Emergence of Historic Tribes

Native Tribes Return to the Plains

The archaeological record has shown that, after tribal people left during the 1400s, they began moving back into the Central Plains around 1600 CE. This was probably because the weather changed and made it easier to grow crops and hunt for food. Earlier plains residents had lived in small groups. Now, they tended to build semi-permanent towns, planted crops along the rivers and organized large hunting expeditions that took the entire community wandering across the plains, following bison herds.

It is during the late 1500s and early 1600s that we can, for the first time in the archaeological record, recognize cultural complexes that ultimately gave rise to the historic tribes that we still know today. During the period 1500 to 1850, peoples moved into, through, and out of the Nebraska region. Perhaps these movements were in response to changes in environmental conditions that required new adaptations. The effects of climate changes on the growing season of corn, on bison populations, and on migration were dramatic. But gradually, the tribes settled, and Europeans began to write about their patterns of life. Archaeology and historic documents now give us a good understanding of historic tribes including the Omaha, Ioway, Oto-Missouria, Sioux, Cheyenne, Pawnee and Arapaho.

Lower Loup Culture

Around 1600 CE, the first of the Protohistoric tribal cultures to return to the Nebraska region may have been the ancestors of the Pawnee. Several archaeological sites around the present day Lower Loup River in east-central Nebraska have been found, and these sites have named for that river basin.

The Lower Loup cultural group left an impressive archaeological record in Nebraska. Many village ruins remain along the Lower Loup and Platte River valleys from Howard County to Saunders County, as well as sites in the Republican basin. Hunting camps have been found in western Nebraska and Kansas. Lower Loup groups raised maize (or corn), beans and squash. Their gardens or farms were tended by the women. They lived much of the year in villages with large circular earth lodges. In the spring of each year, they left their villages and went on a bison hunt after the crops were planted. They returned to the villages in time to harvest the crops. Then, in late fall, they set out again for the winter hunt. They hunted birds, fish and small animals, but the mainstay of their diet was the bison. They hunted the smaller female bison almost exclusively. But, even though they were smaller than the males, each female animal provided about 400 pounds of meat, enough to feed one person for a year.

Dismal River Culture

The archaeological record in western and central Nebraska suggests that Native American people migrated to the region somewhere around 1675 CE. We think they came from further west and north. Archaeologists have found evidence of these people and named the culture after where the sites were discovered in the 1930s — along the Dismal River in the Nebraska sand hills. Dismal River Cultural sites also have been excavated in the Republican River basin. So, the Dismal River cultural complex occupied much of the western part of Nebraska. They were thought to speak an Athabascan language now spoken by the Apache and Navajo of the Southwest and southern Plains areas.

These people were nomads who walked on their hunts — at least until horses came into Native American cultures. They lived principally off the bison. They did, however, erect villages with fairly large, circular dwellings whose post outlines resemble circular hogans of the Navajo. Their dwellings were apparently covered by skins or other light coverings, rather than the earth-covered lodges of the Lower Loup people.

Dismal River people had a subsistence economy based primarily on hunting and secondarily on farming. In other words, they lived on the meat and other products they got from killing bison as well as the crops they grew near their villages. While bison were the chief animal hunted, deer, beaver, birds, turtles, and freshwater mussels were also eaten. Evidence for farming is present, but limited. Digging tools made from bison shoulder blade bones have been recovered from several sites. Charred remains of corn, squash and gourds provide direct evidence of domesticated plant use. Remains of plums, chokecherries, hackberries, and black walnuts have also been recovered. Chipped stone and bone tools have been found including projectile points, scrapers, knives and drills, bison scapula hoes, fleshers, and bone awls. Ceramic vessels have also been recovered. Dismal River pottery is characteristically gray-black in color with a smooth or simple stamped surface.

The Omaha & Ponca Tribes

The Omaha and Ponca Native American tribes are closely related. Both tribes speak a language called the Dhegiha division of the Siouan linguistic stock. They speak a similar language to that spoken by several tribes who lived further south during the historic period, the Osage, Kansa and Quapaw tribes.

