NO. 10 NEBRASKA ARCHEOLOGY STRONG 2^ 



many centuries prior to the dawn of history in the region. We will 

 have occasion to refer to this important problem in our concluding 

 sections. 



Leaving the Siouan peoples temporarily, we find one tribe of the 

 Shoshonean linguistic stock resident at an early time in west-central 

 Nebraska, namely, the nomadic and warlike Comanche. Nearly all of 

 the maps showing the Nebraska region prior to 1804 locate the 

 " Padouca " somewhere to the west of the Missouri River. The " Pa- 

 douca " are generally believed to have been the Comanche, but this 

 identification has been disputed by George Bird Grinnell, who thinks 

 they may have been the Jicarilla Apache." The main evidence for the 

 latter identification seems to rest on the fact that the French desig- 

 nated Villazur's Jicarilla Apache allies as " Padouca " in their accounts 

 of the expedition and the subsequent massacre of the Spanish force 

 in 1720. It is significant that the De I'lsle map of 1718 (table i) 

 designates five villages in what is now western Nebraska and Kansas 

 by the term "Apache and Padouca ", indicating that the French at 

 this time either confused these two nomadic peoples or else considered 

 them as linked in some way. On the other hand it is clear that such 

 Siouan peoples as the Ponca and Omaha used the word " Padouca " 

 in reference to the Comanche," and that in general such an identifica- 

 tion of the term is correct. Grinnell has clearly shown, however, that 

 the term was often loosely used and where employed in early accounts 

 must be carefully checked before being applied to any specific 

 tribal group. In table i the " Padouca " or Comanche are first located 

 on the headwaters of the Arkansas by Le Sueur in 1701, although it 

 has been suggested by Shea that the " Pahoutet " of Marquette were 

 the Padouca or Comanche." In 171 7 ten of their villages are shown 

 on the upper Missouri River; De I'lsle in 1718, as mentioned above, 

 locates five villages of "Apache and Padoucas " west of the Mis- 

 souri near the mountains; in the De ITsle map of 1722 a "White 

 Padouca " group in the north and a " Black Padouca " group in the 

 south are distinguished. Bellin in 1784 distinguishes a north and 

 south group occupying a long strip of country bordering the moun- 

 tains, and Du Pratz in 1757 shows them in four places west of the 



" 1920, pp. 248-260. There are many valuable references in this paper to early 

 tribal names and synonyms. 



"Fletcher and La Flesche, 191 1, p. 79. The term is probably derived from 

 the Penateka division of the Comanche, who were the first to move south. — 

 Mooney, 1898, p. 162. 



" Shea, 1861, p. 93. However, Le Sueur's map shows the "Aiaouez ou Paoutez " 

 and the Padoucas as distinct groups. 



