahnish, Arikaree, Ree, or Hundi, are a tribe of Native Americans in North Dakota. Today, they are enrolled with the Mandan and the Hidatsa as the federally recognized tribe known as the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brulé</span> Traditional tribal grouping within the Lakota people

The Brulé are one of the seven branches or bands of the Teton (Titonwan) Lakota American Indian people. They are known as Sičhą́ǧu Oyáte —Sicangu Oyate—, Sicangu Lakota, or "Burnt Thighs Nation". Learning the meaning of their name, the French called them the Brûlé. The name may have derived from an incident where they were fleeing through a grass fire on the plains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waconda Spring</span>

Waconda Spring, or Great Spirit Spring, was a natural artesian spring located in Mitchell County, near the communities of Glen Elder and Cawker City in the U.S. state of Kansas. It was a sacred site for Native American tribes of the Great Plains and, for a time, became the site of a health spa for American settlers. With the completion of the Glen Elder Dam in 1968, the mineral spring was sealed then disappeared beneath the waters of Waconda Reservoir.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nebraska Highway 92</span> State highway in Nebraska, United States

Nebraska Highway 92 is a highway that enters the state from Nebraska's western border at the Wyoming state line west of Lyman, Nebraska, to the state's eastern border on the South Omaha Veterans Memorial Bridge over the Missouri River in Omaha, where it enters Iowa. Nebraska Highway 92 passes, follows, or runs through a number of the state's principal attractions, including Scotts Bluff National Monument, the Oregon Trail, Chimney Rock National Historic Site, Ash Hollow State Historical Park, Lake McConaughy, the Nebraska Sand Hills, and the City of Omaha. Nebraska Highway 92 is the longest state route in the state at a total of 489.1 miles (787.1 km), and is part of a continuous 886-mile (1,426 km) four-state "Highway 92" which begins in Torrington, Wyoming, goes through Nebraska and Iowa and ends in La Moille, Illinois. It is the only Nebraska Highway to run from the west border to the east border of Nebraska; along the way it crosses the Platte River or its tributary North Platte River a total of five times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pohocco Township, Saunders County, Nebraska</span> Township in Nebraska, United States

Pohocco Township is one of twenty-four townships in Saunders County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 1,207 at the 2020 census. A 2021 estimate placed the township's population at 1,238.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palmer Site</span> United States historic place

The Palmer Site, also known as the Skidi Pawnee Village and designated by the Smithsonian trinomial 25HW1, is a prehistoric and historic archeological site near Palmer, Nebraska in Howard and Merrick Counties. The site is a Native American habitation site associated with the Skidi people, a branch of the Pawnee people, which may have been documented by an American exploratory expedition led by Stephen H. Long in 1820. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1964. The site is located on private property.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pike-Pawnee Village Site</span> United States historic place

The Pike-Pawnee Village Site, or Hill Farm Site, designated 25WT1 by archaeologists, is a site near the village of Guide Rock in Webster County, in the south central portion of the state of Nebraska, in the Great Plains region of the United States. It was the location of a village of the Kitkehahki band of the Pawnee people, in a region of the Republican River valley that they occupied intermittently from the 1770s to the 1820s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mid-America Council</span>

The Mid-America Council of the Boy Scouts of America offers programs in 58 counties in Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota. The Mid-America Council was formed from a merger of the Covered Wagon Council and the Southwest Iowa Council in 1965. The first recorded Council in the area was in 1918 as the Omaha Council. In 2000 the council merged with the Prairie Gold Council that had been located in Sioux City, Iowa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Native American tribes in Nebraska</span>

Native American tribes in the U.S. state of Nebraska have been Plains Indians, descendants of succeeding cultures of indigenous peoples who have occupied the area for thousands of years. More than 15 historic tribes have been identified as having lived in, hunted in, or otherwise occupied territory within the current state boundaries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Massacre Canyon</span> United States historic place

The Massacre Canyon battle took place in Nebraska on August 5, 1873, near the Republican River. It was one of the last hostilities between the Pawnee and the Sioux and the last battle/massacre between Great Plains Indians in North America. The massacre occurred when a large Sioux war party of over 1,500 Oglala, Brulé, and Sihasapa warriors, led by Two Strike, Little Wound, and Spotted Tail attacked a band of Pawnee during their summer buffalo hunt. In the ensuing rout, many Pawnees were killed with estimates of casualties ranging widely from around 50 to over 150. The victims, who were mostly women and children, suffered mutilation and sexual assault.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guide Rock (hill)</span>

