Editing Pawnee people (section)

===Religion===
[[File:Caeser Bruce silver comb 1984 ohs.jpg|thumb|Ornamental [[hair comb]] by Bruce Caesar (Pawnee-[[Sac and Fox Nation|Sac and Fox]]), 1984, of [[German silver]], [[Oklahoma History Center]]]]
Like many other Native American tribes, the Pawnee had a cosmology with elements of all of nature represented in it. They based many rituals in the four cardinal directions. Pawnee priests conducted ceremonies based on the [[sacred]] bundles that included various materials, such as an ear of sacred corn, with great symbolic value. These were used in many religious ceremonies to maintain the balance of nature and the Pawnee relationship with the gods and spirits. In the 1890s, already in Oklahoma, the people participated in the [[Ghost Dance]] movement.

The Pawnee believed that the Morning Star and Evening Star gave birth to the first Pawnee woman. The first Pawnee man was the offspring of the union of the Moon and the Sun. As they believed they were descendants of the stars, cosmology had a central role in daily and spiritual life. They planted their crops according to the position of the stars, which related to the appropriate time of season for planting. Like many tribal bands, they sacrificed [[maize]] and other crops to the stars.

====Morning Star ritual====
The Skidi Pawnees in Village Across a Hill<ref>{{cite journal |author=Murie, James R. |year=1981 |series=Ceremonies of the Pawnee |title=Part&nbsp;I: The Skiri |journal=Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology |issue=27 |page=32|publisher=Smithsonian Institution |location=Washington, DC}}</ref> practiced [[human sacrifice]], specifically of captive girls, in the "[[Morning Star ritual]]". They continued this practice regularly through the 1810s and possibly after 1838 – the last reported sacrifice. They believed the longstanding rite ensured the fertility of the soil and success of the crops, as well as renewal of all life in spring and triumphs on the battlefields.<ref name=Murie1981/>{{rp|13}} The sacrifice was related to the belief that the first human being was a girl, born of the mating of the [[Venus|Morning Star]], the male figure of light, and the unwilling [[Venus|Evening Star]], a female figure of darkness, in their [[Creation myth|creation story]].<ref name=Weltfish1977/>{{rp|106–118}}<ref name=Murie1981/>{{rp|39}}

The ritual stood outside the organization of the ceremonial year and was not necessarily an annual occurrence. The commencement of the ceremony required that a man had been commanded to sponsor it while asleep.<ref name=Murie1981/>{{rp|14}} Typically, a warrior would dream of the Morning Star, usually in the autumn, which meant it was time to prepare for the various steps of the ritual. The visionary would consult with the Morning Star priest, who helped him prepare for his journey to find a sacrifice. During the initial meeting both would cry and cry, because they knew the missions forced upon them by divine demand were wrong to carry out.<ref name=Murie1981/>{{rp|115}} With help from others, the warrior would capture a young unmarried girl from an enemy tribe. The Pawnee kept the girl and cared for her over the winter, taking her with them as they made their buffalo hunt. They arranged her sacrifice in the spring, in relation to the rising of the Morning Star. She was well treated and fed throughout this period.<ref name=Weltfish1977/>{{rp|106–118}}

[[File:Annual report of the Director to the Board of Trustees for the year ..." (1907-1943) (19176154258).jpg|thumb|Miniature model of the Morning Star ritual, [[Field Museum]]]]
When the morning star (either the planet [[Mars]], [[Jupiter]], or some times [[Venus]])<ref name=Murie1981/>{{rp|38}}<ref name=Thurman1970>{{cite journal |author=Thurman, Melburn D. |title=The Skidi Pawnee Morning Star sacrifice of 1827 |journal=Nebraska History |year=1970 |pages=268–280}}</ref>{{rp|footnote&nbsp;#4, p.&nbsp;277}} rose ringed with red, the priest knew it was the signal for the sacrifice. He directed the men to carry out the rest of the ritual, including the construction of a [[scaffold]] outside the village. It was made of sacred woods and leathers from different animals, each of which had important symbolism. It was erected over a pit with elements corresponding to the four cardinal directions. All the elements of the ritual related to symbolic meaning and belief, and were necessary for the renewal of life. The preparations took four days.<ref name=Weltfish1977/>{{rp|106}}

