1. Tuhk-pah-huks-taht—Pumpkin vine village. This name is said to have come from the fact that once, after planting time, this band went off on the summer hunt, and while they were away, the pumpkin vines grew so luxuriantly that they climbed up over the lodges, covering and hiding them.
2. Skidi rah´ru—Wolves in the pools (of water). The name originated in this way: Long ago one band of the Skidi were camped on the Loup River. It was winter, and the buffalo came to them in great numbers. They killed many and prepared great quantities of dried meat. The buffalo kept coming, and at length they had so much meat that they had room for no more. When they could no longer store dried meat, they stopped taking the flesh of the buffalo and took only the hides. The buffalo continued to come and to cross the river just below the camp, and the men on foot would chase the buffalo on the ice, where the great animals would slip and sprawl, so that the Skidi could run up close, and stab them. They would skin them there and leave the carcasses on the ice. From far and near great numbers of wolves gathered to feed on the carcasses, and as it was toward spring, and the weather was growing milder, the ice began to melt on top, and little pools of water stood on it. About this time, there came to this village a Skidi from another band who were half starving, for they could find no buffalo at all. When the man saw that this village had so much meat, he wondered at the plenty, and asked how it was. They took him out from the village down to where the dead buffalo lay on the ice, and pointed them out to him, and he saw the wolves standing in the water and feeding on the carcasses. Then they took him back to the village, gave him all the dried meat he could carry, and sent him away to his home, heavily loaded. When he reached his own village he told the people there how those in the other camp had plenty, and when they asked him where it was, he told them, and said that it was Skidi rah´ru—where the wolves stand in the pools of water.
3. Tuh-wa-hok´-a-sha—Village on a ridge. Tuh—village, wa—the central roach on the head of a man whose hair has been shaved on both sides, hok´-a-sha—curving over. This village was on a ridge, reaching over on both sides of it.
4. Tu-hi´ts-pi-yet—Village on a point or peninsula. Tuh—village, camp, or band; hits-pi-yu—a point.
There are yet to be seen on the Loup Fork, in Nebraska, innumerable remains of Skidi villages, some of which are very ancient.
IV. NAME AND EMBLEM.
It is probable that the name Pawnee, as Mr. Dunbar has remarked, is an abbreviated form of the word pa-ri´-ki, which means a horn, and referred to the peculiar erect scalp lock which may once have been worn by this tribe. As Mr. Dunbar says, the name probably once embraced the Pawnee Picts or Wichitas, among whom this fashion of wearing the hair seems to have persisted long after it had been abandoned by the Pawnees. The same writer gives the name Arickara as from “ŭr´-ik-i, a horn; with a verbal or plural suffix, being thus simply a later and exact equivalent of Pa´-ni itself.”
The name Pawnee Picts, so commonly applied to the Wichitas, appears to mean Pawnee Picked, or tattooed Pawnees; and refers to the markings upon the faces and breasts of these people, which are picked in with a sharp instrument. The northern Indians speak of the Pawnees as Pa-na´-na, while the southern tribes call them Pi-ta´-da, and the Dakotas call the Arickaras Pa-da´-ni. All these appear to be merely attempts to reproduce the name by which the Pawnees call themselves, Pa´-ni.
The English names of the four bands of the Pawnees are, as has been already stated, for the Skidi, the Wolf; for the Chau-i, the Grand; for the Kit-ke-hahk´-i, the Republican, and for the Pita-hau-erat, the Tapaje, Pawnees.
An old French trader, who has known these people for many years, states that the Skidi are called Wolf Pawnees from the river Loup, on which they lived; that Grand is an abbreviation for Grand-pas, because the Chau-i were mostly tall men and took long steps; that the Kit-ke-hahk´-i were called Republican from the river of that name, and the Pita-hau-erat Tapaje (Fr. noisy), because they are noisy and restless, and are continually moving about from place to place. This explanation of these English names is not altogether satisfactory. Mr. Dunbar informs me that he believes that the Chau-i were called Grand from the appellation given them by the Spaniards, who called them Los Grandes, referring to their physical stature.