PAWNEES', a tribe of Indians in Nebraska, about the Platte river and its affluents, and comprising the four tribes of Loups, Republican Pawnees, Grand Pawnees, and Tapage Pawnees. They are on 3.^larquette's map in 1673. In the 18th c. numbers of them were slaves in Canada, where Pant became a synonym for any slave Indian. Then as now, they were always at war with the Sioux. They lived in lodges roofed with earth, raised small crops of maize and vegetables, and were in the habit of sacrificing prisoners to the sun as a means of securing large crops. Besides the Sioux, they fought the Sacs and Foxes, the Kiowas, and the Arapahoes. In 1832 the Delawares, who had settled in their vicinity, destroyed the village of the Great Pawnees on Republican fork. In 1833 the tribe ceded their lands s. of the Nebraska river. They remained on that por tion of their territory n. of the Nebraska, and were prosperous for a time, devoting themselves to agriculture; and schools were established among them. An irruption of
the Sioux broke up their settlements, and drove them s. of the Nebraska. This was con trary to their stipulations in the treaty of 1833, and in consequence they ceased to receive the annuity which that treaty secured to them from the United States. Their numbers, which had some years before been greatly reduced by small-pox, were now still furgier lessened by the cholera; and the Sioux continued to attack their settlements in spitZ of an additional treaty between the United States and the Pawnees in 1857. They fur nished a contingent to the United States in the war with the Sioux in 1861. They are now under the management of the society of Friends, and are granted an annuity by the government, which maintains schools among them.