The Skidi is one of four bands of

Pawnee people The Pawnee, also known by their endonym (which translates to "Men of Men"), are an Plains Indians, Indigenous people of the Great Plains that historically lived in Nebraska and northern Kansas but today are based in Oklahoma. They are the federa ...

, a central Plains tribe. They lived on the Central Plains of

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

and

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

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. According to

oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information from people, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people who pa ...

, the Skidi were associated with the

Arikara The Arikara ( ), also known as Sahnish,
''Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation.'' (Retrieved Sep 29, 2011) ...

and the Wichita before the Arikara moved northward. They did not join the other, southern bands of Pawnee until the mid-18th century. The Skidi language was less related to the other Pawnee languages than the other three tribes' languages were related to each other. In the 18th century, the Skidi first lived on the

Loup River The Loup River (pronounced /lup/) is a tributary of the Platte River, approximately long, in central Nebraska in the United States. The river drains a sparsely populated rural agricultural area on the eastern edge of the Great Plains southeast ...

. Today, the Skidi Pawnee are enrolled in the

Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma The Pawnee, also known by their endonym (which translates to "Men of Men"), are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains that historically lived in Nebraska and northern Kansas but today are based in Oklahoma. They are the federally recognized ...

Names

The Shidi have also been known as the Wolf Pawnee, French Loup Pawnee, Panismaha, or Panimaha, or Skiri.

History

The Skidi's main settlements were along the

Platte River The Platte River () is a major American river, in the state of Nebraska. It is about long; measured to its farthest source via its tributary, the North Platte River, it flows for over . The Platte River is a tributary of the Missouri River, w ...

. Some early European explorers referred to this waterway as the Panimaha River, since this was before some of the Skidi migrated south.

18th century

In the early 18th century, the Panishmaha lived west of the

Missouri River The Missouri River is a river in the Central United States, Central and Mountain states, Mountain West regions of the United States. The nation's longest, it rises in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Moun ...

in present-day Nebraska. A 1718 French map locates ''les Panimaha'' in the vicinity of the ''Riv. des Panis'' (

) with other Pawnee villages (''les Panis''), perhaps on the

, a historic territory of the Skidi. In the fall of 1724, in a village of the

Kansa people The Kaw Nation (or Kanza or Kansa) is a federally recognized Native American tribe in Oklahoma and parts of Kansas. The Kaw people historically lived in the central Midwestern United States. They have also been called the "People of the Sout ...

, the Panismahas joined a peace council with Frenchmen, Otoes, Osages,

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

and Illini. In about 1752 they made peace with the

Comanches The Comanche (), or Nʉmʉnʉʉ (, 'the people'), are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in Lawton, Oklahoma ...

(''les Padoucas''), Wichitas and the main Pawnee groups. By the 1770s, the Panishmaha, a group of the Skidi had broken off and moved towards Texas, where they allied with the

Taovayas The Taovaya tribe of the Wichita people were Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Native Americans originally from Kansas, who moved south into Oklahoma and Texas in the 18th century. They spoke the Taovaya language, Taovaya dialect of the Wichita ...

, the

Tonkawa The Tonkawa are a Native American tribe from Oklahoma and Texas. Their Tonkawa language, now extinct language, extinct, is a linguistic isolate. Today, Tonkawa people are enrolled in the Federally recognized tribes, federally recognized Tonkawa ...

, Yojuanes, and other Texas tribes. This group was referred to as the

Panimaha 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 par ...

. The Skidi are notable for their performance of a type of

human sacrifice Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease deity, gods, a human ruler, public or jurisdictional demands for justice by capital punishment, an authoritative/prie ...

, known as the Morning Star ceremony, recorded for the last time in 1838.

19th century

The Panishmaha, a group within the Skidi band, moved from what is now Nebraska to the Texas-Arkansas border regions where they lived with the

. It appears that this group was also the Pannis designated in a village along the Sulphur Creek in northeast Texas in a 19th-century Spanish map.

Notable Skidi

* James Rolfe Murie (1862–1921), anthropologist, ethnographer

External links

Skidi Pawnee rattle
National Museum of the American Indian

Notes

References

*John, Elizabeth. ''Storms Brewed in Other Men's Worlds''. College Station: Texas A&M University Press.
''Handbook of North American Indians: Plains, Part 1'' page 545
{{authority control Pawnee Native American tribes in Nebraska Native American tribes in Oklahoma Pre-statehood history of Nebraska Pre-statehood history of Texas