Most of the actual ceremony took place in the earth lodge of the visionary, since the Pawnee villages did not have a special ceremonial lodge.<ref name=Murie1981/>{{rp|14}} Bystanders outside dug holes in the wall and tore the roof apart to follow the elaborate ceremony.<ref name=Murie1981/>{{rp|120}} A procession of all the men and boys – even male infants carried among the men – accompanied the girl out of the village to the scaffold. Together they awaited the morning star. When the star was due to rise, the girl was placed and tied on the scaffold. At the moment the star appeared above the horizon, the girl was shot with an arrow from a sacred bow,<ref name=Murie1981/>{{rp|107}} then the priest cut the skin of her chest to increase bleeding. She was shot quickly with arrows by all the participating men and boys to hasten her death. The girl was carried to the east and placed face down so her blood would soak into the earth, with appropriate prayers for the crops and life she would bring to all life on the prairie.<ref name=Weltfish1977/>{{rp|106}}

About 1820–1821, news of these sacrifices reached the East Coast; it caused a sensation among European Americans. Before this, US [[Indian agent]]s had counseled Pawnee chiefs to suppress the practice, as they warned of how it would upset the American settlers, who were arriving in ever greater number. Superintendent [[William Clark]] in [[St. Louis]] had pointed out the government's view on the ceremony to a visiting Pawnee delegation already in 1811.<ref name=Jones>{{cite journal |author=Jones, Dorothy V. |year=1969 |title=John Dougherty and the Pawnee rite of human sacrifice: April&nbsp;1827 |journal=Missouri Historical Review |volume=63 |pages=293–316}}</ref>{{rp|294}} Slowly, a Skidi faction that opposed the old rite developed. Two Skidi leaders, Knife Chief and his young relative [[Petalesharo]], spearheaded the reformist movement. [[Knife Chief]] ransomed at least two captives before a sacrifice. Petalesharo cut loose a [[Comanche]] captive from the scaffold in 1817 and carried her to safety.<ref name=Jones/>{{rp|294–295}} For this, he received lasting fame among the whites.<ref name=Viola1981>{{cite book |author=Viola, Herman J. |year=1981 |title=Diplomats in Buckskin. A history of Indian delegations in Washington City |location=Washington, DC}}</ref>{{rp|168}} Indian agent John Dougherty and a number of influential Pawnees tried in vain to save the life of a captive [[Cheyenne]] girl on 11&nbsp;April 1827.<ref name=Jones/><ref name=Thurman1970/> For any individual, it was extremely difficult to try to change a practice tied so closely to Pawnee belief in the renewal of life for the tribe. In June&nbsp;1818, the ''Missouri Gazette'' of St.&nbsp;Louis contained the account of a sacrifice. The last known sacrifice was of ''Haxti'', a 14-year-old Oglala Lakota girl, on 22&nbsp;April 1838.<ref name=Weltfish1977/>{{rp|117}}

Writing in the 1960s, the historian [[Gene Weltfish]] drew from earlier work of Wissler and Spinden to suggest that the sacrificial practice might have been transferred in the early 16th&nbsp;century from the [[Aztec]] of present-day [[Mexico]].<ref name=Weltfish1977/> More recent historians have disputed the proposed connection to Mesoamerican practice: They believe that the sacrifice ritual originated independently, within ancient, traditional Pawnee culture.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Philip |last=Duke |title=The Morning Star ceremony of the Skiri Pawnee as described by Alfred C. Haddon |journal=The Plains Anthropologist |volume=34 |issue=125 |pages=193–203 |date=August 1989 |doi=10.1080/2052546.1989.11909473}}</ref>