NO. 7 PAWNEE ARCHEOLOGY WEDEL II 



temporaneously with the Oneota, whereas the Pawnee traits are based 

 on sites inhabited one or more centuries later toward the close of the 

 tribe's residence in Nebraska. The conclusion seems inescapable 

 that the Lower Loup Focus stands in very much closer and more 

 direct relationship genetically to the later historic Pawnee than to the 

 contemporaneous Oneota peoples." 



With the Oneota culture and its probable Siouan connections we 

 shall not further concern ourselves here. Its role in the development 

 of later native civilization west of the Missouri is not yet clear, 

 although it probably introduced into the Pawnee area various innova- 

 tions in ceramics, pipe-making, stone-working, and certain other 

 fields of activity. At the moment, there is no reason to regard it as 

 in any sense basic to historic Pawnee culture, since its contributions 

 seem to have been rather in matters of detail. 



Bearing directly on the question of the nineteenth century Pawnee 

 and their postulated descent from the Lower Loup Focus are certain 

 noteworthy nonarcheological considerations. These seem to have been 

 generally overlooked by those who challenge such a correlation on 

 grounds (i) that the Pawnee have no legends concerning the sites, 

 and (2) that the recent occupancy of the region by that tribe proves 

 nothing as to its connection with the older remains. Both points 

 can be met squarely with recorded data. Thus, to take up the first, 



" The kinds of traits comprising similarities and dissimilarities in the respective 

 pairings is perhaps of as much significance as the absolute numbers. For ex- 

 ample, while many of the hunting and skin-dressing practices were similar 

 throughout, important differences are probably implied in the presence of fish- 

 hooks and metapodial (split leg bone type) beamers in the Oneota. Both the 

 latter items are widespread throughout the eastern United States, incidentally 

 occurring also in prehistoric cultures in the Plains. The Pawnee and Lower 

 Loup peoples apparently did not fish, and the outstanding feature of their skin- 

 working industry was its distinctly Plains character; e. g., large elliptical 

 quartzite scrapers, the notched flesher, bone paint "brushes," and probably the 

 adzlike elkhorn hide scraper. At least a part of the subsistence economy of 

 the Oneota, as well as the supposed bark or thatch house type, mound burials, 

 extended use of woven mats, and a number of other items which this group alone 

 of the three possesses, all tend to link them with eastern peoples and stamp them 

 as comparatively recent arrivals west of the Missouri. The Pawnee and Lower 

 Loup Focus peoples, on the other hand, resemble each other closely in virtually 

 every fundamental respect and such common elements among them as the earth- 

 lodge, pottery, horticulture, and other less distinctive items clearly have con- 

 siderable historic depth in the eastern Plains. Onto this horticultural base they 

 had grafted a hunting complex of western type, differing considerably but evi- 

 dently well attuned to the peculiarities of the former. The successful integration 

 of the two modes of life, both involving local ingredients, would in itself suggest 

 a considerable period of adjustment in loco. 



