Note 17 — Chapter II
J. V. (Jedediah Vincent) Huntington translation
The Pawnee (Pani) Indians were of Caddoan stock, being early encountered by the French in the Missouri Valley. Lewis and Clark found them in four separate bands upon Platte River, which continued to be their habitat until removed to reservations in Indian Territory and Oklahoma. The Pawnee were a large tribe, numbering ten to twelve thousand in 1832. In warlike qualities they were somewhat deficient, and being frequently enslaved by their enemies, the term “Pani” became equivalent to Indian slave. See J. Long’s Voyages, vol. ii of our series, note 53. The Pawnee are steadily declining in population, there now being but about six hundred.—Ed.