These language facts and the historical stories told within the tribes suggest that all of these groups were part of one tribe that once lived near the mouth of the Ohio River. The name "Omaha" is generally interpreted to mean, "those going against the wind or current." This oral tradition has it that one group moved downstream from the Ohio and became known as the Quapaw. The second group moved up the Mississippi and up the Missouri Rivers. By the mid-1700s, they had settled along the Missouri in villages that stretched from the mouth of the Platte up to the Cheyenne River in what is now South Dakota. They became known as the Omaha tribe.

Ponca oral tradition says that they quarreled with the Omaha and broke away to form a new group living nearby along Niobrara River. The exact date of this split is uncertain, but they are recorded in early historical records as a separate tribe at least before 1800. Despite the split, the Omaha and the Ponca were closely related and shared many social customs.

It is probable that both the Ponca and Omaha learned how to build earth lodges from the Arikara, an agricultural nation living along the upper Missouri River between the Cannonball and Grand Rivers. The Omaha and Ponca built their lodges with walls about eight feet high and a central opening in the roof to allow smoke to escape and light to enter. These were utilitarian dwellings, and the Omaha performed few of the religious or ceremonial rituals that the Pawnee observed in building their lodges. The Omaha and Ponca raised corn, beans, and squash in gardens near their earth lodges. After the plants were seeded in the spring and after the harvest in the fall, they went on summer and winter buffalo hunts in western Nebraska.

The Oto & Missouria

The Oto tribe gave this state its name, but they were not native to the region. "Nebraska" is an Oto word that means "flat water." Like migrant groups before and after, the Oto immigrated to the Central Plains from the east, just ahead of the Europeans.

The earliest mention of the Oto and Missouria tribes in the European historical record dates from the late 1600s. The Missouria were then in central Missouri and the Oto were in central Iowa. The Otos evidently moved to the lower Platte River valley and established villages such as the Eagle Ridge and the Ashland (or Patterson) sites by the first decades of the 1700s. The precise reasons for the migration are unclear, but the ever-increasing European colonial activity in the east probably motivated the tribes to move west.

As Europeans ventured forth, they thought it was important to form alliances with indigenous tribes. The Spanish, French and English all wanted access to furs and hides that were abundant on the plains. The Pawnee and Oto worked together so they could provide Europeans with beaver and other pelts as well as bison robes in exchange for trade goods.

Archaeological evidence indicates the Siouans rapidly adopted Pawnee culture rather than the other way around. Oneota pottery is only occasionally found at Pawnee sites, but numerous shell-tempered pots with Pawnee form and design are recovered from the Eagle Ridge site.

At one point, the Missouria was a large tribe, but early contacts with white traders brought diseases for which they had no immunity. Small pox, whooping-cough, and other new illnesses decimated the tribe. By 1800, there may have been no more than 100 people left, and they joined the Oto for protection.

The Oto had moved out of Iowa and were living in an earth lodge village on the Platte River not far from its juncture with the Missouri, near present-day Plattsmouth. The earth lodge became the standard house type for the Omaha and Oto by the late 1700s and perhaps earlier. Adoption of the earth lodge by the Oto was likely a practical matter. This house form is much better suited to the harsher Plains climate than were traditional bark or grass-covered homes.

The Pawnee and the Lakota Sioux

The Pawnee was one of the earliest Native American tribes to be described in the European historical record, and they were one of the largest groups to live and roam across the territory. Their name most likely comes from a Pawnee word for horn which was “Pariki” or “Parrico” and was in reference to the way they fashioned their hair to look to have a horn or horns. The French explorers recorded the term as “Pani” as eastern native groups described the powerful tribe to the west. The Pawnee were probably well established in what is now Nebraska during the time that Coronado explored as far north as central Kansas and they appear on the maps of Father Jacques Marquette in 1673. They built large, permanent earth lodge villages, but spent over half of each year roaming across central and western Nebraska hunting game and buffalo. Although the early Pawnee and several other tribes of the historic periods had permanent earth lodge villages, they also lived in tepees while on extended bison hunts.

The Pawnee all spoke a Caddo language, which is very different than the language of other Nebraska tribes. They were divided into four individual bands — the Chaui or Grand Band, the Kitkehahki or Republican, the Pirahauerat or Tappage, and the Skidi or Wolf Pawnee. The Skidi were not closely bound to the other bands, and they might have sprung from a somewhat different ancestry.

