Western Pawneeland: Oral Traditions, Archaeology, and Euro-American Accounts of Pawnees in the Front-Range

When people think of Colorado Indigenous Nations, the Ute, Pueblo, Arapaho, Navajo, and Apache usually come to mind. However, rarely does the public realize that the Pawnee have a deep relationship to the Rocky Mountain Front Range and Western plains that spans over hundreds, if not thousands, of years. The Pawnee have oral traditions that date back to the Ice-Age which potentially describes the Ice-Free Corridor, names for Colorado Front Range locations that hold sacred significance and hunting camp sites along the Western extents of the Platte and Republican Rivers. This presentation will cover the recorded oral traditions which tie the Pawnee to Colorado and Wyoming, the archaeological evidence for the extent of Pawneeland in the West, and the Euro-American accounts of Pawnees west of their core homeland in Central Nebraska and Kansas.