Guide Rock, whose Pawnee name is Pa-hur or Pahur, is a hill in south central Nebraska in the United States. In the traditional Pawnee religion, it was one of five dwelling places of spirit animals with miraculous powers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">French people in Nebraska</span>

French people have been present in the U.S. state of Nebraska since before it achieved statehood in 1867. The area was originally claimed by France in 1682 as part of La Louisiane, the extent of which was largely defined by the watershed of the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Over the following centuries, explorers of French ethnicity, many of them French-Canadian, trapped, hunted, and established settlements and trading posts across much of the northern Great Plains, including the territory that would eventually become Nebraska, even in the period after France formally ceded its North American claims to Spain. During the 19th century, fur trading gave way to settlements and farming across the state, and French colonists and French-American migrants continued to operate businesses and build towns in Nebraska. Many of their descendants continue to live in the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skidi</span> Band of Pawnee Native Americans

The Skidi is one of four bands of Pawnee people, a central Plains tribe. They lived on the Central Plains of Nebraska and Kansas for most of the millennium prior to European contact. The Skidi, also known as the Wolf band lived in the northern part of Pawnee territory.

The Pawnee capture of the Cheyenne Sacred Arrows occurred around 1830 in central Nebraska, when the Cheyenne attacked a group from the Skidi Pawnee tribe, who were hunting bison. The Cheyenne had with them their sacred bundle of four arrows, called the Mahuts. During the battle, this sacred, ceremonial object was taken by the Pawnee. The Cheyenne initially made replica arrows but also tried to get the originals back. They recovered one from the Pawnee directly, either given to them or taken by them, and a second was captured by the Lakota and returned to the Cheyenne in exchange for horses. The two corresponding replicas were ceremonially returned to the Black Hills, where the arrows were traditionally believed to have originated. Eventually the bundles were re-established and the societies and their ceremonies continue into the present day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Effects of white settler contact on the Pawnee tribe</span>

This article details the effects of white settler contact on the Pawnee tribe, firstly the tribe ceded its land in Nebraska which it had held since the 16th century and was relocated to Oklahoma. Secondly, despite generally having peaceful relations with settlers, there was a loss of life from European-introduced diseases. Lastly came the adoption of European customs, and culture.

References

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. 1 2 3 Jensen, Richard E. (1973). "National Register of Historic Places InventoryNomination Form: Pahuk".
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Grinnell, George Bird (1893). Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk Tales. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Retrieved 2010-09-16.
  4. 1 2 Bowen, Don. "U.S. 77 options narrow a bit". Fremont Tribune. 2005-04-16. Retrieved 2010-09-19.
  5. Sandoz, Mari. The Buffalo Hunters. New York: Hastings House, 1954. p. xi.
  6. "Nebraska National Register Sites in Saunders County". [usurped] Nebraska State Historical Society. [usurped] Retrieved 2010-09-19.
  7. 1 2 3 Hyde, George E. The Pawnee Indians. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1974. pp. 242-249.
  8. "History". Archived 2012-07-04 at the Wayback Machine Welcome to Genoa, Nebraska. Archived 2011-02-10 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 2010-09-19.
  9. Hammel, Paul. "Sacred Pawnee heritage preserved". Omaha World-Herald. 2008-09-26. Reproduced at Nebraska Land Trust website. Retrieved 2010-09-19.
  10. "Nebraska Territory". Semi-Centennial History of Nebraska. pp. 84-85. Retrieved 2010-09-19.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Johnsgard, Paul A. "A place called Pahaku". Prairie Fire. June 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-19.
  12. "Pohocco Precinct". Archived 2011-03-02 at the Wayback Machine Saunders County History, 1983. Retrieved 2010-09-19.
  13. Fitzpatrick, Lilian Linder (1925). Nebraska Place-Names. Retrieved 2010-09-19.
  14. Real-McKeighan, Tammy. "Family preserves sacred Pawnee land". Lincoln Journal-Star. 2008-09-26. Retrieved 2010-09-19.