Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk-Tales / With notes on the origin, customs and character of the Pawnee people

WITH NOTES ON THE ORIGIN, CUSTOMS AND CHARACTER OF THE PAWNEE PEOPLE
GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL
New York Forest and Stream Publishing Company 1889
Copyright, 1889, by George Bird Grinnell.
SIGNAL—“WHO ARE YOU?” ANSWER—“PA´-NI.”
TO THE MEMORY OF MAJOR FRANK NORTH — Pa´-ni Le-shar — This Record of His People is Inscribed.

Last spring I visited the Pawnee Agency in the Indian Territory. On the day after my arrival, I rode over to the house of Eagle Chief, whom, under his warrior name, White Eagle, I had known for many years. Entering the door, I found myself in the presence of the Chief, who, after quickly putting his hand over his mouth in his astonishment, greeted me with a cordial deep-voiced Lau . Then we sat down and filled the pipe and talked. Through all our talk I could see that he was curious to know the object of my visit. At last he said, “My son I am glad that you have come to us once more. My mind is big when I look at you and talk to you. It is good that you are here. Why have you come again to the Pawnee village? What brings you here at this time?”
I answered, “Father, we have come down here to visit the people and to talk to them; to ask them about how things used to be in the olden times, to hear their stories, to get their history, and then to put all these things down in a book, so that in the years to come, after the tribe have all become like white people, the old things of the Pawnees shall not be forgotten.”
The Chief meditated for a while and then said, “It is good and it is time. Already the old things are being lost, and those who knew the secrets are many of them dead. If we had known how to write, we would have put all these things down, and they would not have been forgotten, but we could not write, and these stories were handed down from one to another. The old men told their grandchildren, and they told their grandchildren, and so the secrets and the stories and the doings of long ago have been handed down. It may be that they have changed as they passed from father to son, and it is well that they should be put down, so that our children, when they are like the white people, can know what were their fathers’ ways.”