The earliest descriptions of the Pawnee indicate that their largest earth lodge villages may have grown to over 1,000 people. When Zebulon Pike came through Nebraska in 1806 and visited a Pawnee settlement along the Republican River, he recorded the population to be around 2,000 people. The earth lodges were circular with the floor dug slightly below the surrounding ground level. The lower outside walls were made of brush and there were four or more central posts holding up roof rafters. All of this framework was covered by earth. There was a central smoke hole in the roof with the fireplace located directly below it. A covered entrance usually extended to the east or southeast. On the west side, an altar was built on which a sacred bison skull usually rested. Beds were built from small timbers and lined the outer walls. The lodges were constructed by the women of the tribe.

This was a matriarchal society, women were responsible for planting, cultivating and harvesting the gardens that surrounded the villages. Each garden was about an acre in size. They used simple tools — a rake, a hoe made from the shoulder blade of a bison and a digger made from a fire-hardened stick. They saved and planted seeds for corn, beans, pumpkins, squash and melons. Both corn and beans were dried, put into skin bags and stored in underground storage pits to last through the winter. Some of these pits were in the earth lodge and others were outside. To prevent other tribes from finding the outdoor pits while the Pawnee were away on the hunt, they carefully covered them with sod.

The Pawnee were perhaps the most religious group on the plains. At the head of their deities stood Tirawa, the creator of the universe. Tirawa was a purely spiritual being and had other heavenly gods helping him and guarding the people. These heavenly gods were identified with stars. The most important were the Morning and Evening Stars, which represented the male and female principles in Pawnee religion. Other gods were the earth gods who were special guardians of individuals and secret societies. They were, for the most part, identified with animals.

The Pawnee were the most populous tribe to live in Nebraska, and they lived here longer than any other group. It was estimated that there were 10,000 to 12,000 Pawnee living in Nebraska by 1800 CE. Because of their numbers, the Pawnee had little to fear from their enemies, but in the early 1800s their fortunes began to change. Smallpox and other diseases, for which they had no immunity, reduced their number by half. Their villages on the Loup River were being raided by the 1830s by the nomadic and better-armed Lakota (Sioux). They were eventually forced to give up most of their lands in Nebraska and many eventually moved to a reservation in Oklahoma.

The Sioux Indians were a very large Native American group that was composed of several tribal groups who all spoke a language known as Siouan. The Sioux tribes who lived west of the Missouri River are known as the Lakota and sometimes referred to as the Teton Sioux. The Lakota are comprised of seven subgroups: Oglala, Brule, Sans Arc (No Bows) Hunkpapa, Miniconjous, Sihasapa (Blackfeet), Two Kettle. Of these, the Ogalala, and the Brule, were the main tribes to roam across what is now western Nebraska.

The Lakota gradually moved west from the tip of Lake Superior around 1700. By 1740, they had acquired horses and they became more and more nomadic, hunting game across the Central Plains. They often came into conflict with the Pawnee on these hunts. By 1780, it’s estimated that there were up to 10,000 Lakota living on the plains.

Lakota life was a man’s world in which the warrior sought personal fame through his achievements on the hunt or in warfare. For instance, there was great honor for a warrior to be the first to touch an enemy in battle — known as "counting coup." Coups were remembered and recounted by the warrior during dances and ceremonies. The successful warrior also got wealth by capturing horses from the enemy, and he could enhance his prestige by distributing horses to others in the group. Lakota values included honor, fortitude, generosity, wisdom and honesty.

While it was a man’s world, the women actually built and owned the tepees that the tribe lived in. The tepees were made of tanned buffalo skins supported on a framework of long poles. The women butchered the bison, dried the meat, prepared the meals, made clothes, gathered wood, water, roots and berries and cared for the children. The tribes enjoyed games, feasts, story-telling, singing and dancing. Most games involved some form of gambling — for instance, dice or the moccasin guessing game. Others were games of skill, like archery and hoop and pole.

Lakota religion was based on a belief in an all-pervasive, supernatural power that dwelt in the sky, earth and the four directions. Young men were often sent on a vision quest across the plains until exposure to the weather, fasting and self-torture produced dream visions. In these dreams they acquired a song, or various taboos, or medicinal objects that would protect or treat them. Each year, supernatural forces were invoked to protect the tribe in a Sun Dance and related ceremonies during the annual encampments.