Status and Burial

     Death practices and other ceremonies vary depending on what rank and position the member of the tribe held. There are four distinct bands in the Pawnee tribe; they are Chaui, Kitkehahki, Pitahauerat, and Skidu. Chaui is the highest-ranking band and the leading tribe (The Pawnee Indians and their Culture). The membership of the tribe is based on matrilineal kinship ties (Pawnee: 2016). This means they are inherited through their mother's side.

Sacred red ointment is reserved for individuals of importance.(https://anthropologylover.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/face31-pawnee.jpg)

     The bodies of the deceased were buried within hours of the death. Families hire priests to prepare the dead for burial. Holy ointment is spread on the corpse and if the member was of high status, or died due to old age, it would be a special red ointment. Red ointment signifies the body was "taken care of on earth" and it also makes the body look healthy. If an individual does not have the red substance it is said they are not going to the "land of the spirits" (Echo-Hawk 1992:78-79).


     Tribes used to paint the corpse's face as well. The symbols and designs painted on the dead's face has a specific meaning given to that person (Echo-Hawk 1992: 79). With the faces being different, anthropologists can separate the individuals according to the status they held by looking at the individual's face. This can help identify where that member is on the horizontal and vertical status scale between the other member of the tribe. Anthropologists can also separate them if they had a red ointment on corpse's body or not. The belongings of the individual that died would be inherited normally by the oldest son. The women in the society were not allowed to have land and were viewed as lesser (Pawnee:2016). The horizontal difference between man and women, where men would have all the power and women would not hold any higher rank in the tribe.
     Anthropologists can also determine the ranking of the individual based on their clothing they are buried in. The dead are buried in their best dress clothing items and then are wrapped in a bison or buffalo robe before being buried (Pawnee - Religion and Expressive Culture). It is common for the dead to be visited by the tribe before being buried. In Western cultures this part of the burial process and can be closely related to a wake. The higher the individual's rank, the more public visitations that individual will reserve. The mourners will touch the corpse and believe in receiving a blessing from the dead after touching the body from head to toe (Echo-Hawk 1992: 93).

This is an example of the buffalo robe that could be worn for burial.(http://americanhistory.si.edu/buffalo/about-hides.html)

     Rank plays a key role in the preparations for Pawnee burials. The individual's rank in the tribe will determine how the funeral is arranged and why funerals may differ from one another. Final destinations of the soul were determined based on whether a person died a 'good' death or a disgraceful death. The ultimate goal is for the soul to ascend the heavens and become a star (Pawnee: 2016). 

                                                                     Works Cited 

Echo-Hawk, R. C. (1992). Pawnee Mortuary Traditions. American Indian Culture and Research Journal,16(2), 77-99.

Pawnee. (n.d.). Retrieved February, 2017, from http://www.encyclopedia.com/history/united-states-and-canada/north-american-indigenous-peoples/pawnee

Pawnee - Religion and Expressive Culture. (n.d.). Retrieved 2017, from http://www.everyculture.com/North-America/Pawnee-Religion-and-Expressive-Culture.html

Pawnee Indian Fact Sheet. (2016). Retrieved 2017, from http://www.bigorrin.org/pawnee_kids.htm

The Pawnee Indians and their Culture. (n.d.). Retrieved 2017, from http://www.native-net.org/tribes/pawnee-indians.html

Common Beliefs and General Traditions of the Pawnee Indian Tribe

When it comes to death beliefs and rituals, the first adjective that comes to mind when describing the Pawnee is expressive. The Pawnee place a high value on expressing their ideas when it comes to many aspects of their lives, even the end result of life, which is death.

Expression plays a key role when the Pawnee describe their common beliefs. The Pawnee believe that death is very hostile and that it results from such strange events as witchcraft or sorcery. Social status also is an important part of the common death beliefs of the Pawnee. A deceased person who holds a higher status in the Pawnee society ultimately has a more elaborate burial. Such people are usually painted and dressed up before placed to rest. After death, it is believed that the soul of the deceased entered heaven and became a star (Countries and their Cultures, 2017).

One of the two most common death rituals of the Pawnee tribe was the Morning Star Ceremony. This ritual was performed by the Skidi Pawnee. The Morning Star Ceremony was a human sacrifice of a young girl, who was captured from opposing tribes by the Pawnee men. The girl represented the female Evening Star. The ritual was connected to the creation of the Pawnee people, in which the male Morning Star mated with the female Evening Star. It was a 5 day ceremony, with the death occurring on the final day. On the final day, the sacrifice of the girl would be made. The beginning of the ceremony was timed so that it began when the Morning Star broke the horizon (Thurman, 1983). The girl would be raised on a scaffold for the crowd to see. The scaffold would resist any attempts of escape that the girl might take. Men would take off the girl’s clothes and brand her in the groin and arm pits (Thurman, 1983). Next, the girl would be beaten with clubs. The girls chest was cut open after that, the girl would be shot through the heart with a sacred bow and arrow while simultaneously getting struck in the head with a club. After the girl had passed, the Pawnee sought to fulfill the creation of their people. The men would act as the Morning Star and shoot arrows into the body of the girl. By doing so, this symbolized the action of the male Morning Star mating with the female Evening Star, and life among the Pawnee was reborn.

The other common death ritual seen among the Pawnee tribes was the Ghost Dance. The Ghost Dance was a movement in which the Pawnee envisioned the return of the deceased from the spirit world (Lesser, 1933). The Pawnee believed that the Ghost Dance enabled the dead to communicate with the living. The dead could achieve this by obtaining certain visions that the living brought about during the dance (Lesser, 1933). The Pawnee took this ritual very serious, as they would dress up in elaborate clothing, including headdresses that they would make out of feathers. They would also paint designs on their faces and other parts of the body. 

Sources 

Countries and their Cultures. (2017). Pawnee-Religion and expressive culture. Retrieved February 8, 2017, from http://www.everyculture.com/North-America/Pawnee-Religion-and-Expressive-Culture.html

Thurman, M. D. (1983). The timing of the Skidi-Pawnee Morning Star Sacrifice. Ethnohistory, 30 (3), 155-163.

Lesser, A. (1933). Cultural significance of the ghost dance (pp. 108-115). American Anthropological Association.