Editing Pawnee people (section)

===Pawnees acquire metal and horses===

By 1719 when [[Jean-Baptiste Bénard de la Harpe|de la Harpe]] led an expedition to Caddoan lands at the mouth of the [[Arkansas River]], the Pawnees had also acquired horses and metal weapons from French traders, and they were attacking Apaches in turn, destroying their villages and carrying off Apache women and children.<ref name=Hyde1951/>{{rp|57}} In 1720, [[Pierre Dugué de Boisbriand|Boisbriant]] reported that the Paniassas or Black Pawnees had recently captured a hundred Apaches, whom they were burning, a few each day.<ref name=Hyde1951/>{{rp|76}} de&nbsp;la&nbsp;Harpe planned to establish French trading posts at the mouth of the [[Canadian River]] and elsewhere in Caddoan territory, but this was not done and the Pawnee remained dependent on infrequent and casual traders, while their enemies – the Osages – benefited from a regular trade.

In 1720, Spanish colonists sent the [[Villasur expedition]] try to turn the Pawnees away from their French connections (which had been greatly magnified in Spanish imagination). Guided mainly by Apaches and led by an officer lacking experience with Indians, the expedition approached the Skidi Pawnee villages along the outflow of the [[Loup River]] into the [[Platte River]] in modern Nebraska. The expedition sent their only Pawnee slave to make contact; he did not obtain any welcome for the Spanish party and he failed to return to the Spanish camp. The Pawnees attacked at dawn, shooting heavy musketry fire and flights of arrows, then charging into combat clad only in paint, headband, moccasins and short leggings.<ref name=Hyde1951/>{{rp|75–76}}<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Segesser Hide paintings: History, discovery, art |first=Thomas E. |last=Chavez |journal=Great Plains Quarterly |department=Center for Great Plains Studies |publisher=University of Nebraska |location=Lincoln |date=1 January 1990 |url=http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1412&context=greatplainsquarterly}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nmhistorymuseum.org/hides/ |website=NMHistorymuseum.org |series=The Segesser Hides Explorer |title=Virtual tour of the hides |access-date=2018-05-20 |archive-date=2013-09-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130918205949/http://www.nmhistorymuseum.org/hides/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Villasur, 45 other Spaniards, and 11 Pueblos were killed, and the survivors fled.<ref name=Hyde1951/>{{rp|66–69}} In 1721, pressure on the Pawnees was increased by the establishment of a colony in [[Arkansas]] by [[John Law (economist)|John Law]]'s [[Mississippi Company]]; this settlement too formed a market for Indian (mostly Caddoan) slaves and a convenient source of weapons for the Osages and their relations.

The French responded by sending [[Étienne de Veniard, Sieur de Bourgmont|Bourgmont]] to make peace (in the French interest) between the Pawnees and their enemies in 1724. He reported that the Pawnee were a strong tribe and good horsemen, but, located at the far end of every trade route for European goods, were unfamiliar with Europeans and were treated like country bumpkins by their southern relatives. The mutual hatred between Pawnees and Apaches was so great that both sides were cooking and eating many of their captives.<ref name=Hyde1951/>{{rp|47}} Bourgmont's "peace" had little effect.

In 1739 the [[Pierre Antoine and Paul Mallet|Mallet brothers]] visited the Skidi Pawnee. In 1750 the Skidis were reported to be ruled by a grand chief who had 900 warriors.

From about 1760, [[smallpox]] epidemics broke out on the Great Plains, reducing the Skidi from eight large villages in 1725 to one by 1800.