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

by George Bird Grinnell

“Now you know that I am living, but I am a spirit; and whenever you people have a fight with the Sioux, if you pray to me, and call me by name, and ask to be brave, and to be helped, I will hear you. If you wish to be brave, or if you wish not to be hurt in battle, even though the enemy be right upon you, and just striking or shooting at you, I will protect you. I shall live forever, as long as this world exists. So long as I come to you, I want you people to conquer the Sioux all you can, on account of what they did to me when they killed me and cut me in pieces. So long as the Sioux come down to attack you, I want you to conquer them every time.

“Now, brother, when I come down to see you, you must not get tired of me. I want to come down often to see you, and talk to you, to tell you what is going to happen, and to warn you whenever the Sioux are coming down to attack the Skidi. I go about everywhere, to the camps of the different bands of Sioux, and I know what the chiefs are saying in council; when they are talking of sending out war parties against you. If I come down to you often, do not get tired of seeing me.”

He knew himself that his brother would some time refuse to listen to him, but his brother did not know it, and he said, “I will never get tired of you.”

Some time after this, the Sioux came down again to attack the Skidi village. Two days before they came, Pa-hu-ka´-tawa came down to his brother and warned him, saying, “A big war party of Sioux will be here day after to-morrow to fight with you. But I am going to attend to them. On the morning of the second day from this, tell all the people to be ready, and to have their horses tied up close to the lodges, where they can get at them. Then, if you look up in the sky, you will see thick black clouds, as if you were going to have a great rain. When you begin fighting, do not be afraid of the enemy. Do not be afraid of them; go right up to them; they will not be able to shoot, their bowstrings will be wet, and the sinews will stretch and slip off the ends of the bows. They will not be able to hurt you.”

On the morning that he had said, the Sioux came down, and the people went out to meet them. The sky above was black with clouds. When they began fighting, a heavy rain commenced to fall, but it did not rain everywhere, but only just where the Sioux were. The bowstrings of the Sioux got wet, so that they could not use them, for the sinews stretched, so that when they bent their bows the strings slipped off the ends of the bows, and there was no force to their arrows. The Skidi overcame the Sioux and drove them, and the Sioux ran far. The rain followed the Sioux, and rained over them, but nowhere else, and the Sioux fled, and the Skidi won a great victory.

Soon after this, Pa-hu-ka´-tawa came down and visited his brother, and said to him, “My brother, whenever you have a feast or a council of old men, you must smoke to me and say, ‘Father, we want you to help us.’ Then I will hear you. At the same time you must pray to Ti-ra´-wa. There is one above us who is the ruler of all. I do not wish to be talked about commonly or by common men, but that whenever you have a feast you should call in the young men and tell them about me and let them hear.” He did not want his name used irreverently, nor wish that the story of what he had suffered and done should be told commonly or for mere amusement. It is sacred and should be told only at solemn times.

Some time after this talk with his brother, he came down again to see him. Another man was living in his brother’s lodge, and on this night his brother was not there, he was sleeping somewhere else. Pa-hu-ka´-tawa asked this man where his brother was. He answered, “He is not here to-night, he is sleeping somewhere else.” Pa-hu-ka´-tawa said, “Go over and tell him that I am here, and that I want to see him.” The man went and gave the message to the brother, who said, “I do not want to go. Tell him I am asleep.” The man went back and told Pa-hu-ka´-tawa that his brother could not come. He said, “He is asleep.” Pa-hu-ka´-tawa sent him back again, to get the brother. The man went, and said to the brother, “He wants to see you very much.” The brother said, “Tell him I can’t come; I want to sleep to-night.” The man returned and said, “He does not want to come, he is sleeping.” He was sent back for the brother the third time, to tell the brother he must come, he was wanted. He sent word back that he could not, he was too sleepy. Then Pa-hu-ka´-tawa said, “Very well. Go back and tell him to sleep now, to sleep all he wants. I told him before that he would get tired of me at last. Let him sleep all he wants, I will come to him no more. I can go to some other tribe. This is the last time I will come. Tell him to sleep. I will trouble him no more. I am going off, but tell the people not to forget me; to talk of me sometimes, and to pray to me, and I will help them and care for the tribe.”

So Pa-hu-ka´-tawa went away to the Rees, and the people knew him no more; after that he never came down to see them. When the people learned this, they felt very badly, and were angry at his brother who would not see him. There was living not long ago, among the Rees, an old woman, who, when she was a girl, had seen and talked to Pa-hu-ka´-tawa.

Note.—This is a Skidi story. The Rees have a story of what Pa-hu-ka´-tawa did after he had come to them. The Lower Village tribes have a story of a hero of this same name, which is quite different from that of the Skidi.